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The Email integration is a channel integration that allows your AI assistant to receive customer emails and reply automatically. Customers email a dedicated address (or your existing support address via forwarding), and the assistant responds just like it would in the chat widget — with full access to your knowledge base and AI actions. To access this integration, navigate to Integrations → Channels → Email in your dashboard.
Email integration is available on Basic and Pro plans.

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How It Works

1

Connect the Integration

Click Connect on the Email integration card. You’ll see a dedicated inbound email address generated for your agent (e.g., your-agent-id+inbound@mail.totebot.ai). Copy this address.
2

Set Up Email Forwarding

In your email provider (Gmail, Outlook, or any other), set up a forwarding rule to send incoming emails to the inbound address you copied.This way, customers can email your regular support address (e.g., support@yourstore.com), and those emails will be forwarded to your AI assistant automatically.
3

Configure Reply Settings

Set up the following options:
  • Reply-To Address — the email address customers will see when they reply to the assistant’s response (e.g., support@yourstore.com). This ensures replies go back to your real inbox.
  • Reply Delay — how long the assistant waits before sending a reply (0 to 3600 seconds). A short delay (e.g., 60 seconds) makes the response feel more natural.
  • BCC Address — optionally receive a copy of every AI response for supervision.
4

Enable and Save

Toggle the integration to Enabled and save your settings. Your assistant is now ready to handle emails.

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Email Threading

The assistant maintains proper email threading using standard email headers (Message-ID, In-Reply-To, References). This means:
  • Follow-up emails from the same customer continue the same conversation
  • Replies show up as a thread in the customer’s email client
  • The assistant has full context from previous messages when composing a reply

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Smart Content Parsing

When processing incoming emails, the assistant:
  • Extracts the latest reply — removes quoted text, signatures, and forwarding headers so only the new message is processed
  • Detects auto-replies — skips out-of-office messages and other automatic responses to avoid unnecessary replies
  • Handles HTML and plain text — works with any email format

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Handover Support

If a customer’s email conversation has been claimed by a human agent via Live Chat, the AI assistant will not send automatic replies until the handover is resolved. This prevents conflicting messages from AI and human agents.

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Bounce and Complaint Tracking

The system automatically tracks email delivery issues:
  • Bounced emails — flagged in the conversation so you know the customer didn’t receive a response
  • Spam complaints — tracked to help you monitor deliverability
These events are logged as system messages in the conversation history.

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Email Collection

Separately from the email channel, you can collect customer email addresses directly in the chat widget. This is configured in Settings → Emails and works independently of the email integration. When enabled, customers are prompted to enter their email when they start a conversation. Collected emails are available in your dashboard under Settings → Emails → Collected Email Addresses, and can also be accessed via the Public API.