Skip to main content

Email: Send and receive email in Conversations

Conversations allows you to send and receive emails with leads and customers via Conversations from a shared email address.

Conversations AI email interface

When you get a new lead from web chat or a form, and that lead provides an email address as a way to contact them, anyone on your team can reply via email to that customer from your centralized Conversations, without needing to open a separate email client.

Features​

  • Available to all users of Conversations AI, both Conversations AI Standard and Conversations AI Pro
  • Send emails to contacts using your assigned email address
  • Receive email replies back into a team-shared Conversations, where anyone on your team can continue the conversation
  • Setup email forwarding to receive emails sent to your business-owned email address in Conversations
  • AI auto-response support for instant 24/7 customer support via email

AI Auto-Response for Emails​

The AI Chat Receptionist can automatically respond to inbound emails, providing instant 24/7 customer support via email just like other communication channels. When enabled, the AI will:

  • Automatically reply to customer emails within minutes
  • Answer questions using your business profile and knowledge base
  • Capture lead information and book appointments
  • Create a conversation thread in Conversations for your team to monitor

To enable AI auto-response for email:

  1. Go to AI > AI Workforce in your dashboard
  2. Configure your AI Chat Receptionist
  3. In the Communication Channels section, enable the Email channel
  4. Your AI will now automatically respond to emails sent to your business

Learn more about setting up and customizing your AI Chat Receptionist.

How Email Works in Conversations​

Email Sender Address​

Conversations uses a shared email address to keep all customer conversations in one place. When you send a message, it appears to come from your business's assigned email (like reply+xxxxx@businessapp.io), but the sender's name and signature are visible to the customer. This helps your team collaborate without confusion over who sent what.

Email Reply-to Routing​

The reply-to feature ensures that responses from customers are automatically directed back to the shared Conversations thread. When a customer replies, their response lands in the same conversation where any team member can continue the discussion.

Email setup

Sending Emails​

To send an email to a new or existing contact:

  1. Click New Message in Conversations
  2. Enter the recipient's email address
  3. Write your message, then select Email in the Send via dropdown menu
info

Your choices available in this menu depend on what contact information you have, and which channels you have connected to Conversations.

  1. Click Send to send your message

New message interface

Receiving Email Replies​

  • Customer replies automatically route back to your shared Conversations
  • The "reply-to" is set to your reply+xxxxx@businessapp.io, so all responses land in the same thread
  • Any team member can view and respond to email conversations from the shared workspace

Forward emails into Conversations from other email addresses​

By setting up email forwarding, you can receive emails from leads and customers sent to an email address your business owns into the centralized Conversations, so your team can collaborate on replying.

For example, you might use a general business email address for customer inquiries, like team@yourcompany.com. With forwarding, any time someone sends an email to that address, it will also appear in Conversations.

How to set up forwarding from Gmail:

  1. In gmail.com, go to Settings > See all settings.
  2. Select Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
  3. Click "Add a forwarding address" and paste in your unique email address from Conversations Settings, click Next, sign in again if required, and confirm.
  4. In Conversations, you will receive a confirmation message. Click the link to confirm the request to forward email.
  5. After confirming, you will need to return to Gmail Forwarding settings one more time, to ENABLE forwarding, then save your changes. You can also optionally use filtering to forward only some of the messages.

How to set up forwarding from Outlook:

  1. In outlook.com, select Settings
  2. Select Mail > Forwarding.
  3. To turn on forwarding, select Enable forwarding, enter the forwarding email address, and select Save.

FAQs​

Can I use a branded email address for sending and replying to emails?

Not currently. All emails are sent from an assigned unique email address, that has the following format reply+xxxxxxxxxxx@businessapp.io.

Can each user get their own email address?

Not currently. Your business uses one shared email address and Conversations. But when a message is sent, the name of the user that sent the email is visible as the Sender details and within the Signature.

I see an area in Business App settings called "email configuration" – is this where I manage my email for Conversations?

No, not currently. The email configuration area in Business App settings is for managing email that's sent from Campaigns Pro and Reputation AI Premium. In the future, email configuration will be unified.

Is there a limit on how many emails I can send?

Yes, there is a daily email quota. If you're unable to send emails, you may have reached your daily limit. The quota resets every 24 hours.