Connect your first inbox (email, chat, or voice)

Everything in ADS Helpdesk flows into inboxes. An inbox is a single channel, one support mailbox, one chat widget, or one voice line, with its own agents, routing, and settings. This guide explains the channel types so you can choose your first one.

Open the inbox wizard

Go to Admin → Inboxes and click New. You'll choose a channel, then step through a short wizard: details → add agents → connect & test.

Email inboxes

An email inbox turns an existing mailbox (like support@yourcompany.com) into tickets. You can connect it two ways:

• Email forwarding: forward your mailbox to a unique ADS Helpdesk address. No mailbox password required. This is the recommended default.
• IMAP polling: ADS Helpdesk logs into your mailbox and pulls new mail on a schedule.

Step-by-step: Set up an email inbox and Forward Gmail or Outlook.

Live chat inboxes

A live chat inbox gives you a widget you embed on your website so visitors can message you in real time. Chat (and voice) inboxes also power real-time AI features and store-catalog lookups. See Add the live chat widget.

Voice inboxes

A voice inbox handles phone-based support and routes calls into the same workspace, with the same agents and rules as your other channels.

Add agents and finish

In the wizard's Add agents step, tick the teammates who should access this inbox. On the final Connect & test step you'll verify inbound and outbound delivery with built-in test buttons before going live.

Note: On the free Starter plan you get one email inbox and one live chat inbox. Voice and additional inboxes are available on paid plans, see Plans & billing.

What's next

Once your inbox is connected, invite your team and train the AI so replies draft themselves.