How do I connect my Gmail or Outlook email to Sophiie?

Connect your mailbox at Settings → Inquiries → Email — click the Gmail or Outlook button and sign in through the popup. Once connected, Sophiie reads your incoming mail and turns the relevant emails into inquiries in your dashboard.

Steps

1. Go to Settings → Inquiries → Email.
2. With no mailbox connected you'll see two provider buttons side by side — click Gmail or Outlook.
3. A sign-in popup opens. Log in, review the requested permissions and allow them (see "What permissions Sophiie asks for" below).
4. On the mailbox card, choose Which emails Sophiie reads: All relevant business emails or Existing customers only. (If you've renamed your agent, that heading uses her name.)
5. Check the bar at the top of the page says Email is on. Switching it either way asks you to confirm ("Start reading this mailbox?" / "Stop reading this mailbox?"), because turning email off stops inbound email for your whole organisation.

Captured emails land in Inquiries in the sidebar — that's the page that used to be called Inbox.

Which emails Sophiie actually captures

• All relevant business emails doesn't mean literally every email. A classifier checks each incoming email first and drops clearly automated mail — newsletters, receipts, delivery notices, system notifications — so only mail written by a person (plus borderline cases) is captured. Emails from senders or domains you've blocked are filtered out too.
• Existing customers only captures mail only from people already in your Contacts, matched on their email address or their name.
• New contacts: in all-emails mode, an unknown sender gets a new contact automatically — status Pending, unread, with their email address and the name from the email ("Unnamed Lead" if the email carries no name). No contact is created when the sender or domain is blocklisted, or when the email is classified as automated. Mail relayed through ServiceM8's shared address is handled specially: staff digests are dropped, and a new relayed customer is created without an email address, because the relay address is shared. An email sent from your connected mailbox is treated as outbound, so the contact matched or created is the recipient, not the sender.

Replying from Sophiie

When you reply to an email thread on the Inquiries page, Sophiie sends the reply through your connected account:

• Gmail: the reply is sent from your Google account and appears in that account's Sent mail, grouped into the same Gmail conversation.
• Outlook: Outlook itself builds and sends the reply, so it stays in the same conversation and the sent copy sits in that mailbox's Sent Items. One quirk: the reply is anchored to the first message of the conversation, so the quoted text under your reply may be the thread's opening message rather than the latest one.
• No mailbox connected: a team member's reply is refused with a prompt to connect an email account. Only Sophiie's own automated replies fall back to sending from no-reply@mail.sophiie.ai (those never appear in your mailbox). Customers can't reply to that address, and replying to a conversation that started that way opens a new conversation instead of joining an existing one — so connect your mailbox as soon as you can.

What permissions Sophiie asks for

• Gmail: read-only access to mail, permission to send, and basic profile details to identify the account. Read-only is real — Sophiie genuinely cannot modify or delete anything in your Gmail.
• Outlook: Microsoft's read-and-write mail permission, plus send and profile scopes. Outlook needs write access because of how it threads replies — Sophiie asks Outlook to create a reply draft in your mailbox, fill it in and send it. Sophiie only reads incoming mail and sends replies, but your IT team should know the Microsoft consent screen shows the broader read-and-write permission.

Pausing or disconnecting

• Pause: switch the bar at the top of the Email page to Email is off. The same pause/resume is also available from the Gmail or Outlook card's manage drawer at Settings → Integrations.
• Disconnect: use the Disconnect action on the mailbox card (or the manage drawer at Settings → Integrations). Sophiie stops reading the mailbox, and her automated replies go out from no-reply@mail.sophiie.ai until another mailbox is connected — customers can't reply to that address. Your existing threads stay in Inquiries — they just won't get new emails.

Troubleshooting: connected but nothing arriving

If the mailbox shows as connected but no emails are turning up in Inquiries:

1. Run the capture checks first — the bar says Email is on, the reading mode, automated-mail filtering and your blocklist (all four are under "Why didn't Sophiie capture an email I can see in my inbox?" below).
2. Give it a few minutes. New email usually appears within a few minutes — Sophiie is notified by Gmail or Outlook as soon as the email arrives, then reads and sorts it before it shows in Inquiries.
3. Reconnect the mailbox. Click Disconnect on the mailbox card, then connect it again. If the card shows Needs reconnecting, this is the fix.
4. Using a Microsoft work account? Some organisations require IT-admin approval before Sophiie can read a work mailbox — if the connection never comes to life, ask your IT admin to approve Sophiie's access first (more in "Why does my Microsoft work account need admin approval?").
5. Outlook over POP or IMAP won't connect. The Outlook button connects Microsoft-hosted mailboxes — an email account that's only set up in the Outlook desktop app over POP or IMAP can't be connected to Sophiie.

Common Questions

Why didn't Sophiie capture an email I can see in my inbox?

Four things to check: the bar at the top of Settings → Inquiries → Email says Email is on; your reading mode isn't set to Existing customers only while the sender is a new contact; the email wasn't automated or marketing mail (the classifier drops those even in all-emails mode); and the sender or their domain isn't on your blocklist.

Will customers see a different address when Sophiie replies?

Not while a mailbox is connected — replies go out from your connected Gmail or Outlook address. Only Sophiie's automated replies with no mailbox connected go out from no-reply@mail.sophiie.ai, and customers can't reply to that address.

Does Sophiie process email from accounts I haven't connected?

No. Only mail received in the connected mailbox is processed — email sent or received anywhere else never reaches Sophiie.

Need More Help?

If your mailbox won't connect or emails aren't coming through as expected, ask Sophiie Assistant in your dashboard first — she can guide you or make the change for you. Still stuck? Email support@sophiie.ai or call +61 7 5620 4640.