Inbox Overview
Receive and read incoming email for your domains directly inside Taifa Mail.
The Inbox captures email sent to addresses on your verified domains and shows it inside the dashboard - so you can receive replies and incoming mail without running a separate mailbox.
The Inbox is currently in beta. The feature set and UI may change.
Requirements
For Taifa Mail to receive mail for a domain, that domain's MX record must point to Taifa Mail:
| Record Type | Name | Value | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| MX | yourdomain.com | mx1.govconnect.ke | 10 |
The domain must also be verified for sending (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). You can confirm the MX record on the domain detail page under MX status.
Changing MX records redirects all incoming mail for the domain to Taifa Mail. If the domain already receives mail through another provider (Google Workspace, Zoho, etc.), plan the migration carefully - see Email forwarding.
How it works
- Someone sends an email to an address on your domain (for example a reply to one of your sends).
- Because the MX record points to Taifa Mail, the message arrives at Taifa Mail's mail servers.
- Taifa Mail accepts the message, parses its headers, body and attachments, and stores it.
- The message appears in your workspace Inbox, and any matching forwarding rules also run.
Inbox vs. forwarding
- Inbox keeps the message in Taifa Mail for you to read in the dashboard.
- Forwarding relays the message on to an external address or URL.
The two work together: an incoming message can be stored in the Inbox and forwarded. Use forwarding when you want mail to land in an existing mailbox; use the Inbox when you want to read it here.
Missing MX banner
If you open the Inbox and a domain's MX record is missing or no longer points to Taifa Mail, the app shows a yellow banner with a link to the domain's configuration. Incoming mail cannot be received until the MX record is corrected.