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Email replies

Requesters can answer the desk's emails directly, and the answer lands on the case as if they had written it on the case page. The desk doesn't run a mail server: an email service receives the replies and posts them to the desk. You choose the service in Settings → Installation → Incoming email.

[!NOTE] Without a service, nothing changes: emails say "Reply on the case page; replies to this email are not read".

How it works​

Requester replies → Email service → Desk checks the email → Quotes and signature removed → Added to the case
Desk checks the email → Ignored: an automatic reply, or the desk's own email coming back
Desk checks the email → Email review: no case found, another sender, sender not verified or too many emails
Desk checks the email → Bounce noted: a delivery report, shown as a warning next to the requester
  • Every case gets a reply address of its own, like [email protected]. Emails to the requester (the confirmation and agent replies) carry it as Reply-To, so pressing Reply in any mail program goes there, and say "You can reply to this email".
  • The emails are threaded: the confirmation is the first message, and every reply refers to it, so mail programs show one conversation.
  • The desk keeps only what the requester wrote: the quoted earlier email (On … wrote:, -----Original Message-----, Outlook's From: block, > lines) and the signature are removed. This works for Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.
  • Attachments go through the same checks as on the case page (types and 10 MB per file, five files). Files that don't pass are named in a line on the timeline.
  • The reply then counts exactly like one from the case page: the case reopens, automations with The customer replies run, the assignee (or the team whose queue it is in, or the unit's agents) gets a notification, and webhooks fire. A reply to a closed case opens a follow-up case, linked to the old one.
  • Agent notifications don't get a reply address: agents answer in the desk.

The message shows by email on the case.

[!TIP] A reply that loses the reply address, because it was forwarded or sent to another address, is still matched when it refers to one of the desk's emails.

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