In this guide, you'll learn how to set up your own/custom email domain as an Email channel. To start, you will need to request Early Access to Email. Please make your request to the Support team using the widget on our website. 

Once you have access, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Set up your Inbox email 

Go to the Channels page in your MessageBird Dashboard and click Email (Get started).

This will take you to the following page:

Step 2: Give your channel a name

Name your channel, make sure it's easily recognizable for yourself and your team. Don't worry, this will only be used internally. For our example, the channel name is Email Amsterdam.

Step 3: Add your domain name

Time to add your domain. Please make sure that you own the domain and have access to its Domain Name System (DNS) record.

Step 4: Add your webhook URL (optional)

You have the option to add the URL from which you want to receive webhooks. Keep in mind that this webhook will only be used for inbound emails only. When you’re finished click Install Channel.

Step 5: Perform DKIM domain verification

Click the Edit Channel icon.

Use the DKIM to verify your sender domain. You will need to manually add the DKIM. Copy the Hostname and Value below, and add them to your DNS record.

Verification can take up to 48 hours depending on your email client, but recommend waiting 30 minutes or so before verifying the records (sometimes longer). If you still see the error 'Action Required' after some time, please make sure your DKIM record is properly configured in their DNS servers and reach out to us if you still see issues.

Step 6: Add your new email channel to your Inbox Flow

Go to Flow Builder and add your new email channel to the Inbox Flow (Conversations) Flow, then hit Publish.

Step 7: Set up email forwarding to receive emails

You'll need to set up email forwarding/redirect for the chosen prefixes of your custom domain. Meaning that you will have to decide the email addresses that you'd like to receive replies from end users (it can be one email address or multiple ones, e.g. support@exampleamsterdam.com, info@exampleamsterdam.com).

Then you will need to set up the forwarding rule to: <channelId>@fwd-sp.messagebird.com on your email client or at your ISP's end. The channelId for your email channel can be found in your Channels directory.

Step 7: Verify email forwarding

Your email client or your ISP will send a verification email to confirm email forwarding. Go to your Inbox, find the verification email, and verify email forwarding. 

And that’s it! 🎉 Email is now installed as a channel and set up with Inbox.