- How to connect your own mailbox to AutoTalk via IMAP/SMTP
- Which connection fields the channel needs
- What the channel supports and how it is billed
The Email channel connects AutoTalk to a mailbox you already own. You bring your own mail server: AutoTalk signs in over IMAP to read incoming mail and over SMTP to send replies, which go out as normal email from your own address. AutoTalk never provisions mailboxes and never takes over your domain's deliverability — the mailbox, the server, and the sending reputation stay yours.
When to use this channel
- You already have a support address (for example
[email protected]) and want its mail in your Inbox - You want email conversations answered by employees or AI agents, without a new phone number or platform account
- Your mail provider offers standard IMAP and SMTP access
Prerequisites
Before setting up this channel, you need:
- A mailbox with IMAP and SMTP enabled — most providers document the server hostnames and ports
- The mailbox username and password. If your provider uses two-factor authentication, create an app password for AutoTalk; many providers reject the normal login password and require an app password
Step 1: Create the channel
- In the sidebar, go to Integrations > Channels and click the + button (tooltip "Add channel") to open the New channel page.
- In the channel picker, select the Email tile (in the Bots & communities group — it carries the "No connection fee" badge).
- Fill in the From address — the mailbox address used as From for replies, for example
[email protected].
A company can have up to 10 email channels.
Step 2: Inbound mail (IMAP)
| Field | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMAP server | Yes | — | For example imap.example.com |
| IMAP port | No | 993 | Leave empty to use the default |
| IMAP TLS | No | On | Port 993 uses TLS |
| IMAP username | Yes | — | Usually the full mailbox address |
| IMAP password | Yes | — | Stored as an encrypted company variable |
The IMAP password field (and the optional SMTP password) stores your credentials as an encrypted company variable — "Stored encrypted in your company variables". Type the password and pick the create option in the dropdown, or select a variable you created earlier; the variable is created automatically, with no extra forms to fill out.
Step 3: Outbound mail (SMTP)
| Field | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMTP server | Yes | — | For example smtp.example.com |
| SMTP port | No | 465 | Leave empty to use the default |
| SMTP TLS | No | On | On = implicit TLS (port 465). For servers that use STARTTLS on port 587, set the port and turn the toggle off |
| SMTP username | No | — | Defaults to the IMAP username |
| SMTP password | No | — | Defaults to the IMAP password |
Leave SMTP username and SMTP password empty if your provider uses the same credentials for IMAP and SMTP — most do.
When the required fields are filled, click Create channel for review.
Step 4: Review and activate
The channel is created disabled — nothing connects to your mailbox yet. On the channel's edit page, review the configuration and click Activate channel. Validation runs at this point, not at creation: AutoTalk checks the configuration and validates the IMAP and SMTP hosts — hosts that cannot be resolved, or that point to disallowed addresses, are rejected with an error.
There is no separate test-connection button: activating the channel is what brings the connection online. Activation checks the configuration and the server hosts on the spot; a wrong username or password does not fail the Activate channel click — it surfaces shortly after activation on the channel's connection status, as the caution below describes.
If your mail server rejects the login, the connection stops rather than retrying with bad credentials — reconnection is held off for around 5 minutes. Fix the username or password on the channel and the updated configuration is picked up as new, and the connection is retried.
What the channel supports
- Text messages, in and out. Replies written by your team or agents are rendered from markdown into formatted HTML email.
- Attachments in both directions — up to 10 MiB per attachment and 20 MiB per message; outbound mail carries at most 10 attachments. Inbound attachments over the limit arrive as metadata only (name and size, without the file).
- Real reply threading — replies go out as proper email replies (
In-Reply-ToandReferencesheaders) with a "Re:" subject taken from the last inbound mail, so they land in the recipient's existing thread. A message sent before any inbound mail uses the subject "Message from your company name".
Not supported:
- Options messages are delivered as numbered text lists (email has no buttons); when the contact replies with a number, it is mapped back to the matching option.
- No provider templates, no editing or unsending sent mail, no reactions, no typing indicators, no read receipts, and no group conversations.
Conversation behavior
- The contact is the sender's address: each address that writes to your mailbox becomes one contact, and all of their mail lands in one conversation per channel — regardless of subject or mail thread. Email threads are not split into separate conversations.
- Inbound mail is capped at about 30 mails per hour per conversation; mail beyond the cap is dropped for that window.
- Automated mail is ignored: auto-replies and out-of-office notices, mailing-list and bulk mail, bounce notifications, and mail sent from the channel's own address are all filtered out, and the per-conversation rate cap bounds anything that slips through — so the channel does not amplify reply loops with another robot.
How AutoTalk treats your mailbox
AutoTalk behaves as a read-only guest in your mailbox. It marks messages as read (\Seen) once they are handled — delivered into AutoTalk, or filtered as automated mail — and flags (\Flagged) the rare message it could not process, so it stays visible in your mailbox. It never moves mail between folders and never deletes anything. Your mailbox stays intact and remains usable from any other mail client.
Billing
Email has no hosted-connection charge — unlike IRC and Discord, there is no per-minute meter running while the channel is online. You pay only for what you use: compute time for processing messages, AI tokens when an agent writes the reply, and storage for attachments kept in your account. See Usage Rates for details.
Because there is no uptime charge, an email channel can stay active around the clock at no fixed cost — a quiet mailbox costs nothing.
Next steps
- Inbox & Messaging — Manage incoming email conversations
- AI Agents — Automate replies with an agent
- IRC — Connect IRC networks or Twitch chat