# Set up email

Customers keep writing to the address they already know. You forward that address to Rinhelp, and each email arrives as a conversation next to the ones from the chat widget. An owner sets this up under **Settings > Email**.

## Two addresses

- **Support address**: the address customers already write to, such as `help@yourcompany.com`.
- **Forwarding address**: your workspace's own Rinhelp address, such as `acme@in.rinhelp.com`. You forward your support address to it. It is set when your workspace is created and never changes. You can also see it on your workspace's home page.

## Forward your support address

1. Under **Your support address**, enter your support address and click **Save**.
2. Forward that address to the forwarding address shown under **Your forwarding address**. Where you do this depends on your email provider. The page has steps for three of them, and any provider that can forward mail works the same way.

   **Google Workspace**

   1. Open the Google Admin console and go to Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, then Routing.
   2. Add a setting, and choose to receive inbound mail.
   3. Turn on "Also deliver to" and add the forwarding address.
   4. Save.

   **Gmail**

   1. Start the test below first. Then open Gmail, click the gear, choose "See all settings", and open the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
   2. Click "Add a forwarding address" and enter the forwarding address.
   3. Gmail sends a confirmation email. Its link appears on the **Email** page, next to **Gmail needs you to confirm forwarding**. Click **Confirm in Gmail**.
   4. Back in Gmail, choose "Forward a copy of incoming mail to" the forwarding address, then click "Save Changes".

   **Microsoft 365**

   1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to **Users**, **Active users**, and pick the mailbox for your support address.
   2. Under Mail, choose "Manage email forwarding".
   3. Turn on forwarding and enter the forwarding address. Keep a copy if you want one.
   4. Save.

3. Under **Check that it works**, click **Send a test email**. Rinhelp emails your support address and waits for the email to arrive through forwarding. The page shows **Waiting…**, then **Connected**. Click **Check again** to refresh it. A test waits for up to 30 minutes, and you can send a new one after a minute.

Changing your support address starts the test over. Once it says **Connected**, the **Forward your support email** step under **Get started** is ticked off.

## What happens to each email

- An email from someone new starts a conversation, titled with the email's subject in the inbox. Rin answers it when it can, the same as in the chat widget. See [How Rin answers](/articles/e3696d2f-b77d-4324-8ae0-ef0e0e92235e).
- If the customer replies to one of your emails, their reply joins the same conversation. An email sent to your support address instead starts a new one.
- Attachments don't come across. The conversation says how many there were and their file names, so you can open them in your own mailbox.
- Automatic emails, such as out-of-office replies, newsletters and bounce notices, are ignored unless the sender is already a customer.
- A closed conversation opens again when the customer writes back.

## What customers get back

Your team's replies and Rin's replies go to the customer's email, with the workspace name as the sender, a "Re:" subject, and the customer's email quoted below. Each reply from a teammate, or from their AI agent, ends with the teammate's profile name. Rin signs its replies "Rin, AI assistant". Notes never leave Rinhelp.

A conversation that started in the chat widget gets emailed replies only from your team, and only after the customer has left the chat widget and given an email address. Its subject is "Re:" followed by the start of the customer's first message, and each reply quotes what the customer wrote since your team last answered, under their name or email address.

**Powered by Rinhelp** is added at the bottom of each email unless you remove it. See [Plans and billing](/articles/66554130-03d5-4712-82f8-e83b1690c663).

If an email can't be delivered, the conversation shows **Not delivered** with the reason: the address bounced, we couldn't send it, or the address has bounced or reported an earlier email as spam. Where it is allowed, a **Resend** button appears.

## Send from your own domain

Until you do this, replies come from your forwarding address. Once you do, they come from your support address, such as `help@yourcompany.com`, which customers will recognize.

1. Under **Send from your own domain**, click **Set up** followed by your domain. Save your support address first, as the domain comes from it. It has to be on a domain you own. Until then, replies come from your forwarding address.
2. Rinhelp shows two records to add where you manage your domain's DNS (the settings that tell the internet where your domain's mail and website live). One is **DKIM**, which proves emails really come from you. The other is **Return-path**, which handles emails that bounce. For each, copy the **Host** and **Value** into a new record of the type shown, using the **Copy** buttons.
3. Click **Verify**. If it says the records can't be found yet, wait a few minutes and try again, because DNS changes can take a while.

When both records say **Verified**, replies are sent from your support address.