Email Channel
Turn a support address like support@yourcompany.com into a Respondo channel: customers email you, the AI agent or your teammates reply from the same address, and every thread lands in the shared inbox.
Overview#
The email channel has two independent halves. Receiving works immediately: every email channel gets a guaranteed Respondo receiving address, and you forward your existing mailbox to it (or point your domain's MX records at Respondo). Sending from your own domain requires a one-time DNS verification (DKIM/SPF), so replies go out signed as your brand instead of a generic address.
One address
Customers email your support address and your replies come from the same address — no separate "from" and "to" mailboxes.
Guaranteed inbox
A platform-issued receiving address is created for every channel and always accepts mail — even if you never verify a custom domain.
Branded sending
Publish a few DNS records once and outgoing replies are signed with your own domain's DKIM and SPF.
Connecting Email#
Go to Settings → Channels, add a channel, and choose Email. A three-step wizard walks you through setup:
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Inbox & sending | Name the channel, enter your support address (e.g. support@yourcompany.com), and set the sender identity — display name, signature, avatar, and reply format. Clicking Next provisions the inbox and registers your sending domain, then shows the DNS records to publish. |
| 2. AI agent | Pick who answers new email conversations — one of your AI agents, or Humans only to route everything straight to your team. |
| 3. Go live | Review the address, the answering agent, and the receiving status, then activate the channel. Going live requires receiving to be confirmed first. |
Sender options set in step 1 (and editable later from the channel page):
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Channel name | Internal label shown across your dashboard — channels list, inbox filters, reports. Customers never see it. |
| Support address | The single address for the channel — customers email it and your replies are sent from it. |
| Display name | The sender name shown in the recipient's mail client (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) — e.g. "Acme Support". |
| Signature | Markdown signature appended to every outgoing reply as a soft footer. |
| Reply format | Styled HTML (formatted text and inline images — recommended) or plain text (text-only email, no HTML part at all). |
| Avatar | Optional channel avatar shown beside replies; falls back to the AI agent's avatar when empty. |
You can leave the wizard and come back — the channel resumes where you left off, and any in-progress setup appears in your channels list until it goes live.
Your Receiving Address#
Every email channel gets a platform-issued receiving address — a unique address on Respondo's mail domain, built from your workspace slug, e.g. support-acme@mail.respondo.ai (a second email channel gets a short suffix, e.g. support-acme-1f2a@). It is your guaranteed inbox address: mail sent (or forwarded) to it always lands in Respondo, it works from the moment the inbox is provisioned, and you keep it permanently — including if you skip custom-domain verification entirely.
To receive customer mail on your own address, set up one of the following:
| Method | How it works |
|---|---|
| Forwarding (recommended) | In your existing mailbox, add a rule that forwards mail sent to your support address to the receiving address — and keep a copy. Every email then lands in both your mailbox and Respondo. In Gmail: Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → Add a forwarding address → confirm → "forward a copy and keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox". In Outlook / Microsoft 365: Rules → forward a copy, leave "keep a copy" on. |
| MX records (advanced) | Point your domain's MX records at Respondo instead. Mail then arrives only in Respondo, not in your old mailbox. The inbound MX row in the DNS table is marked optional — skip it if you forward. |
While the channel is not yet live, incoming mail parks in a "Received during setup" panel instead of your inbox. This is where your mail provider's forwarding-confirmation email shows up — Respondo extracts the confirmation code or link automatically (Gmail sends a link, some providers send a code) so you can complete forwarding without leaving the page. Setup mail is only visible during setup and is never imported into your real inbox. The confirmation email itself doesn't verify receiving — complete the confirmation, then send a test email to your support address; the first real forwarded email flips the receiving badge to Verified.
Custom Sending Domain#
To send replies from your own address, register your sending domain: enter the mailbox name (the part before the @, default support) and your domain — e.g. support@example.com or a subdomain like help.example.com — then click Register & get DNS records. Respondo registers the domain and shows the DNS records to publish.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Publish the records | Open the DNS panel at whoever hosts your domain — Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy, Route 53, etc. — and add each row shown. DKIM and SPF are required; only the inbound MX row (and DMARC) is optional — skip the inbound MX if you forward. Every value has a copy button. Common gotcha: the Host column already includes your subdomain prefix, so don't append your domain to it again. |
| 2. Wait for verification | Verification polls automatically — the page re-checks every 15 seconds and each record flips from pending to verified as DNS propagates. Most providers accept the records in under 30 minutes. You can also click Verify now to re-check immediately. |
| 3. Sending unlocks | Once the domain verifies, replies go out from your address, signed with your DKIM and SPF. Until then, outbound sending stays paused — Respondo will not send from an unverified domain. |
The DKIM/SPF records are added alongside your existing mail setup — they let Respondo send as your domain without replacing your current mail provider.
Domains, Brands & Limits#
Respondo meters sending domains by brand — a customer-facing identity, which has the shape of a root domain. The rule:
- More addresses on a domain you already send from —
sales@,billing@, or subdomains likehelp.example.com— are free and unlimited. - A new root domain (e.g. adding example.de next to example.com) consumes a brand slot.
| Plan | Brands included |
|---|---|
| Startup ($99/mo) | 1 |
| Growth ($219/mo) | 5 |
| Business ($499/mo) | 10 |
Beyond the included allowance, Growth and Business plans can add extra brand slots for $29/mo each. Domains you have already verified are never revoked when you change plans — only the next new root domain is checked against the allowance.
support@respondo.ai and it will be transferred.Sender Names in the Customer's Inbox#
Who appears as the sender depends on who wrote the reply:
| Author | From name |
|---|---|
| AI agent | The channel's Display name — the inbox brand, e.g. "Acme Support". |
| Teammate | The teammate's own name plus your company — "Sarah from Acme" — so human replies read as personal. |
The company part comes from the AI agent's company-name setting (falling back to your workspace name), and the email address itself is always the channel's support address. Customer replies go to that same address, so the thread keeps flowing back into Respondo through your forwarding or MX setup.
Going Live & Managing the Channel#
The final wizard step summarizes the address, the answering agent, and the receiving status. Go Live is enabled once receiving is confirmed — either the forwarding confirmation arrived in the setup panel, or your domain's MX points at Respondo. This mirrors a server-side check: a custom-address channel cannot be activated with unproven receiving, so mail can't silently go nowhere.
After going live, the channel's settings page keeps everything editable: sender identity, the answering agent, the DNS records (tucked behind a "View DNS records" disclosure once verified), and the receiving-address card with your guaranteed address and its verification badge. Keep your forwarding rule pointed at the receiving address so customer mail keeps arriving.