Email channel guide
Email is available from the Basic plan: 1 mailbox on Basic, 3 on Pro and 10 on Business (tailored on Enterprise). The free and Lite plans do not include it. If you already have all the ones your plan includes, upgrade your plan or disconnect one to add another.
What the Email channel is
The Email channel connects your own mailbox (for example info@yourcompany.com) to Dhalinta AI Automation. 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. Dhalinta AI Automation 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”. Dhalinta AI Automation 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, Dhalinta AI Automation 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, Dhalinta AI Automation 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 “Dhalinta AI Automation”, 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 Dhalinta AI Automation:
- 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 Dhalinta AI Automation already stay in its “Sent” folder (Dhalinta AI Automation 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 Dhalinta AI Automation 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 Dhalinta AI Automation. |
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, Dhalinta AI Automation 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, Dhalinta AI Automation 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. In the inbox you can remove it from a message with the «Add signature» box, and in the formatting editor it already appears written so you can change or delete it for that message. | 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) |
| Also add the signature to AI replies | Turn it off if you do not want the AI to sign, for example if the signature carries a person’s name. Replies written by people follow the «Add signature» box in the inbox. | On |
| Identities (send as) | Other addresses of the mailbox you reply from, such as the sales@ or support@ aliases. If a customer writes to one of them, the reply goes out from that same address. How they work. If your server does not allow it, the reply goes out from the main address. | None |
| Silent mailbox (copy or backup) | For a mailbox that receives copies of others: its emails come in and the AI, if enabled, replies as usual, but it does not alert you (no bell, counters, tab number, sound or email). With «Do not alert on Telegram either» you decide whether Telegram stays quiet too. If another connected mailbox receives the same emails, enable AI on only one of them so customers are not answered twice. | Off |
| 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 |
| Aliases and addresses of this mailbox | If several addresses reach your mailbox (support@, billing@, alerts@…), decide for each one whether it opens a ticket and in which ticket inbox, whether an acknowledgement is sent and whether the AI replies. An email to an alias with a rule counts as addressed to you. More in Email helpdesk. | No rules |
| Do not auto-reply to my own domain | Emails from addresses on your own domain (colleagues, alerts from your servers) come in and open a ticket when applicable, but get no acknowledgement and no AI reply. | Off |
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.
Do you have an AI agent on this mailbox? In Configure mailbox → When the AI replies you choose whether the AI replies automatically or prepares a draft for you to review (the default and recommended mode: the AI writes, you send, edit or discard, also from Telegram). Details in Email channel: AI, assistant and alerts.
Identities: replying from your aliases
As in Outlook, Gmail («Send mail as») or Roundcube, a mailbox can reply from several addresses. If your mailbox info@yourcompany.com also receives the emails for sales@yourcompany.com and support@yourcompany.com (aliases or forwards), add them under Connection → Identities (send as), each with its sender name and, if you like, its own signature.
Example. A customer writes to sales@yourcompany.com. Their email arrives in the info@ mailbox, and the reply, yours or the AI’s, goes out from sales@yourcompany.com, with the name «Sales Team» and the sales signature. If they write to info@, the reply comes from info@ as always.
- Dhalinta AI Automation knows which address the customer wrote to even if it was an alias or a blind copy, and picks that identity on its own.
- When replying in the inbox you can change it with «Send as», below the message box.
- If an identity has no signature of its own, the channel’s is used.
What your email provider needs
To send as another address, your mail server must allow the mailbox user to send on behalf of that address. It depends on the provider:
| Provider | What to do |
|---|---|
| Hosting with cPanel or Plesk, your own server and most providers | Usually nothing, if the address is an alias or forward of the same mailbox. Some only allow addresses that exist as a mailbox or alias in the hosting panel. |
| Microsoft 365 / business Outlook | The administrator must give the mailbox user the «Send As» permission on that address or shared mailbox (Exchange admin center). |
| Google Workspace / Gmail | Add the address in Gmail → Settings → Accounts → «Send mail as» and verify it. |
Also, each identity’s domain needs correct SPF and DKIM records, just like the main address; otherwise the reply may end up in the customer’s spam.
What if your server does not allow it?
No reply is lost. Depending on the provider, one of two things happens:
- The server rejects it (most common, for example Microsoft 365 without the permission): Dhalinta AI Automation immediately sends the reply again from the main address, so the customer receives it anyway, also when the AI wrote it. Below the message, in the inbox, you will see the note «Sent from the main address: your server did not accept sending as…».
- The server changes it silently (for example Gmail, if the address is not added and verified in «Send mail as»): the email goes out, but the customer receives it from the main address.
How to check beforehand: save the identity and click ✈ Send test. If the server rejects it, you will see why straight away. If it accepts it, the test arrives in your own mailbox: check which address it came from. If it came from the identity, it works; if it came from the main address, your server is changing it and you need to enable it with your provider.
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 Dhalinta AI Automation, 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 Dhalinta AI Automation doesn't duplicate it.