Email Channel Integration

Connect your AI sales assistant to a Google / Gmail or Outlook / Office 365 mailbox so it can receive client emails, reply with its own intelligence, and handle attachments — all tracked in your dashboard.

At a glance

You need	Where	Result
A Gmail or Outlook / Office 365 mailbox for the assistant	Google or Microsoft	Address the assistant sends/receives from
The Channels tab	app.mychatbot.app/channels	Pick the assistant to connect
Email provider + Connect email + sign-in	MyChatBot → Google or Microsoft consent	Channel authenticated
Reply Delay (s) (default 20)	Email channel settings	Natural-feeling response timing

Connect in 3 steps

1. Prepare a Gmail or Outlook / Office 365 mailbox, and note its address.
2. In Channels, select your assistant, find Email, choose the Email provider, enter the Email Address, click Connect email, and finish the sign-in.
3. Turn on Connect agent to this channel and set the Reply Delay (s).

In the app

Everything on this page lives under the Channels tab: app.mychatbot.app/channels. Pick the assistant first, then scroll to the Email card.

Features

• Receive emails from clients and process them through your AI assistant
• Send automated responses with your assistant's intelligence
• Support for email attachments (images, documents, etc.)
• Configurable reply delay to make conversations feel more natural
• Replies are tracked alongside your other channels in the dashboard

Setup

1. Prepare the mailbox

Before setting up the Email channel in MyChatBot, have a mailbox ready for your assistant:

1. Create or use an existing Gmail or Outlook / Office 365 account
2. Make sure the account allows the access MyChatBot will request during sign-in
3. Note the address — you'll need it during connection

2. Connect the Email channel

1. Open the Channels tab and select the assistant you want to connect
2. Find the Email card in the channels list
3. Under Email provider, choose Google / Gmail or Outlook / Office 365
4. In the Email Address field, enter the address your assistant will use (e.g. you@company.com)
5. Click Connect email
6. You'll be sent to Google or Microsoft to sign in:
   • Follow the provider's sign-in steps
   • Grant MyChatBot every permission it requests to access your mailbox
7. After a successful sign-in, you're returned to MyChatBot and the channel shows as connected

In the app

Agent → Channels → Email → Connect email (app.mychatbot.app/channels). If sign-in gets interrupted, the card shows an Email sign-in not completed banner with Continue sign-in; you can also start over with Revoke email.

Third-party access must be allowed

Sign-in can fail or expire if your Google or Microsoft account blocks third-party access or you didn't grant every requested permission. When that happens the card shows an Email authorization required banner, and while Connect agent to this channel is on the account owner gets a disconnect alert (see When a mailbox disconnects). Click Reconnect and confirm all permissions are granted.

When a mailbox disconnects

MyChatBot checks every connected mailbox every 30 minutes. If a check reports the mailbox's connection as expired, revoked, failed, errored, disabled, inactive or deleted, the owner gets a disconnect alert from that same check:

• a disconnect_alert entry in the bell,
• an email to the subscription owner,
• a browser push,
• a message in every Flight Control Telegram group connected to the account's assistants (skipped when none is connected).

The alert links to the agent's Email channel page.

A connection that the email connector no longer knows at all (the lookup answers "not found" or "gone") is handled differently: the first check that gets that answer does not alert, and the second one does, so this alert can take up to about an hour. A check that fails for any other reason, such as a connector outage or a network error, never counts toward it. The count starts over only when a check finds the mailbox connected again.

There is one alert per mailbox, and it is not repeated until that mailbox is connected again; the next failure after a reconnect alerts again. No alert is sent while Connect agent to this channel is off, but switching it back on while the connection is still dead raises the alert on the next check. See Notifications for every alert path.

3. Channel settings

After connecting, configure the channel:

Setting	What it does	When to use
Connect agent to this channel	Turns the assistant on or off for this inbox	Toggle on to go live; toggle off to pause auto-replies
Reply Delay (s)	Seconds to wait before the assistant answers	Raise it for a more human, less instant feel (default 20)
Automation Channel	Enables automation mode for this channel	Turn on when you drive this inbox from automations/follow-ups rather than live replies
Extra emails field	Name of the contact's custom field holding additional email addresses (e.g. All Emails). Shared by every outreach path — triggers, campaigns, agent messages and replies	Clients who use more than one address
Cc extra emails on replies	Copies (Cc) those addresses when the AI replies to an inbound email. Other outreach paths have their own toggles	Keep every address of a client in the loop

How it works

Receiving emails

When a client emails your connected address:

1. MyChatBot picks up the incoming email automatically
2. It reads the sender's address, subject, body (text or HTML), and any attachments
3. The sender's address identifies the conversation, so a back-and-forth with the same person stays in one thread in your dashboard
4. Your assistant processes the message according to its instructions and prepares a reply

Sending replies

When your assistant responds:

1. MyChatBot composes an email from the assistant's reply
2. If the reply references images or files, they're attached automatically
3. The email is sent to the client with formatting and attachments applied
4. The exchange is saved in your dashboard for review

What the assistant sees

Each email your assistant handles carries this context:

• Subject — the email subject line
• From — the sender's address
• To — the recipient address(es)
• Attachments — the names of any files the client sent

Best practices

Email communication guidelines

For the best email channel experience:

1. Clear introduction — have your assistant introduce itself in the first reply
2. Consistent tone — keep a steady voice across all email communication
3. Attachment handling — tell your assistant to acknowledge attachments clients send
4. Signature — add a signature for a professional touch

Assistant instructions for email

Add guidance like this to your assistant's instructions (Agent → Settings → instructions) to sharpen email replies:

When responding to emails:
1. Start with a greeting appropriate for the time of day
2. Address the sender by name if available
3. Be concise but comprehensive in your responses
4. Sign off with your assistant name
5. Include relevant contact information in your signature

For emails with attachments:
1. Acknowledge receipt of the attachment
2. Reference the attachment in your response when relevant
3. If sending attachments, clearly mention what you're attaching

For handling follow-ups:
1. Reference previous email exchanges when appropriate
2. Maintain context throughout the email thread

Troubleshooting

Email not receiving

• Check that Connect agent to this channel is turned on
• Verify the mailbox authorization hasn't expired (look for the Email authorization required banner)
• Look for a disconnect_alert in the bell. An expired or revoked connection raises one within about 30 minutes; a connection the connector no longer knows takes up to about an hour; a mailbox with Connect agent to this channel off never raises one (see When a mailbox disconnects)
• Check whether emails are being filtered to spam folders

Attachment problems

• Ensure attachments don't exceed your provider's size limit (25MB for Gmail)
• Verify supported file types are being used
• Check whether your Google or Microsoft account restricts attachments

Authorization errors

• Click Reconnect on the Email card to re-authorize through Google or Microsoft
• Confirm you've granted all requested permissions to MyChatBot
• Verify your Google account hasn't blocked third-party access
• A mailbox that stays disconnected raises one disconnect alert; after you reconnect it, the next failure alerts again (see When a mailbox disconnects)

Support

If you run into issues with your Email channel:

1. Check the MyChatBot documentation for updated information
2. Contact our support team at support@mychatbot.app
3. Include specific error messages and details about your email setup for faster resolution

See also

• Build an agent
• Notifications — the bell, push, Telegram and email paths a disconnect alert uses