Auto-inbox

Your inbox, organized without the work. Auto-inbox labels new mail, drafts replies when something clearly needs a response, and helps with scheduling by proposing times and preparing calendar events — by default for your review before anything is booked, or automatically when you turn on finalize without asking. You stay on top of what matters without manually sorting your inbox or writing every first draft yourself.

How it works

A new email arrives in your inbox
Your assistant checks the sender — Have you emailed this person before?
It applies a label based on the email type (newsletter, promotional, order, travel, unknown sender, etc.)
When a reply seems warranted, it can draft a response — and if someone is trying to schedule, it can propose times and prepare a calendar event (review by default; automatic finalization if you enable that setting)
Optionally archives the email so it’s out of your inbox but still searchable

Emails from people you regularly correspond with stay in your inbox untouched. Drafts wait in your inbox for your review before anything is sent.

For scheduling, your assistant checks every connected calendar before suggesting times so it won’t propose a slot you’re already busy on, and it honors your scheduling preferences (working hours, buffers, and notes) from your global scheduling settings. If it can’t find times that fit, it emails you instead of sending an unhelpful reply.

Configuration

Setting	What it does
Filtering labels	The labels your assistant uses to categorize emails. You can rename them, change colors, edit the rules, or add new ones.
Auto-archive	For each label, choose whether emails should be archived after labeling or stay in your inbox. Off by default.
Allow draft replies	Controls whether Auto-inbox can prepare reply drafts when an email clearly needs a response.
Draft scheduling responses	Controls whether Auto-inbox can draft scheduling replies with proposed times.
Allow calendar event creation	Controls whether Auto-scheduler can book or move calendar events for scheduling requests.
Finalize calendar events without asking	Nested under calendar event creation. When on, confirmed meetings are booked or moved without an approval step (invites go out automatically). When off, finalization still waits for your approval. Off by default.
Email you when input is needed	When scheduling cannot proceed without your input, emails you instead of taking no action.
Only respond to these kinds of emails	Optionally narrows which emails Auto-inbox is allowed to draft replies for.

Assistant Tools (Personal Assistant settings) do not control Auto-scheduler approvals — use the nested finalize toggle above for that.

Default labels

Auto-inbox comes with labels ready to use:

Label	What gets this label	Auto-archive
new sender	Emails from real people you’ve never corresponded with	Off
awaiting reply	Threads where you’re waiting for someone to respond	Off
action needed	Emails that require you to do something	Off
newsletters	Subscribed content you opted into: digests, blog updates, weekly roundups	Off
promotional	Unsolicited marketing emails, sales campaigns, and commercial outreach	Off
orders	Order confirmations, receipts, shipping notifications, and delivery updates	Off
travel	Flight confirmations, hotel reservations, itinerary updates, and travel alerts	Off
updates	App notifications, service status changes, and routine informational emails	Off

You can customize all of these — change the names, adjust what emails match each label, or turn auto-archive on for labels you want out of your inbox.

Start with the defaults. The pre-configured labels work well for most people. After a few days, check what’s being labeled and adjust if something isn’t right.

What counts as a “known contact”

Your assistant considers someone a known contact if you’ve sent them a meaningful email in the past. This excludes:

Unsubscribe requests
“Not interested” or decline messages
One-word replies to stop communication

This helps filter out cold outreach from people you’ve tried to stop hearing from.

Awaiting reply detection

When you send an email and are waiting for someone to respond, your assistant adds the “awaiting reply” label. When they reply, the label is automatically removed. This helps you track conversations that need follow-up.

What’s never labeled or archived

Your assistant will never label or archive:

Emails from Town system addresses (@town.com)
Emails you’ve starred or marked as important

When a draft needs your input

If something is missing from a draft — a preference, a confirmation, a detail your assistant couldn’t determine — it leaves a placeholder for you to fill in before sending:


[YOUR PREFERENCE: what time works best?]
[CONFIRM: is this date correct?]
[ADD: project details here]
[DECISION NEEDED: option A or B?]

Placeholders are only used to fill small specific gaps in an otherwise-useful draft. If the entire reply would just be your decision (a yes/no, an RSVP), your assistant skips the draft instead.

What still needs your approval

By default your assistant prepares work for you to review before anything leaves your account:

Reply drafts stay in your inbox until you review and send them.
Calendar events wait for your approval before they are booked or moved — unless you turn on Finalize calendar events without asking under Allow calendar event creation, in which case confirmed meetings are finalized automatically (invites go out without an approval step).

Drafts may appear like sent email. Certain email clients, like Apple Mail, render a draft in the thread as though it were an already-sent email. Learn more.

Adjusting your settings

Go to Routines in the sidebar
Click on Auto-inbox
Edit your labels, reply settings, and scheduling options

Meeting preferences, protected times, and buffers now live in your global scheduling preferences (shared by everything that schedules on your behalf), not in Auto-inbox settings — just tell your assistant your scheduling preferences and it will save them for you.