Email routing & multi-domain setup

Shared forwarding with alias domains

Multiple domains, one forwarding rule

If you use Google Workspace alias domains, Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes, or any setup where multiple domains forward to a single mailbox, you only need one forwarding rule. Sonny reads the original To address from the email headers to route each message to the right channel.

How to set it up

1. 01

   In Channels, create a channel for each domain, such as "Main Site" and "Secondary Site"

2. 02

   Open Main Site, select Email, and forward your primary mailbox to its Email Address

3. 03

   On Secondary Site's Email tab, under Custom domain, add secondary.com and verify it. If it's already verified in your workspace, select Use secondary.com instead

4. 04

   Turn on Also receive all other mail sent to @secondary.com, or add the exact addresses under Email addresses

5. 05

   Sonny reads each email's original To header and routes it to the matching channel; send a test message to each domain to confirm

Example — one Google Group forwarding to Sonny

Personal and team addresses on one channel

bob@, billing@ and support@ in one inbox, each reaching the right people

Customers write to several addresses on your domain, and one mailbox (such as a Google Workspace shared inbox) forwards it all to Sonny. Add each address to the channel so its new conversations go straight to the right teammate, team and tags, and replies go out from that address.

How to set it up

1. 01

   Verify your domain on the channel's Email tab under Custom domain. The DNS check is all you need to start routing

2. 02

   Under Email addresses, select Add address. Type the part before the @, such as bob, and choose the domain

3. 03

   Choose Assign new conversations to, Team and Tags, or leave them as Same as channel

4. 04

   Make sure the address reaches Sonny: forward it, or the shared mailbox that receives it, to the channel's Email Address

5. 05

   Send a test message to each address

Example — one shared mailbox forwarding to Sonny

Verify your domain once

On a channel's Email tab, find Custom domain. Enter your domain under Add a domain, add it, then select Verify. Choose either method:

DNS Record

Add the displayed TXT record at your DNS provider. When it has propagated, return to Sonny and select Check DNS Record. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate.

Email Code

Enter an address on that domain and select Send Code. Enter the 4-digit code from the email, then select Verify.

You only verify a domain once for your whole workspace. On every other channel, select Use yourcompany.com under Already verified in your workspace, with no new DNS records. Each channel replies from its own address on the domain, and the domain shows Shared with 2 other channels.

What each address can set

Under Email addresses, select Add address, or the pencil beside an address to edit it. Anything left as Same as channel uses the channel's own settings:

• Assign new conversations to: a teammate who gets every new conversation sent to this address.
• Team: the team new conversations go to. With round-robin, they rotate within this team.
• Tags: added to new conversations. Leave empty to use the channel's tags.
• Reply from: optional. The part before the @ that replies go out from. Leave it empty to reply from the address itself.

• These settings apply to new conversations. Knowledge, AI and tone stay shared across the whole channel.
• An address can belong to one channel at a time.
• Mail to a new address is routed straight away. Until DKIM is set up for its domain, replies go out from the channel's usual address, normally your Sonny address.

Receive all other mail for a domain

Under Custom domain, each verified domain has a switch: Also receive all other mail sent to @yourcompany.com. Turn it on, and any address on that domain without its own entry under Email addresses lands on this channel. Addresses you've listed still go where they're set.

• Only one channel can receive all mail for a domain.
• It can't be turned on while another channel has its own addresses on that domain. Add the specific addresses this channel should get instead.
• Only the To line counts here. Copied (Cc) and forwarding lines never move a whole domain's mail.
• If you routed a domain to a channel before, this switch is already on for it, so nothing changes.

Who gets new conversations

On the channel's General tab, Assignment Behavior sets the defaults every address falls back to:

• Default Assignment Strategy: Use workspace default, Unassigned, Round-robin, or Specific teammate, who gets every new conversation from this channel.
• Default Team: new conversations are routed to this team. With Round-robin, they rotate within it.
• Default tags: added to every new email conversation from this channel.

An address's own settings win, one setting at a time. When you need conditions such as keywords, senders or business hours, or want to send an automatic reply, use inbox rules. Rules run after these defaults, so a rule's assignment wins.

How Sonny picks the channel

Sonny reads every address a new email was sent to, in this order:

• To: the addresses the customer wrote to.
• Delivered-To and X-Original-To: lines Google Workspace and other providers add as they pass mail along. If a customer writes to your team@ group and the copy reaches Sonny through bob@, the To line shows team@ but Delivered-To shows bob@, so it still goes to Bob.
• Cc: the addresses copied in.
• Delivery address: the address the email was actually delivered to.

Then it routes the email to the first match:

1. 01

   An address you've added

   The first address, in the order above, that's listed under Email addresses on one of your channels.

2. 02

   A channel receiving all mail for a domain

   A channel with Also receive all other mail sent to @… turned on, for a domain on the To line.

3. 03

   The channel's Sonny address

   The channel whose forwarding address, likeacme+support@sonnysend.com, received the email.

4. 04

   Your inbox

   Anything else still arrives in your inbox, without a channel.

A reply to an existing conversation stays with whoever already has it, even if the customer replies to a different address.

Which address replies come from

Replies go out from the first of these that's ready to send:

1. 01

   The address the customer wrote to

   Or its Reply from address, once DKIM is set up for its domain.

2. 02

   The channel's own address

   Its Send-from address on the channel's custom domain.

3. 03

   Your Sonny address

   The managed@sonnysend.comaddress every channel starts with.

Customer satisfaction surveys use the same address, so a conversation never switches sender.

In the inbox, an email that arrived on one of your addresses shows it as Sent to in the conversation's Details. To see only mail sent to one address, use the Address filter above the conversation list.

Send from your own domain

By default, replies are sent from a managed @sonnysend.com address. To send as your own domain (e.g. support@yourcompany.com), add and verify it under Custom domain. We register it with our email provider and show you the DNS records to add:

DKIM

Three CNAME records. Once these verify, your mail is cryptographically signed as your domain and sending turns on automatically.

SPF

An MX and TXT record on a mail. subdomain so SPF aligns with your domain.

DMARC

A recommended _dmarc TXT record so inbox providers know your authentication policy.

For an older verified domain with no sending records, select Enable sending under Send from this domain. After adding the displayed records, select Check sending status. DNS changes can take a little while to propagate.

Under Send-from address, enter the part before @ and select Save. For example, enter support to send this channel's replies as support@yourcompany.com. Addresses you've added reply from themselves.

Related guides

Related docs

• Email setup

  Forward your support email into Sonny and manage email alongside live chat.

• Channels

  Create and manage the places where customers reach you by live chat and email.

• Inbox rules

  Tag, assign, prioritize, snooze, close and auto-reply to conversations automatically with when / if / then rules.

• Email signatures

  Configure workspace, channel, and personal signatures with dynamic variables.

• Inbox

  Understand statuses, priorities, assignment, snoozing, bulk actions, and keyboard shortcuts.