Email channel guide
What the Email channel is
The Email channel connects your own mailbox (for example info@yourcompany.com) to MuseRelay. The emails you receive arrive in the unified inbox, next to WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and you can reply yourself or let your AI agent reply, with the same tools as in the other channels: bookings, tickets, information about your business…
- Each email thread is a conversation. The customer's message and the replies appear in order, like a chat.
- Replies are sent from your mailbox and reach the customer in the same thread in Gmail, Outlook or whatever program they use.
- It is almost instant: the email appears in the inbox a second or two after it reaches your mailbox.
- It works with any provider. MuseRelay uses the standard email protocols (IMAP to receive and SMTP to send), so it does not matter who provides your email or which program you read it with.
- Your mailbox is still yours. You can keep using it with your usual email program.
What you need
Any mailbox that supports IMAP (to receive) and SMTP (to send), which is almost all of them: your hosting or domain email, Microsoft 365 / Outlook, IONOS, Zoho, Gmail and Google Workspace, Yahoo, iCloud…
| Provider | Which password to use |
|---|---|
| Your hosting or own domain | The mailbox's normal password |
| Gmail and Google Workspace | An app password (requires 2-Step Verification). You create it in your Google account security settings. |
| Microsoft 365 / Outlook | The mailbox password, as long as your administrator has enabled IMAP and authenticated SMTP for that mailbox |
| Yahoo, iCloud | An app password |
Connecting your mailbox step by step
- Go to Channels → Create channel and choose Email. Give it a name and, if you like, choose the AI agent that will reply.
- On the configuration screen, type the email address and click “Detect automatically”. MuseRelay looks up your provider's servers, ports and encryption and fills in the form for you.
- Type the password (if SMTP uses the same one, you can leave its field empty).
- Click “Test connection”. You will see in green whether receiving and sending work, or the exact reason if something fails.
- Click “Save”. The connection is checked again and, within a minute, your mailbox is listening for new email. The channel appears in the side menu straight away.
If automatic detection does not find your provider, ask your email provider for the IMAP and SMTP details and enter them by hand. The most common setup is:
| Server | Port | Encryption | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receive (IMAP) | mail.yourdomain.com | 993 | SSL/TLS |
| Send (SMTP) | mail.yourdomain.com | 587 | STARTTLS |
The username is usually the full email address, not just the part before the @.
Your history is never answered
When you connect the mailbox, MuseRelay marks that moment as the starting point. Earlier emails are not imported or answered, even if you have hundreds unread. Only email arriving from then on reaches the inbox (and the AI).
Gmail, Outlook and other providers
With your hosting or domain email, your normal password is enough. Some big providers need one extra step:
Gmail and Google Workspace
Gmail doesn't let you use your normal password in external programs: you need an app password. If you try with your normal one, MuseRelay will tell you “this provider requires an app password”.
In your Google account (once):
- Go to myaccount.google.com → Security.
- Turn on 2-Step Verification if you don't have it. Without it the option in the next step doesn't appear.
- Look for “App passwords” (or go straight to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords).
- Type a name, for example “MuseRelay”, and click Create.
- Google shows you a 16-letter password. Copy it: it is only shown once.
You don't need to turn on IMAP: it is already on in Gmail accounts.
In MuseRelay:
- Type your Gmail address in Identity.
- In Incoming mail, click “Detect automatically”: Gmail's servers are filled in.
- Paste the 16-letter password in IMAP password. You can leave the outgoing one empty: the same one is used.
- Click “Test connection” and, if it works, Save.
Business accounts (Google Workspace, like you@yourcompany.com): the administrator may have blocked app passwords or IMAP. If the test fails even though the password is right, ask them to allow it in the Google admin console.
With Gmail, replies you send from MuseRelay already stay in its “Sent” folder (MuseRelay doesn't duplicate them), and its spam folder works with trusted-sender recovery and webmail sync.
Outlook, Hotmail and Microsoft 365
Microsoft has been retiring mailbox access with username and password (“basic” IMAP/SMTP) and requires signing in through its own screen (OAuth), which MuseRelay doesn't support yet. In practice:
- Outlook.com and Hotmail (personal accounts): the connection usually fails even if the password is right.
- Microsoft 365 (business accounts): it only works if your company's administrator still allows authenticated IMAP and SMTP for that mailbox; many companies block it for security.
In the meantime, the simplest option is to use a mailbox on your domain or hosting (or a Gmail account) and, if you want to keep receiving in Outlook, set up forwarding in Outlook to that mailbox.
Other providers
| Provider | What to do |
|---|---|
| Your hosting or domain email (IONOS, Hostinger, MuseDock…) | Your address and normal password. “Detect automatically” usually finds the servers; otherwise your provider gives them to you. |
| Yahoo | Turn on 2-step verification and create an app password in your Yahoo account security. |
| iCloud | At account.apple.com → Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords. Use your @icloud.com address as the username. |
| Zoho Mail | Turn on IMAP access in Zoho settings; if you use 2-step verification, create an app password. |
| GMX | Turn on “POP3/IMAP” in your GMX account settings and use your normal password. |
| Proton Mail | Doesn't allow connecting external servers via IMAP/SMTP: not compatible with MuseRelay. |
What if the password stops working one day?
For example, if you delete the app password in Google or change the mailbox password. If your mail server rejects the username or password 3 times in a row, MuseRelay stops trying, so your provider doesn't lock the account for failed attempts. You'll get a bell notification (“Check the password of…”) and the channel's Connection tab shows a red alert with the fields already unlocked to fix it. Once you save, it reconnects. Meanwhile no new emails reach the panel (they stay in your mailbox). If the problem is just a network outage or the server not responding, MuseRelay keeps retrying by itself, because that doesn't lock accounts.
If the test fails, the message tells you what's wrong (app password, IMAP turned off, wrong server…). Common problems has the fix for each case.
Channel options
| Option | What it is for | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Sender name | The name the customer sees next to your address, for example “Your Company Support”. | The channel name |
| Signature | Added at the end of every reply, from the AI or from you. | No signature |
| The signature is HTML | Tick it if you paste a formatted signature: bold, links or a logo. Images must use a public https:// address, for example <img src="https://yourdomain.com/logo.png" width="120">. For security, scripts, forms and unsafe links are removed. | Unticked (plain text) |
| Reply only when the mailbox is in “To” | The AI only replies if your mailbox is in the To field. If you are only in copy (CC), the email reaches the inbox but the AI does not reply. Example: a customer writes to their accountant and copies you “so you're in the loop”; your assistant does not join a conversation that was not addressed to it. | On |
You can change all of this at any time from the channel page with “Configure mailbox”. Saved passwords are not shown; if you leave the field empty, the existing one is kept.
Receiving through one server and sending through another
The channel has receiving (IMAP) and sending (SMTP) separately, each with its own server, user and password. You can receive with your hosting email and send replies through another provider (Gmail, Sweego, Brevo, Amazon SES…). It works, but keep three things in mind:
- Authorise the sending provider in your domain. It must be included in your domain's SPF record and sign with your domain's DKIM. Otherwise your replies may end up in your customers' spam. Sending services (Sweego, Brevo, SES…) give you the DNS records when you verify the domain.
- With Gmail as the sending server, the sender must be your Gmail account or an alias verified in Gmail; otherwise Gmail puts its own address as the sender. To send with your own domain, a sending service such as Sweego is better.
- The copy of what you send. Everything replied from MuseRelay, by the AI or by hand, stays in the conversation and a copy is also saved in your mailbox “Sent” folder, as a webmail does, with the thread headers so your email program groups it with the conversation. If you send with Gmail or Microsoft 365 and read that same mailbox, they already keep the copy and MuseRelay doesn't duplicate it.