> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.plain.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Email

> Set up email in Plain in two steps: sending through DNS records, and receiving by forwarding.

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.

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/plain/esnLSCL6AbjPxXFS/public/images/email.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=esnLSCL6AbjPxXFS&q=85&s=da693e8b28ec12db8f114b76dc00f36f" alt="Email in Plain" width="2280" height="1200" data-path="public/images/email.png" />
</Frame>

## 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.com`

* `help@yourcompany.com`

* `hello@yourcompany.com`

* `contact@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:

1. **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.

2. **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 workspace

* Set 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