Inbound vs outbound email
Email-based support involves two completely separate plumbing systems. Inbound is "customers send us mail, we turn it into tickets". Outbound is "we reply, the customer receives it". They have different deliverability rules, different identity requirements, and different failure modes.
Inbound email
Inbound is the easier of the two. A customer sends mail to an address you own, that address routes to message.com, and we create a channel: "ticket" conversation.
There are three ways to expose an inbound address:
| Kind | Address looks like | Setup |
|---|---|---|
auto | <numeric-id>@tickets.message.com | Use the forwarding destination generated in your workspace. |
subdomain | support@<slug>.message.com | Pick a subdomain. Zero DNS. |
custom_domain | [email protected] | Use the forwarding and verification instructions generated for that address; do not replace existing mailbox MX records blindly. |
Inbound delivery is webhook-driven. See email inbound webhook for the payload shape and signature verification.
Outbound email
Replies can use a connected mailbox or a verified sending domain. Sending-domain DNS authentication and inbound forwarding are separate steps. Test both receiving a customer message and delivering a reply.
For the sending-domain path, add and verify your domain through the email domains endpoint. Verification means publishing the right DKIM and SPF records in DNS.
Deliverability concerns
Outbound has three failure modes you need to handle:
- Hard bounce. The address does not exist. Suppress immediately.
- Soft bounce. Temporary failure, such as a full mailbox or unavailable receiving server. Review the delivery result and avoid uncontrolled retries.
- Complaint. The customer hit the spam button. Suppress immediately. This is the most damaging signal because ISPs use complaint rate to score sender reputation.
message.com maintains a per-workspace suppression list. The list is used to block suppressed recipients on supported sending paths. See email outbound webhook for the events that populate it.
Avoiding auto-reply loops
Inbound has its own failure mode: auto-replies. Vacation responders, out-of-office messages, and other automated mail can ricochet into a ticketing loop. message.com drops messages with From: MAILER-DAEMON, Auto-Submitted: auto-replied, and Precedence: bulk rather than ticketing them. This matches RFC 3834 guidance.