Email

Connect a support mailbox so that customer letters become conversations and the AI assistant and your agents answer from your support address.

S System · Last updated Oct 9, 2026

To handle customer email in the panel, connect a support mailbox as an email inbox: the panel picks up incoming letters over IMAP and sends answers over SMTP, from your support address. You can connect Gmail or Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Outlook, or any provider that offers IMAP and SMTP.

What the email channel does

Letters to your support address, for example support@example.com, become conversations in the panel.
The assistant and your agents answer by email from that same address, and the customer's reply lands in the same conversation.
A visitor who left your website can get an agent's answer by email, see "Continue a web chat by email" below.

The EPAV mailbox does not help with this channel: it only sends emails to your agents and does not receive your customers' letters.

Use a separate mailbox

Connect a mailbox meant only for support, not a personal one. The panel reads the letters in the mailbox's Inbox folder and gets full access to the mailbox.

Choose how to connect

Open Admin > Inboxes > New inbox and choose Email. Admin is the shield, the last icon of the upper group in the left icon bar (tooltip Admin). Inboxes is the item under Channel in the admin menu, not the Inboxes icon at the top of the bar. Under Choose setup method you get three cards:

Google (Connect with Google Workspace or Gmail): sign in with Google. For Gmail, an app password with Other provider is quicker, because it needs no Google Cloud project.
Microsoft (Connect with Microsoft 365 or Outlook): sign in with Microsoft. Microsoft 365 and Outlook no longer accept the normal password for IMAP and SMTP, so this is the way for them.
Other provider (Configure IMAP and SMTP manually): any mailbox with IMAP and SMTP, including Gmail with an app password and mail on your own server.

If you have no suitable mailbox at all, see "No suitable mailbox" below.

Gmail with an app password

Turn on 2-Step Verification for the Google account of the support mailbox.
Open myaccount.google.com/apppasswords, give the password a name such as Support, and copy the 16-character password Google shows.
In the panel choose Email, then Other provider, and fill in:

field	value
IMAP Host, Port	`imap.gmail.com`, `993`
IMAP TLS	SSL/TLS
IMAP Username, Password	the full Gmail address and the app password
SMTP Host, Port	`smtp.gmail.com`, `587`
SMTP TLS	STARTTLS
SMTP Username, Password	the full Gmail address and the app password
Authentication Protocol	Login, the default

The rest of the form is described in "The inbox fields" below. Press Create when you are done.

Keep customer letters out of Gmail spam

The panel reads only the Inbox folder. A customer letter that Gmail puts into Spam is never seen and stays unanswered. In Gmail settings open "Filters and blocked addresses" and create a filter for letters to your support address, for example "To: support@example.com", with "Never send it to Spam".

Other providers

For Zoho, a hosting mailbox or your own mail server, ask the provider for the IMAP and SMTP server addresses and ports, then choose Other provider and fill them in. Most mail services want an app password here rather than the normal mailbox password, which usually needs two-step verification on the mailbox first.

The inbox fields

field	what it does
Name	how the inbox is called in the panel, for example `Email`
From email address	the sender of your answers, for example `Support <support@example.com>`
From display name template (optional)	a sender name per agent, built from the agent's and the inbox's names; empty means the name from From email address
Reply-To address (optional)	needed only when replies to the sending address would not reach the mailbox the panel reads
Enable plus addressing	keep on: it puts customer replies into the right conversation, see below
Merge emails from the same address	off by default, see below
IMAP Mailbox	`INBOX`
IMAP TLS	SSL/TLS for port 993. The form starts with OFF, and with that the mailbox does not connect
Scan Interval	how often the panel checks the mailbox, `5m` by default; `1m` picks letters up faster
Scan Inbox Since	how far back each check looks, `48h` by default
SMTP TLS	STARTTLS for ports 587 and 2525, SSL/TLS for 465
Authentication Protocol	Login

Max Connections, Max Retries, Idle Timeout, Wait Timeout, HELO Hostname and Skip TLS Verification can stay as they are. Enabled turns reading and sending on and off, and Prompt to tag before replying warns agents before they answer a conversation that has no tags.

When letters arrive

The panel does not check the mailbox the moment you save. The first check comes after one Scan Interval, so with the default 5m send a test letter and give it five minutes; with 1m, a minute or two.

Every check looks at the letters from the period in Scan Inbox Since: 48h unless you change it, 24h in an inbox created by Google or Microsoft sign-in. Letters of that period that are already in the Inbox when you connect the mailbox therefore become conversations too, and if the inbox is routed to the assistant, the assistant answers them. The panel opens the mailbox read-only, so letters stay unread in your mail program.

Tip: to leave older letters alone, lower Scan Inbox Since first, for example to 1h. Do it before you press Create, or with Google and Microsoft sign-in right after connecting, before the first check five minutes later. Mail servers count this period in whole days, so letters from earlier the same day still come in.

In the panel choose Email, then Google. The Connect Google account dialog shows a callback URL, https://<your site address>/api/v1/inboxes/oauth/google/callback, with a Copy button and a link to the Google Cloud Console.
In the Google Cloud Console, create a project or open an existing one.
Under "APIs & Services", "Library", enable the Gmail API.
Set up the OAuth consent screen with two scopes: https://mail.google.com/ to read and send mail, and https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email to learn the address.
Under "APIs & Services", "Credentials", press "Create Credentials" and pick "OAuth client ID" of the type "Web application". Paste the callback URL you copied into "Authorized redirect URIs", then write down the client ID and the client secret.
Back in the panel dialog, enter Client ID and Client secret and press Continue. Google asks you to allow access, and then you are back in the panel.

Finish the Google part within 15 minutes of pressing Continue; after that, start again from the dialog.

In the panel choose Email, then Microsoft. The Connect Microsoft account dialog shows the callback URL, https://<your site address>/api/v1/inboxes/oauth/microsoft/callback, and a link to Microsoft's portal.
In the portal, open "App registrations", "New registration". Enter a name, choose who may use the app (only your organization, or several organizations), and add the callback URL as the redirect URI.
In "API permissions", "Add a permission", "Microsoft Graph", add these delegated permissions: email, IMAP.AccessAsUser.All, offline_access, openid, SMTP.Send and User.Read. Then grant admin consent for your directory.
In "Certificates & secrets", create a new client secret with a description and an expiry. Copy its value right away: Microsoft shows it only once.
On the app's "Overview" page, copy the "Application (client) ID". If the app is for your organization only, also copy the "Directory (tenant) ID".
In the panel dialog, enter Client ID, Client secret and, for an app of your organization only, Tenant ID, and press Continue. Leave Tenant ID empty for an app open to several organizations. Microsoft asks you to allow access, and then you are back in the panel.

The same 15-minute limit applies as with Google. For a Microsoft mailbox, Enable plus addressing is required and cannot be switched off. If you get stuck, write to support@epavdesk.com and we set it up with you.

After connecting with Google or Microsoft

After you allow access, the panel creates the inbox by itself, named after the address, for example support@example.com Inbox, and shows "Inbox connected successfully" on the inbox list. It checks the mailbox every five minutes, looking back 24h.
Open the inbox to set Name, a From email address with a sender name such as Support <support@example.com> (the new inbox has the bare address), and Scan Interval 1m if letters should come in faster.
Google sign-in also reads only the Inbox folder, so the Gmail spam filter described above is needed here too.
The inbox shows "Connected via OAuth" with the provider and the address. Reconnect opens the dialog again; enter the client secret anew and allow access once more, signed in as the same mailbox.
Signing in a second time with an address that already has an inbox ends with "An inbox with this email already exists. Use Reconnect to update credentials."
If your site address changes, the callback URL changes with it. Add the new callback URL to your Google or Microsoft app before you press Reconnect.

No suitable mailbox: Cloudflare, Gmail and an SMTP service

If your domain's DNS is at Cloudflare, there is a free setup: Cloudflare forwards the letters to a separate Gmail, the panel reads them there and sends answers through an SMTP service. Customers never see that Gmail, because your answers go out from support@example.com.

A technical Gmail: create a new Google account for personal use, turn on two-step verification, create an app password and add the filter "Never send it to Spam" for letters to your support address.
Cloudflare Email Routing, in Cloudflare under "Compute", "Email Service", "Email Routing": - under "Destination addresses", add the technical Gmail and confirm it from Cloudflare's letter; - under "Routing rules", "Create routing rule", send support to that Gmail. If you have a catch-all rule, put the new rule above it; - under "Settings", turn on "Subaddressing". This is required: customer replies go to an address like support+conv-...@example.com, and without Subaddressing they are lost without even a bounce.
An SMTP service for sending, for example SMTP2GO: create an account, verify your domain with the DNS records the service gives you, and create an SMTP user and password. The SMTP2GO server for Europe is mail-eu.smtp2go.com, port 2525, STARTTLS.

Then choose Other provider in the panel: IMAP is the technical Gmail (imap.gmail.com, 993, SSL/TLS, its address and app password), SMTP is the service (mail-eu.smtp2go.com, 2525, STARTTLS, the SMTP user and password, Login), and From email address is your support address.

If your domain is not at Cloudflare, forwarding at your registrar or mail provider works too, as long as it accepts addresses like support+anything@example.com. Without that, customer replies get lost.

Plus addressing keeps replies together

With Enable plus addressing on, every answer from the panel carries a reply address like support+conv-<conversation>@example.com. When the customer presses Reply, the answer goes there and lands in the right conversation. Your mail provider has to deliver such addresses to the main mailbox: Gmail and Microsoft 365 do, and Cloudflare forwarding does once Subaddressing is on.

How letters become conversations

A reply to one of your answers goes into its conversation. A resolved or closed conversation reopens and stays with the same assignee.
A new letter that is not a reply opens a new conversation, even from an address that wrote before. To change that, see the next section.
Automatic replies such as holiday notices are skipped, so the panel never gets into a loop with an autoresponder.
Email conversations get no automatic first message with a greeting or the AI notice: answering every new letter automatically is how mail loops start.

Merge emails from the same address

Turn on Merge emails from the same address if customers often send a second letter instead of replying. A new letter that is not a reply then joins the latest conversation with that address, as long as that conversation had a message within the Merge window. Notes do not count. The conversation keeps its assignee, and a closed one reopens. If the conversation belongs to the assistant, the assistant answers; if an agent has it, the letter goes to the agent.

Merge window is 24h by default. Write it like 30m, 2h or 24h, from 1m to 720h (30 days). Letters after the window open a new conversation. Replies to your answers always find their conversation, whatever this setting says.

Check it with three letters

From any other mailbox, write to your support address. Within the scan interval a conversation appears in the panel.
Answer it from the panel. The answer arrives from your support address.
Reply to that answer from your mail program. The reply lands in the same conversation. If it does not and you use Cloudflare forwarding, check "Subaddressing" in Cloudflare.

Route the inbox to the assistant

The assistant answers only conversations assigned to it. An email inbox that existed when your platform was set up is already routed. One you add later needs the rule from Routing a new channel to the assistant, or write to support@epavdesk.com and the rule appears at the next system update.

Customer ratings (CSAT)

With CSAT Surveys on, a customer whose conversation is resolved gets a letter with a link to rate it. Each conversation gets one survey at most. The text of that letter is the "CSAT request" template in Email templates. To decide yourself when surveys go out, switch this off and use an automation rule with the Send CSAT action, see Automation rules.

Continue a web chat by email

When a website visitor with a known email address leaves the chat, the panel can send them the unread answers by email. Open your Live Chat inbox, tab General, section Conversation continuity email inbox, and pick this email inbox. Three more fields appear:

Offline threshold: how long the visitor has to be away before the email goes out, 10m by default, at least 1m;
Max messages per email: up to how many messages one email carries, 10 by default, at most 100;
Min email interval: the shortest time between two such emails to the same visitor, 15m by default, at least 1m.

The visitor can answer by replying to the email or by coming back to the chat. More about the chat in Live chat widget.

Emails to your agents are separate

The email inbox handles customer letters only. Emails to your agents, such as notices about conversations handed to them, invitations and password resets, are set up in Admin > Notifications > Email or with the EPAV mailbox: see Notifications and the EPAV mailbox. If you use your own mail there, the SMTP details of this inbox will do. Those settings take effect as soon as you save them, and the panel never sends notifications to reserved test domains such as example.com.

When letters do not arrive

IMAP TLS is still OFF: set SSL/TLS for port 993.
The inbox shows "Authentication failed. This inbox can't send or receive messages until you update its credentials.": the mailbox refused the username or password. Create a new app password, or press Reconnect for Google and Microsoft.
Gmail moved the letter to Spam: add the "Never send it to Spam" filter.
Replies to your answers get lost with Cloudflare forwarding: turn on "Subaddressing".
New conversations appear, but nobody answers them: route the inbox to the assistant.
Still stuck: write to support@epavdesk.com.