Email Forwarding

Set up email forwarding so incoming emails arrive in your Boei inbox, where you can manage them alongside chat and other messages.

How to get there: Go to Setup → Business in the top menu → click your website → Inbox tab → Channels → Email card → click Add Email Channel. The forwarding address and setup instructions are shown after creating the channel.

Overview

When you create an email channel in your site settings, Boei generates a unique forwarding address. You then configure your email provider (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) to forward incoming emails to that address. Forwarded emails appear in your Boei inbox and can optionally be answered by an AI chatbot.

Setting Up Email Forwarding

Step 1: Create an Email Channel

  1. Go to Setup → Business → click your website → Inbox tab → Channels → Email card
  2. Click Add Email Channel
  3. Fill in the channel details (name, your email address, optional chatbot assignment)
  4. When you assign a chatbot, choose whether AI replies are prepared as drafts or sent automatically
  5. Save the channel
  6. Boei displays your unique forwarding address - copy it

Step 2: Configure Your Email Provider

Use the forwarding address from Step 1 in your email provider's settings.

Gmail

  1. Open Gmail and click the gear icon → See all settings
  2. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
  3. Click Add a forwarding address
  4. Paste your Boei forwarding address
  5. Gmail sends a verification email - confirm it
  6. Select Forward a copy of incoming mail to and choose your Boei address
  7. Click Save Changes

Outlook

  1. Open Outlook and click the gear icon → View all Outlook settings
  2. Go to Mail → Forwarding
  3. Enable Enable forwarding
  4. Paste your Boei forwarding address
  5. Click Save

Other Email Providers

For any other email provider:

  1. Open your email provider's settings
  2. Find the forwarding or mail rules section
  3. Set up a forwarding rule to send incoming emails to your Boei forwarding address
  4. Save and verify the rule is active

Consult your email provider's documentation if you cannot find the forwarding option.

What Happens After Setup

  • Incoming emails forwarded to your Boei address appear as new threads in your Inbox
  • If you assigned an AI chatbot to the email channel, it can prepare replies for review or auto-respond
  • You can reply to emails directly from the Boei inbox
  • Email conversations are tracked alongside chat and other message types

Reviewing AI Replies Before Sending

Under What should the AI do?, choose Draft when every AI answer should be checked by a person.

  • Boei generates the same answer it would use for an automatic reply, including the configured greeting and signature
  • The answer appears in the normal Inbox reply field with an AI draft badge
  • You can edit the answer before sending it
  • If the customer sends another message before the draft is sent, Boei generates an updated draft using the latest conversation
  • Text or an internal note that an agent is already writing is never overwritten by an incoming AI draft

Choose Send when the AI may send those replies without review.

Getting an alert email for every forwarded email?

If the email channel has no AI chatbot attached, Boei treats every forwarded email as a conversation that needs a person and sends a "message needs your reply" alert to the account owner. To stop the duplicates, go to Setup → Business → click your website → Inbox tab → New Message Alerts and choose Disabled, or attach a chatbot to the email channel so Boei only alerts you when the chatbot hands a conversation over. See New Message Alerts.

Tips

  • Keep a copy of emails in your original inbox (Gmail enables this by default)
  • Assign a chatbot to handle routine inquiries automatically
  • Use Max AI Replies to control how many automatic replies or drafts Boei generates before escalating