Forwarding

Forwarding means the mailbox your team already uses passes a copy of each new message on to Jelly. Your mail stays hosted where it is, and you don't need any server details to bring it in.

Forwarding is the route for a Google Group, an extra address on someone's Google account, and a Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com mailbox. It also suits any mailbox you'd rather Jelly didn't sign in to.

Forwarding only brings mail in. For replies you also need something that sends: an SMTP server, a Google account connected for sending only, or Postmark.

Setting up forwarding

1. Start the email setup with the team's address, and choose Forward mail here.
2. Copy the address shown under Forward to.
3. Set up forwarding to that address at your mail provider, as described below.
4. Press Next: send through an SMTP server to set up sending. For a Google Group or an extra address, follow these steps instead.

If the email setup doesn't offer Forward mail here, your Jelly can't receive forwarded mail. Use Postmark instead.

Once it's set up, Addresses shows the address as receiving through the inbound relay, along with the address to forward to in case you need it again.

Where to set up the forwarding

• A Gmail or Workspace mailbox: see Forwarding from Gmail, below.
• A Google Group: if you manage your Google Workspace, sign in to the Google Admin console (admin.google.com). Under Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Default routing, add a rule that matches mail to the group's address and adds the forwarding address as another recipient. If you can't do that, add the forwarding address to the group in Google Groups, as a member that gets every message.
• Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com: see Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com, below.
• Anywhere else: look for your provider's forwarding or rules setting.

When the forwarding address is a member of a group, Google adds the group's own lines to the end of every message ("To unsubscribe from this group…"). Jelly folds them away under via a Google Group and leaves them out of your replies. Default routing avoids them altogether.

Forwarding from Gmail

These are Gmail's own settings. Gmail asks you to confirm a forwarding address before it will forward anything to it.

1. In Gmail, open Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP, press Add a forwarding address, and enter the address Jelly gave you.
2. Google sends a confirmation message to that address. Jelly shows it to Admins and the Owner as Google is asking to forward mail to <address>, above the inbox, on Addresses and in the email setup. Check that the account it names is the one you expect, then press Confirm with Google. Google's own page opens for you to approve it.
3. Back in Gmail's Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings, choose Forward a copy of incoming mail to and the address, then press Save Changes.

For an extra address on someone's own account, skip step 3, because it would forward all of that person's mail. Create a Gmail filter for mail sent to the team's address instead, and choose Forward it to with the address Jelly gave you.

The request in Jelly goes away once forwarded mail from that account starts arriving. To clear it without confirming, press Dismiss ×.

A Google Group or an extra address

A Google Group, or an extra address on somebody's account, has no account of its own for Jelly to connect. So its mail comes in by forwarding, and its replies go out through the Google account of someone who's allowed to send as it.

1. Start the email setup with the team's address, and choose A Google Group or collaborative inbox.
2. Choose Forward mail here, and set up the forwarding as above.
3. Make sure a Google account can send as the team's address. In that account's Gmail settings, the address must be listed under Accounts (or Accounts and Import) → Send mail as. An extra address usually is already.
4. Wait for the first forwarded message to arrive. Then open the email setup again and type the team's address. Jelly picks up where you left off.
5. Under Now the sending half, choose Send through the Google account, and sign in to Google as that account. Jelly only sends through the account. It never reads its mail.

Jelly also adds that account's own address to the team's addresses. If the team doesn't answer from it, you can remove it on Addresses.

If you'd rather not connect the Google account, skip steps 4 and 5 and press Next: send through an SMTP server on the forwarding page. Use Google's server (see Server settings for common providers), signed in as that account with an app password.

Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com

Microsoft accounts usually refuse password sign-in from other apps, which is how Jelly reads a mailbox over IMAP. Forwarding is the dependable way in: set up forwarding in Outlook to the address Jelly gives you, following Setting up forwarding.

Sending through Microsoft's SMTP server may be refused for the same reason. If it is, ask your Microsoft 365 administrator whether SMTP sign-in can be allowed for the mailbox, or send through Postmark instead.

If Microsoft 365 blocks forwarding

Many Microsoft 365 organisations stop mail being forwarded outside the organisation. If yours does, forwarding set up in Outlook won't reach Jelly, and the mailbox gets a message back saying Your organization does not allow external forwarding.

There's another way that usually works. Your Microsoft 365 administrator can add a mail flow rule, which says: whenever a message arrives for the team's address, send a copy to Jelly too. Microsoft treats these rules separately from forwarding, so the block doesn't stop them, and the rule doesn't let anyone else in your organisation forward mail. Your mailbox still gets every message, exactly as it does now.

Adding the rule takes an Exchange administrator. If that isn't you, send these steps to whoever looks after your organisation's email. They use support@yourcompany.com as the team's address.

1. Copy Jelly's address. In Jelly, start the email setup with the team's address and choose Forward mail here. Copy the address shown under Forward to. This is where the copies will go.
2. Start a new rule. Sign in to the Exchange admin center (admin.exchange.microsoft.com). Go to Mail flow → Rules, press Add a rule, and choose Create a new rule.
3. Name it. For example, Copy support mail to Jelly.
4. Choose which mail it copies. Under Apply this rule if, choose The recipient and then is this person, and pick support@yourcompany.com.
5. Choose where the copy goes. Under Do the following, choose Add recipients and then to the Bcc box, and paste in the address you copied in step 1. Jelly becomes a hidden extra recipient of each message, so the person who sent it won't see Jelly's address.
6. Save the rule.
7. Turn the rule on. Exchange saves a new rule switched off. Open it from the list and switch it on.

To check it works, send a message to support@yourcompany.com. It should arrive in Jelly within a minute or so, and in your mailbox as usual. If it doesn't reach Jelly, your administrator can look the message up in the Exchange admin center under Mail flow → Message trace, which shows whether the rule ran and where the copy went.