# Email

> Give an agent its own support address and answer customer emails automatically. Forwarding setup, custom domains, and delivery health.

Email is the highest-volume support channel for most businesses — and the one your customers already use. Connect it and your agent gets its own address (like `support@acme.owlish.bot`); forward your existing support inbox to it and the agent answers incoming email automatically, grounded in the same knowledge it uses everywhere else.

Email is available on **Growth and above**.

## How it works

You don't move your mailbox or change your MX records. You keep your existing `support@yourcompany.com` inbox and set up **auto-forwarding** to the address Owlish gives your agent. When a customer emails you, a copy reaches the agent, it composes a reply, and the reply is sent back to the customer from your agent's address — threaded onto the original conversation so it lands in the same email thread.

## Connect

On the agent's page, go to **Channels → Email → Create address**.

1. **Pick your address.** We suggest one based on your workspace name — e.g. `support@acme.owlish.bot`. You can change the name; it has to be unique and can't be changed once it's set up.
2. **Set the sender name** (shown in your customers' inboxes) and, optionally, a signature and an AI-disclosure line.
3. We provision and verify the address automatically. This usually takes a minute or two — no DNS work on your side.

## Set up forwarding

Once the address is verified, forward your support inbox to it:

- **Gmail / Google Workspace** — Settings → See all settings → **Forwarding and POP/IMAP** → **Add a forwarding address** → paste your agent's address. Google sends a confirmation email; Owlish detects it and surfaces the **confirmation code** right in the channel panel, so you can finish the setup without leaving the console.
- **Microsoft 365 / Outlook** — Rules → **Add a rule** → **Redirect to** → your agent's address.

That's it. New emails to your support inbox now reach the agent.

## What the agent does — and doesn't

- It replies to genuine customer emails, threading its answer onto the original message.
- It **ignores** auto-responders, out-of-office replies, mailing-list and bulk mail, and anything that fails sender authentication — so it never gets into a reply loop or answers a newsletter.
- It answers from your knowledge base with the same brand, tone, and citation settings as your other channels.

## Send from your own domain

By default replies come from your `@…owlish.bot` address. To send as your own brand — `support@yourcompany.com` — open the connected email channel and use **Use your own domain**:

1. Enter your domain (e.g. `acme.com`).
2. We show you a small set of DNS records to add to **your** DNS provider.
3. Once your DNS propagates, we verify automatically and flip your replies to send from your address. Your Owlish address keeps receiving for a grace period so in-flight conversations aren't interrupted.

## Delivery health

The channel panel shows recent **bounces and complaints** so you can spot a deliverability problem early. Each agent gets its own sending reputation, so one busy inbox never affects another.

## Disconnecting

**Channels → Email → Disconnect** stops the agent answering and releases the address. Conversation history in Owlish is preserved (visible in the [Helpdesk inbox](/docs/helpdesk/conversations)) but no new email flows.

## Next steps

- **[Human handoff](/docs/helpdesk/human-handoff)** so an email conversation can pull in a human operator when the agent can't help.
- **[Web widget](/docs/deploy/widget)** to answer on your website too — the same agent, everywhere.

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Source: https://owlish.bot/docs/deploy/email/