Rookery

Set up an inbox

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Everything about an inbox is on one page: its addresses, who can use it, what happens to mail coming in, how replies go out, and what Rookery does there. Settings → Inboxes lists them all, and Inbox defaults sets the usual choices for every team inbox at once.

The list

Settings → Inboxes has one row per inbox. Each row shows:

  • its name and address, and "+2 addresses" when it has other addresses;
  • who can use it, like "Everyone · Can reply" or "Only Sales and Omar";
  • how many conversations it has;
  • whether it's ready: Set up, or what needs doing, like "Forwarding not confirmed", "Domain records pending", "Rules off · 0 of 3 on" or "Mail doesn't arrive yet". The workspace owner also sees "Owner left · give it to someone" for a private inbox whose owner has gone.

Rows that need attention come first. Team inboxes are listed first, then Private ones: yours, then other people's. For someone else's private inbox you see only its name, its address and whose it is, and it doesn't open. After five, the rest fold under Show 3 more private inboxes.

With more than 8 inboxes, a search box (Search 12 inboxes by name or address) and filters appear: All, Needs attention, Team, Private and Own settings. A line above the list sums it up, like "12 inboxes · 3 need attention · 4 differ from workspace defaults".

At the top are Inbox defaults and New inbox. A member sees Make my own inbox instead (see Keep your own inbox private).

Make an inbox

  1. Click New inbox.
  2. Type the Address and give it a Name.
  3. Choose Who it's for: The team (shared), or One person (private) and who that is. This isn't asked in a workspace of one, or when a member makes their own inbox.
  4. Pick the Owner if it asks, and click Create inbox.

A team inbox starts on the inbox defaults. A private inbox starts with New senders on: people writing for the first time wait until its owner lets them in.

One inbox's page

Click a row to open the inbox's page. Open the inbox at the top takes you to its mail. Anything that needs doing shows at the top, with a link to fix it.

On a wide screen it's one page you scroll, with a menu of its sections beside it. On a phone each section is a row with a one-line summary: tap it to open it.

Overview

  • A checklist: "Mail to support@yourcompany.com lands here", forwarded mail, and replies going out as your domain. While the inbox is empty, Send a test checks that mail arrives.
  • Name: whoever manages the inbox can change it here and click Save.
  • Its address, and Other addresses: more addresses whose mail lands here, one per service. See Give each service its own address.
  • Forwarded from: to bring in mail from your Gmail or Outlook, click Forward mail from another address…. See Keep your Gmail or Outlook.
  • Sends as: the address replies go out from. Owners and admins click Send as an address at your domain (or Change the address), type the Address, pick one of your domains under At and click Save. Once the domain is verified, Turn on sending. The domain itself is added in Settings → Domain and sending. See Send as your own domain.
  • Mail: how many emails it has, and when the last one came.

Who can use it

Everyone on the team or Only people I choose, and what each person or group can do. Team inboxes only. See Choose who can use an inbox.

Mail coming in

  • Who takes new mail: the inbox's rules, with Add rules or Edit rules. See Decide who takes new mail with rules.
  • New senders wait until you let them in: first emails from people you don't know wait in New senders. See how it works.
  • Clean up after 30 days: one setting with two choices, Kept-out mail and Blocked scams. Each moves that mail to Trash after 30 days. See Trash.
  • Catch-all (owners and admins): what happens to mail to an address at your domain that no inbox has. Click Make Support the catch-all to send it here, or Stop taking it. It's the same setting as Catch-all under Its mail on the domain's page, in Settings → Domain and sending: one per domain.

Replies

  • Reply targets: how fast this inbox replies, with Edit targets. See Reply on time.
  • Your signature here: the signature you use in this inbox, with Change it.
  • Who replies go to: Everyone on the email (the default) or Only the sender. See Who your reply goes to.
  • Include the email you're replying to. See The email you're replying to.
  • Notice on confidential mail: the notice that goes on replies, only in conversations marked confidential. See Confidential mail.

Rookery

  • Approves Rookery's drafts (team inboxes): who says yes to Rookery's drafts here. See Who approves.
  • Rookery may read this inbox. Turn it off to keep Rookery out.
  • What Rookery may do here: At most, Files mail and Paused, the same as in Settings → Rookery → In each inbox. See Choose how much Rookery may do on its own.
  • What Rookery writes here: the follow-ups Rookery drafts on its own, like When everything you asked for has arrived or After a meeting.
  • Offer to mark confidential mail: when an email says it's confidential, Rookery offers to mark the conversation.

At the foot of the page: Make private…, Share with the team… or Give it to…, depending on the inbox and who you are.

Inbox defaults

Most team inboxes want the same choices. Owners and admins set them once, in Settings → Inboxes → Inbox defaults:

  • New senders wait until you let them in
  • Clean up after 30 days: blocked scams
  • Clean up after 30 days: kept-out mail
  • Who replies go to
  • Include the email you're replying to
  • Notice on confidential mail
  • Offer to mark confidential mail
  • Business hours: the workspace's hours, for rules and reply targets.
  • Signatures: what everyone's emails end with until they choose their own signature.

Each one says where it stands: "Same in every team inbox", or "Differs in Jobs, Wholesale". Apply to all puts the default back in those inboxes. It names the inboxes it will change and asks before it does.

Following the default, or its own

On a team inbox's page, a setting that follows the default says so, like Workspace default (On). To set it differently for this inbox, click Change for this inbox. From then on it's the inbox's own, and says "Own setting. Workspace default is Off." with Use the default to go back.

  • Changing a default changes every inbox that follows it. An inbox with its own setting keeps it.
  • An inbox can keep its own business hours on its Reply targets page. Use the workspace's hours goes back to the default.
  • Private inboxes never follow the defaults. Their owners set them.
  • Members see the defaults, read-only, with who last changed them.

When inbox defaults arrived, nothing changed: inboxes that matched the old default follow it, and the rest keep their own. A new workspace starts with Blocked scams cleanup on. Workspaces that were already here keep what they had.

What each person sees

  • Owners and admins see every team inbox's page in full, and set the defaults.
  • Someone at Can manage on a team inbox sees its full page too.
  • A member on a team inbox they don't manage sees Just for you: Your signature here, and Send through your old mailbox to send through their own Gmail. Under it, About this inbox sums up how the inbox is set, marked Set by your admins: who can use it, who approves Rookery's drafts, reply targets and hours, what Rookery does there, New senders and who replies go to.
  • A member's own private inbox has Overview, Mail coming in, Replies and Rookery, with the less-used settings under More settings, and Share with the team… or Give it to… at the foot. It says "Admins can see that it exists, never its mail."
  • In a workspace of one, Your inbox is first under You in Settings, and opens your inbox's page straight away. New inboxes are yours, and the page leaves out what only matters for a team: who can use it, who approves Rookery's drafts, reply targets and Inbox defaults. A second inbox brings back a short list. When someone joins, Inboxes moves back under Workspace, with the defaults.

Where things moved

  • Aliases, in Writing and reading, are now Other addresses on each inbox's page.
  • Just-me mode's Inbox for new addresses is now Catch-all, under Mail coming in.
  • Connect a mailbox… is now Forward mail from another address….
  • Send as your Gmail is now Send through your old mailbox.
  • Move kept-out mail to Trash after 30 days and Move blocked scams to Trash after 30 days are now one setting, Clean up after 30 days.
  • Replies go to: Reply to everyone / Reply to the sender is now Who replies go to: Everyone on the email / Only the sender.
  • Notice at the top of replies is now Notice on confidential mail.
  • Ask me when Rookery spots a confidential mark is now Offer to mark confidential mail, under Rookery.
  • The team's signature, For the team, until someone chooses, moved from Writing and reading to Signatures in Inbox defaults.

Old links still work, and search finds the old names: "just me" finds Inboxes, and "aliases" finds Other addresses.

Your domains moved to Settings → Domain and sending: adding a domain, receiving at it, and Mail from your domain. The foot of the Inboxes list links to each, for owners and admins: "Domains: Add your domain · Receive at your domain · Mail from your domain · now under Domain and sending". An inbox's old Send as your domain page is now Sends as, on the inbox's page, and old links open it.