How the Distro inbox works

The Inbox (Outreach → Inbox) collects the replies to emails you sent with Distro: campaign emails, follow-ups, the email steps of Email + LinkedIn campaigns and emails sent from Compose. Distro reads those replies from the mailbox of the Google account that sent the email, sorts each one (interested, out of office, bounce and so on) and stops follow-ups when a person writes back.

It is not a copy of your mailbox. Your other mail stays in Gmail, and Distro does not keep it.

How a reply reaches the Inbox

1. A prospect replies to your email
2. The reply arrives in your mailbox
3. Google lets Distro know the mailbox changed
4. Distro checks whether the message belongs to one of its emails
5. Matching replies are sorted and shown in the Inbox
6. Follow-ups stop if a person replied

Distro matches a reply to your email through the email thread (the reply headers that every mail app adds). A message that isn't part of a conversation Distro started is skipped and nothing from it is stored.

New replies usually appear within a few minutes. While the Inbox is open it refreshes itself every few seconds, and you can click Refresh at any time. If Google stops answering for a while, Distro keeps trying and catches up once the mailbox is healthy again.

What shows up, and what doesn't

A conversation only appears once someone has written back. Your sent email on its own is not a conversation.

LinkedIn replies don't come to this Inbox. A LinkedIn reply stops that person's campaign and shows in the campaign's results, on the person's timeline.

There is one Inbox for your whole Outreach workspace. It covers every sender you have connected on the Sending accounts page. The product switcher is hidden on Outreach pages, and the Inbox is the same whichever product you have selected.

Finding your way around

Views. The tabs along the top filter the list: All, Needs reply, Unread, Interested, Not interested, Out of office, Automatic and Bounced. Needs reply is the one to work through each day: it holds replies written by a person that nobody has answered yet.

Search. The search box looks through subjects and the preview text of each conversation.

The list. Unread conversations are shown in bold with a dot. Each row has a status badge. Replies to an Email + LinkedIn campaign also show a channel tag and the campaign's name, and clicking that name in an open conversation opens the campaign.

The conversation. Click a row to read the thread. At the top you'll find:

• a status menu, to move the conversation along by hand (for example to Waiting or Closed),
• a Sort as… menu, to correct what Distro thinks the reply means,
• Mark unread, to keep it on your list.

Below the messages there is a Private notes box. Notes are only visible to you and are never sent.

The unread count also appears next to Inbox in the sidebar.

Conversation statuses

How Distro decides between these, and what each one does to your follow-ups, is explained in How Distro detects replies.

Distro and Gmail stay separate

Distro asks Google for permission to send email and to read your mailbox. It does not have permission to change anything in Gmail. That has a few practical effects:

• Read and unread are separate. Opening a conversation in Distro doesn't mark it read in Gmail, and reading it in Gmail doesn't mark it read in Distro.
• Nothing is moved or deleted in Gmail. Labels, archiving and filters are untouched.
• Images are hidden. Remote images in replies are blocked to protect your privacy. You'll see a note such as "2 image(s) hidden to protect your privacy."
• Attachments sent to you are not displayed in Distro. Open the email in Gmail to see them.

If you answer a prospect directly in Gmail, in the same thread, your answer appears in the Distro conversation after the next sync.

Answering a reply

Write in the reply box at the bottom of the conversation and click Send reply. It goes out from your connected Google account, in the same email thread. See Reply to a prospect from Distro for the details, including attachments and drafting with Distro.