Reply to or forward an email message interaction

AI-generated summary

Genesys Cloud enables agents to reply to, reply all to, or forward email message interactions through the Conversations roster with configurable workflow options and flexible recipient management capabilities. The system supports both single-action email interactions, where responding concludes the interaction, and multiple-action configurations that allow agents to forward emails to other departments while notifying customers of pending responses. Key capabilities include custom reply-to address handling that automatically utilizes the first address when multiple are specified, optional From address selection when enabled by administrators, email thread history display with compacted message headers, and the ability to expand or compact individual messages as needed. Agents can add inline images and attachments to responses, edit or remove recipient email addresses (supporting up to per address), and benefit from automatic email signature appending when configured to prevent duplicates. The feature requires specific permissions including Conversation > Email > Accept, Create, Forward, and Send, along with Routing > Agent > OnQueue and Routing > Email > View permissions. When replying, agents can respond to the original sender or all recipients, and when forwarding, they can enter recipient email addresses manually or select from suggested external contacts that may display division information. Division information displays for external contacts in suggestion lists, and the system provides validation warnings for invalid email addresses. After sending replies, interactions remain in the Conversations roster until agents click Disconnect to end the interaction and complete after-contact work. Organizational policies may restrict Send button availability, and when Multiple Actions are enabled, each email sent before wrap-up counts as a separate session with independent handle time tracking. Optional administrative configurations include enabling multiple actions per interaction, allowing From address changes, and configuring optional email history display. The documentation includes a feedback mechanism allowing users to rate article helpfulness, provide specific reasons for their assessment, identify their organizational role, and access related articles covering agent interactions, ACD emails, canned responses, email interaction management, Agent Copilot email refinement capabilities, digital interaction transfers, email message discarding, and email threading settings configuration

PrerequisitesClick to expand

How you reply to an email interaction depends on the email configuration for your contact center.

The default configuration is for a single action per email interaction. When you receive an email and you respond to it, the interaction is over.

To allow you to take multiple actions on a single email interaction, your admin can enable multiple actions per email interaction. Maybe you want to forward the email to another department to handle and you want to let the customer know that another department will respond with an answer. For more information, see the Add email addresses to the domain section of Use the organization’s email domain name.

Note: For more information about how to reconnect and reply to a closed email interaction, see

Reply to or forward an email message interaction (single action)Click to expand

From the Conversations roster, select the email interaction you want to respond to.
Perform one of the following steps:
- To reply to the sender, click Reply.
- If multiple parties received the email message and you want to respond to all parties, click Reply All.
- To forward the message, click Forward, type the email address of the person that you want to forward the email to, and press Enter. Alternatively, begin to type a name and select the intended external contact from the list of suggestions.
  Notes:
  - If the sender of the original message specified a custom reply-to address, Genesys Cloud uses this address when you reply.
  - Genesys Cloud supports one reply-to address. If the sender specified more than one reply-to address, then Genesys Cloud uses the first one when you reply.
  - If available the division information appears for external contacts in the list of suggestions.
  - If you enter an invalid email address, Genesys Cloud displays a warning.
  - To remove an email address, beside the email address, click Remove X.
  - To edit an email address, click the email and make the required changes.
  - An email address can have up to 255 characters.
(Optional) If your admin enables the ability to change the From address, to change the From address, click From and select the appropriate address.
Note: If you do not select a From address, Genesys Cloud uses the default address.
(Optional) If your admin configures email history as optional, then to include the previous messages of an email thread, click Show Message History. For more information, see Use the organization’s email domain name.
Type a response. You can also add inline images or attachments. For more information about formatting the text in your response, see Format text in an email message.
Note: If your admin has enabled Genesys Cloud to append email signatures when you send a message, to avoid duplicates, do not manually add a signature to your outgoing email interactions. For more information, see Use the organization's email domain name.
Click Send.
Note: If your organization has its own policy for sending email responses, the Send button may be unavailable.
Complete any after contact work.
The interaction leaves your Conversations roster.

Reply to or forward an email message interaction (multiple actions)Click to expand

From the Conversations roster, select the email interaction you want to act on.
Note: Genesys Cloud displays a compacted list of the message headers in the thread with the last message expanded. To expand or compact a message, click the message header.
Perform one of the following steps:
- To reply to the sender, click Reply.
- If multiple parties received the email message and you want to respond to all parties, click Reply All.
- To forward the message, click Forward, type the email address of the person that you want to forward the email to, and press Enter. Alternatively, begin to type a name and select the intended external contact from the list of suggestions.
  Notes:
  - If the sender of the original message specified a custom reply-to address, Genesys Cloud uses this address when you reply.
  - Genesys Cloud supports one reply-to address. If the sender specified more than one reply-to address, then Genesys Cloud uses the first one when you reply.
  - If available the division information appears for external contacts in the list of suggestions.
  - If you enter an invalid email address, Genesys Cloud displays a warning.
  - To remove an email address, beside the email address, click Remove X.
  - To edit an email address, click the email and make the required changes.
  - An email address can have up to 255 characters.
(Optional) If your admin enables the ability to change the From address, to change the From address, click From and select the appropriate address. For more information, see Create and configure queues.
Note: If you do not select a From address, Genesys Cloud uses the default address.
(Optional) If your admin configures email history as optional, to include the previous messages of an email thread, click Show Message History. For more information, see Use the organization’s email domain name.
Type a response. You can also add inline images or attachments. For more information about formatting the text in your response, see Format text in an email message.
Note: If your admin has enabled Genesys Cloud to append email signatures when you send a message, to avoid duplicates, do not manually add a signature to your outgoing email interactions. For more information, see Use the organization's email domain name.
Click Send. The interaction remains in your Conversation roster.
Note: If your organization has its own policy for sending email responses, the Send button may be unavailable.
(Optional) To send more replies, repeat steps 2–5.To end the interaction, click Disconnect.
Complete any after contact work.
The interaction leaves your Conversations roster.

Note: If your admin enables , each email that an agent sends before they wrap up the interaction counts as a separate session with its own handle time. For example: An agent sends an initial response to an inbound email message, and the handle time is 10 minutes. If the agent then forwards the message to another participant, the timer starts over, and the handle time for this section is 2 minutes.

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