How does email work in respond.io with Gmail or Outlook?

TL;DR: Yes, email from Gmail or Outlook works in the same inbox as your chat channels

Mid-market B2C teams can connect a Google Workspace Gmail or Outlook account directly and handle customer emails in the same inbox as WhatsApp, SMS, Messenger, Instagram and TikTok chats, so one team answers every channel with each customer's history in one place.

Email becomes one more channel in your respond.io inbox, not a separate mailbox

Respond.io is a customer conversation platform that brings email into the same inbox as every chat channel instead of in a mailbox your team checks on the side. Your team answers email and chat from one place, with the same people, the same automation and one view of each customer.

Your Gmail or Outlook address connects directly

Google Workspace Gmail and Microsoft 365 or Outlook accounts connect by signing in, and any other provider, personal Gmail included, connects through IMAP/SMTP. Your team keeps the address customers already know. It works next to WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, Messenger, LINE, Telegram, WeChat, Viber, SMS and website chat, not in a separate tool.

One customer, one history, whichever channel they use

When a customer contacts you on more than one channel, Contact Merge brings their profiles together, with all their channels and messages, and respond.io suggests the merge when the same email address or phone number appears on two profiles. From then on, a customer who emailed on Monday and messages on WhatsApp on Tuesday is one history, and agents’ replies go to whichever channel the customer is using.

Customers get a normal email from your business

On the customer's side, it is an ordinary email exchange. Replies arrive from your connected address, continue the same email thread, and carry your sender name and signature, so customers recognize your business in their inbox. The respond.io branding can be hidden from replies.

AI Agents reply to customer emails the way they reply to chats

The AI Agents that reply on WhatsApp or Instagram work on the email channel, so an email inquiry gets a reply without waiting for a human agent, and the team sees the whole exchange in the customer's conversation.

AI Agents read the email, images and PDFs before replying

An AI Agent reads the subject line, the body and attached images and PDFs, so its reply answers what the customer actually sent, and the reply goes back by email. When the conversation needs a follow-up email later, you can set up Workflows, respond.io's rule-based automations, to send it with a subject line and the same formatting your agents use.

Is respond.io right for a team that works mostly in email?

Respond.io is built for businesses whose customers chat before they buy or book, and email is one of the channels it brings into those conversations. If email is your only channel, or most of your customer conversations happen by email rather than on WhatsApp, SMS or social channels, an email-first helpdesk will fit your team better.