Forward Emails from Conversations

When working with customer communications in your CRM, you may need to share specific email messages with colleagues, vendors, or external partners. The email forwarding feature in Conversations allows you to forward individual inbound emails directly to any external recipient while maintaining the conversation history within your CRM.

What is Email Forwarding?

Email forwarding lets you manually send a copy of an inbound email message from a contact's conversation thread to another email address. This is particularly useful when you need to escalate an issue, get input from a specialist, or share customer feedback with team members who don't have direct access to the conversation thread.

This manual forwarding feature is different from automated email routing settings that can be configured at the account level for automatic forwarding of replies or copies of emails.

Key Benefits

• Streamlined collaboration: Share specific customer emails with team members or external partners without leaving the CRM
• Complete record keeping: Maintain a full history of forwarded messages within the original conversation thread
• Time efficiency: Forward messages directly from the conversation instead of copying and pasting content into a separate email client
• Context preservation: Include original formatting, content, and attachments to provide complete context to recipients

Manual Forwarding vs. Email Services

Your CRM supports different types of email forwarding for various use cases:

• Manual forwarding from Conversations: Use this for one-time sharing of specific inbound emails from conversation threads
• Email Services forwarding: Configure this for automated routing of replies, BCC copies, or message forwarding to assigned users at the account level

Requirements and Permissions

Before you can forward emails, ensure these prerequisites are met:

• An active email channel must be connected to your sub-account
• Users need access to Conversations and permission to send emails
• The forwarding feature may not be available on mobile apps - use the web version if you don't see the option
• Forwarded emails use your account's configured sending mailbox and routing rules

How Forwarded Emails Appear

When you forward an email:

• The message is sent using the sending mailbox associated with the conversation's email channel
• The sender name follows your current account rules
• Recipients see the sender according to your Sending Priority configuration
• The subject line is prefixed with "Fwd:" by default

Content and Attachments

The forwarding feature preserves the original email content including:

• Original formatting and layout
• Inline images and signatures (when supported by the email provider)
• Attachments from the original email (subject to provider limitations)

Note that your email provider's policies regarding file size limits and restricted file types still apply to forwarded messages.

Conversation History

When you forward an email, the action is recorded in the conversation timeline:

• The forward appears as an outbound email event in the same conversation
• The timeline shows who forwarded the message, when it was sent, and the recipients
• Replies to forwarded messages will route back to your connected mailbox and appear in the conversation if email syncing is enabled

How to Forward an Email

Follow these steps to forward an email from a conversation:

1. Navigate to Conversations and open the thread containing the email you want to forward
2. Click on the kebab icon (three dots) on the message you wish to forward
3. Select the Forward option from the menu
4. In the forwarding composer, enter recipient email addresses in the To field
5. Add CC or BCC recipients if needed
6. Review and edit the subject line and message body as necessary
7. Verify that any attachments or inline images you want to include are present
8. Click Send to forward the message

The forwarded email will now appear in the conversation timeline, providing a complete record of the action.

Troubleshooting

If you're having issues with email forwarding:

• Ensure your email channel is properly connected and active
• Verify that you have permission to send emails from Conversations
• Check that the recipient email addresses are entered correctly
• Confirm that your email provider doesn't have restrictions that might block the forward
• If the Forward option isn't visible, try accessing Conversations through the web application instead of mobile