Overview
Getting email working in Plain takes two steps: setting up sending (DNS records) and setting up receiving (email forwarding). Once done, every customer email lands in Plain as a structured thread with assignments, SLAs, and full context.
What you'll need
Admin access to your DNS settings
Required to add two DNS records for email authentication.Admin access to your email provider
Required to configure forwarding. For example, if you use Google Workspace, you'll need access to the Admin Console.
Choosing a support email address
Your support email must use your company's own domain. Public providers like @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, or @icloud.com are not supported.
Good options:
support@yourcompany.comhelp@yourcompany.comhello@yourcompany.comcontact@yourcompany.com
Personal addresses like sonia@yourcompany.com can work, but don't scale as well or communicate team-based support.
Setup steps
Complete these in order:
Set up email sending — Add two DNS records so Plain can send authenticated emails from your domain. We recommend completing this step first; DNS changes need time to propagate before receiving will work correctly.
Set up email receiving — Forward emails from your support address to Plain so inbound messages appear as threads.
Optional configuration
Once the basics are working, you can also:
Add alternate addresses (e.g.
billing@,security@) to handle multiple inboxes from one workspaceSet up BCC addresses to automatically archive all outbound emails to customers
Use email discussions to loop in colleagues or external parties on any thread without the customer seeing