Customize Your Inbox Settings
Each Help Scout inbox has its own distinct settings — customize your inbox to make it your own! This article will guide you through each of the inbox settings you find on the Edit Inbox page.
Head to Manage > Inbox(es) > [Choose Your Inbox], or click on the gear icon in the left-hand sidebar under your folders from within your inbox, and choose Edit Inbox.
Inbox settings are available to Help Scout Account Owners and Administrators only. See User Roles and Permissions for more on permissions.
Inbox
Inbox Name
Use any Inbox Name you'd like! If you've got more than one inbox, it's helpful to use a descriptive name so that you can easily tell them apart. You may choose to use the Inbox Name in the From Name for your Inbox, or in variables in several other settings that your customers might see.
Inbox Address
The Inbox Address is the main email address for your inbox. You may choose to give this email address out to your customers, or connect a custom email address that uses your own domain name and set up your email to forward to this address. Take a look at Add or Update a Custom Email Address for the details on how to manage that.
Connected Email Address
This setting shows the custom email address that has been connected, if one exists. To change the address, click the blue Change link just above the box and head to Add or Update a Custom Email Address for the instructions to follow from there.
Default settings
From Name
The From Name is what will show in your customers' email inboxes when you write to them. Choose User's Name for a more personal look and feel — each email will show as being from your inbox or connected email address, but the From Name will show as the name of the User who sent that reply. Or choose Inbox Name for a more formal approach — no matter which User replies, it always shows as your Inbox Name.
You can also use the Custom Name to make it something all its own! This field supports a few of our variables that you can mix in as you like — though you don't see a dropdown list to select a variable, you can enter {%mailbox.name%}, {%user.fullName%}, {%user.firstName%}, and/or {%user.lastName%} here to use them.
Default Status
Default Status determines which status your conversations automatically go to after a reply has been sent. If you're just starting out, we recommend using Closed because conversations will automatically change to Active when customers reply. If using Active or Pending is a better fit for your team's method of working through your conversations, you can change that setting under that menu. More about Help Scout's statuses: Understand Conversation Icons and Colors: Status Indicators.
Default Assignee
Default Assignee designates who has ownership of a conversation after a team member replies. Choose Anyone (if Unassigned) to keep conversations Unassigned regardless of who replies. This does not apply to conversations that are assigned.
To assign the conversation to the User who sends the most recent reply, choose Person Replying. Choose Person Replying (if Unassigned) to assign the conversation to the first User who replies.
Auto Bcc
Auto Bcc allows you to automatically send a copy of every outbound reply sent from your inbox to a specific external address. This is useful if, for example, you need to loop in an external email address for archival or compliance.
Looking to add an Auto Bcc address for your replies only? Each user can set up for their own Auto Bcc from their User Profile.
Signature
A signature in Help Scout belongs to the inbox instead of the person. Check out Create and Manage Inbox Signatures for the full information on how to customize this setting.
Aliases
Use the Alias field to forward multiple email inboxes to the same Help Scout inbox. Adding the alias addresses to this field will tell Help Scout those emails are coming from your inboxes and will direct your replies to the customer.
For more detailed information about using alias emails with Help Scout, check out Forward Email Aliases to a Inbox and When to Set Up a New Inbox.
Signature
See Create and Manages Inbox Signatures for help on this setting.
Channels
See Connect Channels to a Help Scout Inbox for how to add channels.