Email Inbox
Read and answer customer email inside Joby — one shared inbox with filters, search, attachments, delivery tracking, and your own sending addresses.
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What it is
The Emails page is your company's shared email inbox inside Joby. You open it from the left sidebar: Sidebar›Emails. On a phone it is More›Communication›Email Inbox.
Everyone on your team who has permission sees the same conversations, so an email a customer sent this morning is not stuck in one person's personal mailbox. You can read the whole back-and-forth, reply, attach files, and jump straight to the job the email belongs to.
Left side — the list
Every conversation, newest first, with a search box and filter buttons above it.
Right side — the conversation
The messages you have exchanged, oldest at the top, with the reply box at the bottom.
This page is for real conversations
Estimates, invoices, receipts and automated follow-ups are sent by other parts of Joby. They still land in this inbox so you can see them, but you do not write them here.
When to use it
- A customer replied by email and someone has to answer today.
- You need to send documents, photos or a written quote summary that will not fit in a text message.
- You want a written record attached to the job, not sitting in one person's mailbox.
- You are checking whether an estimate or invoice email actually reached the customer.
- You are covering for a colleague and need to see what has already been said.
For quick confirmations and time-sensitive replies, use SMS & Conversations instead. Email is for longer messages and files.
Before you start
- You need the Emails permission. Without it the page does not appear in the sidebar. An admin turns it on at Settings›Team Roles, in the Communication group.
- Your company needs at least one sending address. Admins set this up at Settings›Email Accounts. If nothing is set up, the From box in the compose window reads No email configured and you will not be able to send.
- Incoming email only appears if it was sent to a connected address. Mail sent to a personal mailbox that Joby does not know about will never show up here.
- Files you plan to attach should already be on the device you are working from — the attach button opens your normal file picker.
Step-by-step
Open the inbox
- Click Emails in the left sidebar.
- The list header tells you how many conversations you have and how many are unread — for example 248 threads · 6 unread.
- Shortcut: if there is a number badge next to Emails in the sidebar, clicking the badge itself opens the inbox already filtered to Unread.
Find the email you need
- Type into Search emails… at the top of the list. It searches your conversations and the counts on the filter buttons update as you type.
- Or click a filter button: All, Unread, Clients, or Auto.
- Use the menu on the right of that row to narrow by direction: Any direction, Received, or Sent.
- If the list ends before you find it, click Load more at the bottom.
Read a conversation
- Click any row in the list. The conversation opens on the right.
- The newest message is already open. Older ones are collapsed to a single line — click one to expand it.
- If the conversation is long, click Load older emails at the top to pull in the earlier messages.
- Opening a conversation marks it as read automatically. There is no button to press.
- Want more room? Click the expand button in the top-right corner of the reading pane to hide the list and read full width. Click it again to bring the list back.
Reply
- With the conversation open, click the Reply bar at the bottom (it reads Reply to [name]…).
- The recipient and the subject are filled in for you — the subject gets Re: in front of it. If the message you are answering had people copied in, those addresses are carried into Cc for you.
- Check the From box if your company has more than one sending address.
- Type your message in the Message box.
- Optional: click Attach to add files. Each one appears as a small chip you can remove with the ✕.
- Click Send.
Send stays greyed out until there is a recipient, a subject and some message text. If nothing happens when you click it, one of those three is empty.
Write a brand-new email
- Click Compose at the top of the list. (You can also use the + button next to your company name in the sidebar and choose Email, or click Compose new email on the empty right-hand pane.)
- The Compose New Email window opens. On a phone it slides up from the bottom of the screen.
- Type the address into To and press Enter, comma or space to turn it into a chip. You can paste a whole list of addresses at once. Anything that is not a valid address stays in the box with a red outline instead of being sent.
- Need more recipients? Click the small Cc or Bcc links above the To box.
- Fill in Subject and Message.
- Attach files if you need to, then click Send.
The new conversation appears in the list straight away, so you can follow the reply there.
How to check it worked
- Your message is in the conversation. After clicking Send you get an Email sent confirmation and the message appears at the bottom of the thread with an up-right arrow.
- The status label turns green. Refresh after a minute or two — the label on your message should move from Email sent to Email delivered. Red wording means it did not arrive.
- A brand-new email created its own conversation. Go back to the list; it should be at the top with the subject you typed.
- The unread count went down. After you read a conversation, the number next to Emails in the sidebar and the unread count in the list header should both drop.
- The signature looks right. Send one email to yourself and open it in a normal mail app. That is the only real test of logos and layout.
- A new sending address works. In Settings›Email Accounts the row should read Active. Then send one test email choosing that address in From.
Common mistakes
“The email disappeared”
Almost always a filter left on from earlier. Your filter choice is remembered between visits. Click All, set the direction menu to Any direction, and clear the search box.
Looking for a Forward button
There is no forward on this page. To pass something on, click Compose, address it to your colleague, and copy the text across or re-attach the file.
Expecting formatting in the message box
The message box is plain text. Pasting a styled document loses its bold, colours and layout. For a designed, signable document use Documents Hub instead.
The recipient chip never appeared
Typing an address is not enough — press Enter, comma or space to turn it into a chip. A red outline means what you typed is not a valid address, and it will not be sent.
Emailing an address that already bounced
Once an address bounces or reports spam, further messages come back as Email blocked. Confirm the correct address with the customer by phone or text and update it on their record.
Expecting Gmail or SMTP to bring mail in
Those two send only. Replies to them come back through your Joby inbox, which is why the Reply-To box is set that way. Microsoft 365 is the connection that can also import incoming mail.
Two people answering the same email
Opening a conversation marks it read for everyone, so it stops looking new to the rest of the team. Agree who owns the inbox each day, and leave a note on the job when you have replied.
More detail (11)
Reading the list at a glance
Each row in the list is one conversation. Here is what the marks on it mean:
- Bold name and a coloured time — there is something unread in it.
- A number bubble on the right — how many unread messages are waiting, when it is more than one.
- Green arrow pointing down-left — the last message came in from the customer.
- Grey arrow pointing up-right — the last message went out from you.
- Client badge — the address matches one of your saved clients.
- Lightning-bolt icon instead of initials — the conversation was started by an automation, not a person.
The line under the subject is a short preview of the last message, so you can usually decide whether to open it without clicking.
Filters and search
The buttons above the list are: All, Unread, Clients and Auto, each showing its own count. On the far right is a small menu for direction.
- Unread and Clients stack together — turning both on shows unread conversations with saved clients only.
- Auto stands on its own. Turning it on clears the other buttons and shows only email sent automatically by Joby.
- Received and Sent are opposites — picking one clears the other. Any direction clears both.
- Your choice is remembered for next time, on this device and on your account.
If a search finds nothing
You will see No results for "…". Clear the search box first, then clear the filter buttons — a leftover Unread or Sent filter is the usual reason an email looks missing.
What each box in the compose window does
- From — which of your company's addresses the email is sent from. If only one address is set up, this is shown as plain text and cannot be changed.
- Reply-To — where the customer's answer goes. For Gmail and other outside mail providers this is set to your Joby inbox so replies come back into this page. Microsoft 365 accounts can choose between the Outlook mailbox and the Joby inbox.
- To — one or more recipient addresses, entered as chips. When you are replying, this is locked to the person you are answering.
- Cc / Bcc — hidden until you click the small links above the To box.
- Subject — required. Replies are pre-filled with Re: and the original subject.
- Message — a plain text box. Your line breaks are kept, but there is no bold, colour or layout formatting here.
- Signature preview — appears when the sending address has a signature saved. It is added to the email automatically; you do not type it. On a phone, tap Show to see it.
- Attach — opens your file picker. Attached files show as chips with a ✕ to remove them.
There are no saved replies in this window
The templates under Settings›Pipeline›Communication Templates are for text messages and for job alerts to your field workers. They do not appear in the email compose window — you type the message here.
Knowing whether an email arrived
Every message you send carries a small status label, and collapsed messages show it as a coloured dot. The wording you may see:
- Email sent — handed over to the mail service.
- Email delivered — accepted by the recipient's mail server.
- Email opened — the recipient opened it.
- Email delayed — still trying; this often clears on its own.
- Email bounced — rejected. Usually a wrong or dead address.
- Email blocked — that address is on the do-not-send list, often after an earlier bounce or complaint.
- Spam complaint — the recipient marked it as spam. Stop emailing that address.
- Email failed — it could not be sent at all.
Hover over the label to see the reason when there is one. Incoming messages from customers have no status label — the label only applies to email you sent.
Emails Joby sent for you
Not everything in this inbox was typed by a person. Two badges tell you the difference:
Automation
A purple Automation badge and a Sent from automation strip. Click Open automation to see exactly which automation sent it.
AI reply
Sent by Joby AI on your behalf. The sender shows as Joby AI and the message card is tinted so it stands out.
Use the Auto filter button to see only these, which is the fastest way to audit what your automations have been sending this week.
Attachments and the linked job
- Files that came with a message are listed under Attachments at the bottom of that message. Click the download icon to save one. If it reads No download available, the file itself was not kept — ask the sender to resend it.
- When a conversation is connected to a job, an Open job button appears in the conversation header, top right. It takes you straight to that job's page.
- Links inside a customer's email open in a new browser tab, so you never lose your place in the inbox.
No Open job button?
That conversation is not tied to a job yet. The button appears only when Joby already connected the email to a job record.
Setting up your sending addresses (admins)
Go to Settings›Email Accounts. This page is admin-only. It has three cards.
Sender Accounts
Each address your company can send from is listed here. On every row you will see a Default star on the main address, a status badge (Active, Reconnect, Error or Inactive), and small tags telling you whether it is Shared or Private, whether it is Inbox sync or Send only, and whether a signature is on.
The buttons on each row:
- Signature — opens the signature editor for that address.
- Make default — makes this the address Joby reaches for first.
- Sync inbox — Microsoft 365 only. Pulls in new mail now and tells you how many were imported.
- Reconnect inbox — Microsoft 365 only. Appears when the connection needs signing in again.
- Trash icon — disconnects that address. The built-in Joby address cannot be removed.
Sender access on each row decides who can send from it. Shared sender means anyone on the team; Private sender shows a tick-list of team members so you can limit it to specific people.
Connect Providers
- Gmail — click the Gmail card, sign in with your Google or Google Workspace account and approve access. Send only: replies come back to your Joby inbox.
- Microsoft 365 — click the Microsoft card and sign in. This is the one that can also bring incoming mail into Joby.
- SMTP — for any other mail provider. Click Add SMTP (top right) or the SMTP card, then fill in Sender email, Display name, SMTP host, Port, Username and Password. Turn on Use SSL/TLS for port 465; leave it off for port 587. Choose the sender access, then click Save SMTP. Send only, like Gmail.
Your mail provider gives you the host, port, username and password. If you do not have them, ask whoever manages your company email.
Customer Email Sender
This dropdown decides which address customers see on estimates, invoices, receipts, signed estimates and service plan emails. The options are the built-in Joby sender, your current default shared address, or one specific shared address. Private addresses are deliberately left out of this list.
The Current Default panel on the right always shows which address Joby will use first and whether it can receive mail (Supported) or only send (Fallback only).
Email signatures
A signature belongs to one sending address, not to one person. Open Settings›Email Accounts, find the address, and click Signature.
- Turn on Use signature.
- Fill in Name, Title, Company, Phone, Email and Website.
- Add a Logo and an optional Profile photo — either paste a web address or click Upload logo / Upload photo. Each image must be under 2 MB, and you can choose where it sits (above, below, left, right or a corner).
- Pick an Accent color.
- Optional: add a Button text and Button URL, for example “Book Online”.
- Optional: add a Footer note for hours, service area, licence number or warranty wording.
- Watch the Live preview on the right, then click Save Signature.
Already built a good signature on another address? Use Copy from another account at the top of the editor. It copies everything except the email address, which stays correct for the account you are editing.
Uploading beats pasting a link
Uploaded logos and photos are built into the emails you send, so they show up reliably in the customer's mail app. A pasted link has to be a full web address starting with http or https, or it will not display.
Who can see what
- The Emails permission controls the whole page. Set it at Settings›Team Roles under Communication.
- Private senders limit who can send from a given address, but they do not hide conversations — everyone with the Emails permission sees the shared inbox.
- Field workers with contact masking see
••••@••••instead of the customer's address. They can still reply; the message goes to the right person, they just never see the address.
Using it on your phone
- Open it from More›Communication›Email Inbox.
- You see either the list or one conversation, never both. The back arrow returns you to the list.
- Compose is in the header when the list is showing.
- The compose window slides up from the bottom, and Attach and Send stay pinned at the bottom as you scroll.
- The expand button is desktop only.
Rollout checklist
- At least one sending address is Active in Settings → Email Accounts.
- The right address carries the Default star.
- Customer Email Sender is set to the address you want on estimates and invoices.
- A signature is saved on each address customers will see.
- The Emails permission is on for the roles that need it.
- Your team knows who owns the shared inbox each day.