How Inboxes Work in Help Scout
An inbox in Help Scout is like any other inbox: it holds email. Your team will work together out of an inbox to answer all of your incoming email. This is a primer on inboxes, and how they work in Help Scout.
In this article
How Inboxes Work
When you create your first inbox, you'll create an email address at your company's Help Scout subdomain, e.g. support@jg-clothing.helpscoutapp.com. If you want to use the helpscoutapp.com address, you're all set — any email sent to that address will appear in your new inbox!
Note: We automatically assign your subdomain based on your company name when you sign up. Want to change that to something else? Head over to Manage > Company where you'll find the option to change your subdomain.
I have my own email address and domain already that I want to use with Help Scout. How do I set that up?
After you've created the Help Scout address, we'll ask if you'd like to use your own email address. Enter your existing address there and we'll confirm that you own it. Next you'll set up forwarding at your email provider. Check out Get Your Email Into Help Scout for instructions for most email providers.
Can I continue to reply from the original support inbox at my email provider?
Once forwarding is set up, you should not work out of the email inbox with your email provider. We won't have a record of your reply, so the conversation will be in bits and pieces in two places. Send replies from Help Scout only!
What will the From address be on emails I send from Help Scout?
If you are using the Help Scout address you created when you set up the inbox, that will also show as the From address when you send a reply. If you're using your own address, emails from Help Scout will show as coming from your own address. If you have verified aliases in your inbox as well, you can choose to reply as a verified alias to emails that were originally sent to that alias as well.
When using your own email address, you may choose to have those emails sent via your own email provider's SMTP or through Google OAuth, or you may choose to let Help Scout's email servers handle your outgoing email. If you choose to send email from Help Scout's servers but from your own address, you'll want to set up DKIM records to help with email deliverability.
Note: When sending your own domain's email through Help Scout servers, email sent from Help Scout will show as being "on behalf of" your address, or "via helpscout.net" rather than just being from your own address by default. Setting up the CNAME records for DKIM verification allows us to send as from your email address without that extra bit. See Use DKIM to Help With Email Deliverability for how to do that.
Can I sync my outgoing replies to the original conversation in my external inbox?
Google based email accounts can be set up to send using Google OAuth, which will allow sent messages to be captured in Gmail. If you choose to use Help Scout servers to send or use the Custom SMTP for another email provider, your sent messages will only be available within your conversations in Help Scout.
Why would I create more than one inbox?
Great question! There's a lot to consider there, so we created a guide for you: When to Set up a New Inbox walks you through all of the considerations.
Can I use my personal work address as an inbox address?
We know it's tempting, but we'd recommend that you steer clear of creating an inbox using your personal address. You're going to see some unexpected results if you attempt to email or CC your support address or other Help Scout inboxes. You'll also lose some features, such as email notifications, and it'll make your external inbox quite useless. Challenges With Forwarding Your Personal Address outlines the issues you'll face in more detail.
Create a New Inbox
- 1
-
Head to
Manage > Inboxes, and click on the blue
New Inbox button.
- 2
-
Fill in your desired
Inbox name and
Email address. This will create an email address at your Help Scout subdomain that you can use on its own.
- 3
- You'll see a confirmation that this new email address has been created and you can choose Open Inbox to go right to the new inbox you just created. If you would like to continue to Customize your Inbox Settings, click the Inbox Settings button. If you are using the address you created with the helpscoutapp.com domain, you're all set!
-
If you'd like to use your own custom address with your inbox, click the
add it here link and continue to step 4.
- 4
-
Enter the email address you have set up already at your domain and click Send Code.
- 5
-
When you receive the code, just pop it into the next screen and click Confirm.
- 6
-
Your confirmation email will look like the one below. Type the code back into the box in Help Scout, click Confirm, and you're all done!
If you're using your own email address and domain, next up is to Get Your Email Into Help Scout.