Email notifications & replies

Conversations don't end when a visitor closes the tab. TalkingDot emails visitors the replies they missed, emails teammates about messages nobody has answered, and can turn emailed replies back into chat messages.

Reply notifications for visitors

When a teammate replies and the visitor isn't there to see it, TalkingDot sends them an email after a short delay. The delay is set by the platform and is 3 minutes by default.

The email is sent only when all of these are true:

• The visitor has left an email address, through the email card, the pre-chat form, a chatbot step, a transcript request or your site's JavaScript API.
• They haven't read the reply in the messenger and haven't been on your site in the last minute and a half. If they're still browsing, they'll see the reply in the messenger instead.
• They haven't unsubscribed or been blocked, and your workspace hasn't turned off visitor email notifications. These are on by default.

The email shows the unread replies (up to 20) with the teammate's name. The subject reads “New message from first name” in the visitor's language. It comes from your team name and includes a Reply button. The button opens your hosted chat page with the conversation already loaded, so the visitor can continue without finding your website again. The link works for 30 days.

Email notifications for teammates

If a visitor's message is still unanswered a couple of minutes later (2 by default, set by the platform), TalkingDot emails:

• the assigned teammate, or, if nobody is assigned,
• the members of the conversation's team, or, if it has no team,
• every teammate in the workspace.

Teammates who had the dashboard open in the last two minutes, or who have already read the message, are skipped. The email quotes the new messages and links straight to the conversation. Each person chooses which emails they get (new conversations, assigned conversations and @mentions) in their notification settings. Being mentioned in an internal note sends an email after about a minute if you haven't seen it in the dashboard.

Transcripts

When transcripts are enabled in your messenger settings (the default), visitors can choose Email me a transcript in a conversation. They get a copy of the full conversation, with times shown in their own time zone. Internal notes are never included. Visitors can request up to 5 transcripts an hour. If the visitor had no email on file, the address they enter is saved to their contact.

Unsubscribe

Every reply notification ends with a Stop email notifications link. It opens a confirmation page, and once confirmed, that contact no longer gets reply notifications.

Replying by email

Replying by email works only when the platform operator has set up an inbound reply domain and routes its mail to TalkingDot. Ask your platform administrator if you're not sure. When it's set up:

Visitors can reply to notification emails

Each reply notification uses a private reply-to address unique to that conversation, like this:

reply+1234-9f2c4a1b7e3d@inbound.example.com

When the visitor hits Reply in their email app, their answer is added to the same conversation as a normal visitor message. Your team is notified as usual, and a closed conversation reopens. Behind the scenes:

• Only the visitor can post. The sender must match the contact's email address, and the address includes a signature that can't be guessed. Mail from anyone else is ignored.
• Quoted text is stripped. The quoted original and lines starting with > are removed, along with headers like “On … wrote:” (also in French and German), “Original Message” blocks and signatures after --. Only the new text is kept.
• Attachments aren't imported. Only the text of the email is added. Ask visitors to send files through the messenger, using the Reply button in the email.
• Auto-replies and bounces are ignored, so out-of-office messages don't clutter your inbox. Mail from blocked contacts is ignored too.

Replying to a teammate notification email doesn't post to the conversation. Teammates always answer from the inbox.

Email channel: receive emails as conversations

With inbound email set up, each workspace also has its own email address. Every email sent to it starts a new conversation in your inbox:

inbox+YOUR_WORKSPACE_KEY@inbound.example.com

Your workspace key is the data-key value in your install snippet (Settings → Install). The address is a convenient way to bring your existing support mailbox into the shared inbox: set your email provider to forward messages to it. TalkingDot recognises the address in the To, Cc or delivery headers.

• The sender is matched to an existing contact by email address, or added as a new lead using the name from the email.
• The email subject becomes the conversation subject. Your replies are emailed back immediately with the subject “Re: original subject” and the conversation's reply-to address, so the thread can go back and forth entirely by email.
• To prevent floods, each sender can start up to 20 email conversations per hour in a workspace.

If inbound email isn't set up

Without an inbound domain, reply notifications and transcripts still go out, but emailed replies are not added to conversations. A visitor who replies to the email reaches the platform's general reply-to address, not your inbox. There is also no workspace email address. Visitors should use the Reply button in the email, which reopens the conversation in the browser.

Related

• Office hours & away mode: collect emails when you're away so notifications can reach visitors.
• Slack, Discord & Telegram: get new conversations in your team chat.
• Webhooks: send every message to your own systems.