Email delivery overview

If you use Helpin Support for email, two kinds of addresses are involved: the addresses that receive customer email and bring it into Helpin, and the addresses your replies are sent from. This page explains each one and when Helpin uses it.

Receiving email: forwarding routes

Helpin receives support email through forwarding routes. Each route has a Helpin inbound address. You keep your public support address (for example support@yourcompany.com) and set it to forward all mail to the inbound address.

• Each route can be bound to a mailbox, so mail for a specific address lands in the right team inbox. Unbound routes feed the shared inbox.

• Create one route per public address — for example support@, help@, and billing@.

• Helpin sends a verification email through the route, and the route is marked Verified when it arrives.

Set up routes in Settings → Inboxes & Routing → Email Forwarding. See Support email forwarding & routes.

Sending email: which address customers see

Your replies go out as normal email. Helpin chooses the sender in this order:

1. The mailbox sender — if the conversation's team inbox has its own sender address.

2. The workspace default sender — used by every mailbox that does not have its own.

3. The Helpin platform address — used when no default is set.

Per-inbox senders keep a thread consistent with the inbox that owns it. For example, a customer routed to Billing gets replies from your Billing address. Email fallback messages to offline chat visitors use the same order. See Default workspace & per-inbox sender addresses.

Sending from your own domain

By default, outbound support email comes from a Helpin-managed domain. To send from your own domain, add a sending domain in Settings → Inboxes & Routing → Sender Addresses and publish the DNS records Helpin generates:

• DKIM (TXT) — signs outbound mail so receivers can verify it came from your domain.

• Return-Path (CNAME) — routes bounces back to Helpin so each message shows its delivery status.

• DMARC (TXT) — a recommended policy if your domain does not already publish one.

The domain shows Pending DNS until Helpin detects the records, then Verified. Only verified domains can send. See Custom sender addresses & domains.

Tracking delivery

Each email message in a conversation shows its delivery status — sent, delivered, opened, or bounced. Bounces and spam complaints show the reason on the message. See Email channel & email fallback for offline visitors.

Best practices

• Verify your sending domain before announcing your support address. Until then, replies use the Helpin sender, which can confuse customers.

• Keep the Return-Path record in place — removing it breaks bounce tracking.

• Use per-inbox senders only when an inbox has a genuinely different identity, such as billing versus product support.

• If you add DMARC, start with p=none and tighten it after you review reports.