Inbox: Connect Any Mailbox, Then Let the Agent Work It
A walkthrough of the Inbox app: connect Gmail, Outlook or any IMAP mailbox, triage with search and shortcuts, and let the agent summarize and draft replies.
Yantra Team3 min read
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Most mail apps assume you read every message yourself. Inbox shows the same mail to an agent that can summarize it, find the one message you need, and draft the reply. You check the draft before anything goes out.
Connect a mailbox
Pick Inbox in the apps launcher, or open /c/<chat-id>/inbox. Inbox owns the chat while it is open. With nothing connected, it asks you to Connect your mailbox. Choose Get started.
The dialog takes Gmail, Outlook, Zoho, Yahoo, iCloud or any IMAP mailbox. It takes about a minute, and Yantra never sees your normal password. How you sign in depends on the provider:
- Gmail: an app password, or Sign in with Google.
- Outlook and Microsoft 365: Sign in with Microsoft, which opens a Microsoft window.
- Zoho: pick your Zoho data center.
- My own domain: enter your incoming (IMAP) and outgoing (SMTP) servers. Most providers use port 993 for incoming mail and 465 or 587 for outgoing.
Choose Connect & sync. Inbox checks the incoming server, the outgoing server and your folders, then fetches your latest mail. New mail keeps syncing in the background. Connected Accounts lists every mailbox, and Add mailbox adds another, so a personal Gmail and a work Outlook can sit side by side. If a mailbox is still on an older direct connection, Inbox offers to reconnect it as a Mail account for faster sync.
Read and act
The folders are the ones you expect: Inbox, Starred, Sent, Drafts, Spam and Trash. Use Search mail to find a message, or filter to Unread. Open a conversation to read it. Images are hidden to protect your privacy until you choose Show images.
From a message you can Reply, Reply all or Forward, or start a new one with Compose. You can also Archive, Move to Trash, Report spam, star a message, mark it read or unread, mark it important, and apply labels. Drafts are saved on your device as you type. After you send, a short window lets you Undo, or Send now to skip the wait.
Keyboard first
Press ? for the full list, or ⌘K for the command menu. The basics:
- g then i, s, t or d for Inbox, Starred, Sent or Drafts. / searches.
- e archives, # moves to trash, ! reports spam, s stars, u toggles read.
- c composes, r replies, a replies all, f forwards, ⌘ Enter sends.
Save people to the CRM
Turn on Save people to CRM and the senders in the mail you load are added to your CRM, by email or by social profile. If the CRM cannot be reached, your mail still loads normally.
From chat
The agent works the mailbox on screen. Ask it to:
- "Summarize today's unread email and draft replies."
- "Check my inbox for the invoice from Acme."
- "Find the email where Sarah sent the contract."
- "Draft a polite reply to the last message from Google about security, using the Manager response template."
Reply templates come in three kinds: Signature, Manager response and Sales response. The agent fills them in from the thread. Anything that would send waits for your yes. With several mailboxes connected, it asks which one you mean.
What it is not
Inbox reads mailboxes you already have. Hosting a new address on your own domain is Mail. Sending to a list is Mail Campaigns, which also collects the replies to those sends.