What Happens When a New Email Arrives

Summary

Overview: When an email lands in your connected email inbox (Gmail or Zoho Mail), Pippify checks whether a real person wrote it, adds it to the right lead, scores the lead and lets Pippin reply. This guide explains each check and shows you where to see the result in the Inbox.

Prerequisites:

• Your email inbox (Gmail or Zoho Mail) is connected under Settings › Channels. See How to Connect Gmail or How to Connect Zoho Mail.
• Your workspace is on the free trial or an active plan. A read-only workspace gets no replies from Pippin.

How Pippin Decides

1. Is this mail one Pippify already has? Pippify skips emails it sent itself, and emails that belonged to a held lead someone on your team chose to Ignore.
2. Was it sent by software? Pippify drops bounces, auto-replies, bulk mail, mailing-list mail, newsletters and mail from no-reply addresses (such as no-reply@, noreply@, donotreply@, mailer-daemon@ and postmaster@). It also drops mail from any address or domain on your ignored-senders list. A domain entry also covers its subdomains. Dropped mail never appears in the Inbox.
3. Who wrote it, and is it about your business? Pippin judges whether the sender is a prospect, an existing customer, a colleague, a vendor or job applicant, a system, or someone writing to the wrong business. It compares the email with your business description, your knowledge and your team's email addresses.
   • If it is clearly a system message or a colleague, and it is not a reply in an existing lead's thread, the email is dropped.
   • If it is clearly a prospect or customer, it goes on to the next step.
   • If Pippin is not sure, it still creates the lead, but holds it. Pippin does not reply to a held lead until someone on your team decides.
   • If the check itself cannot run, the lead is held too, so Pippin never replies blind.
4. New lead or existing thread? A reply in a thread Pippify already knows goes to that lead. So does a reply (a subject starting with "Re:" or "Fwd:") from the same sender whose subject matches one of their emails on an open lead, even if their email program dropped the thread details. A new conversation creates a new lead. The new lead is assigned to the first active member of your team, and your team gets a "New lead: …" notification.
5. Pippin reads and scores the lead. It fills your lead attributes, the contact name and the company, then scores the lead against your lead-scoring criteria. A new lead moves to Qualified. See How Pippin Reads and Scores a Lead.
6. Pippin writes its reply. Before it states any fact, Pippin searches your knowledge. It then replies in the same email thread with "Re:" and the original subject, and signs off as Pippin with your business name.
7. Pippin stays silent and tells you why when:
   • the lead opted out (you get a notification instead, so a person can answer), is archived, or is marked won or lost;
   • someone on your team took over the conversation;
   • the same contact already got an automatic reply a moment ago (you get a "New message from …" notification so a person can answer);
   • your subscription is inactive, or no email account is connected;
   • the AI is unavailable. On a brand-new email Pippin may send a short acknowledgment instead, unless your automation level is Review every reply.
8. Your automation level decides what happens to the reply. With Review every reply, the reply waits in the Review Queue. With Supervised or Full auto, it sends straight away.

Limits

• Pippin replies to email on every plan and on the free trial. A read-only workspace (trial ended or subscription inactive) gets no replies.
• With Review every reply, every email reply waits for approval. It is not limited by plan.
• Quotes always wait for approval, at every automation level. Booking links wait unless the level is Full auto (Growth plan and up).
• On the free trial, once your trial reaches its outcome cap, Pippin keeps replying but stops drafting quotes and booking links. Settings › Billing shows your cap.
• A held lead gets no reply until someone chooses Real inquiry.
• An email that only has attachments is shown as "[Customer sent N attachment(s): …]" so the thread never shows an empty bubble.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Find the new email in the Inbox

1. Watch for the "New lead: …" notification, or open Inbox in the left menu.
2. Click the conversation to open it.

Step 2: Check who is handling the thread

The label at the top of the conversation, next to Pause AI or Resume AI, shows the normal states. A notice bar below the messages, above the reply box, shows everything else:

• AI is handling this thread: Pippin owns the conversation and has replied or will reply.
• Pippin drafted a reply and is waiting for your approval.: your level is Review every reply. Go to Step 4.
• A message that starts with "Pippin thinks…", "Pippin isn't sure…" or "Pippin couldn't check this email…": the lead is held. Go to Step 3.
• A message that starts with "No automatic reply was sent because…": Pippin did not reply. See Troubleshooting.
• You've taken over this thread: a person owns the conversation, so Pippin stays silent.

Step 3: Decide on a held lead

1. Read the email and the reason in the bar.
2. Click Real inquiry if a real prospect or customer wrote it. Pippin takes over and writes its first reply.
3. Or click Ignore. The bar warns This deletes the lead and its conversation.
   1. To stop future emails from this sender too, tick Also ignore future emails from (the sender's address).
   2. Click Confirm ignore, or Cancel to go back.

Step 4: Approve a drafted reply (Review every reply only)

1. In the bar, click Open Review Queue.
2. Find the card. It shows Customer wrote with the customer's message, and Pippin's reply under Pippin's draft beside it (below it on a narrow screen).
3. Click Approve & Send, Edit Before Sending (change the text, then click Approve & Send), or Reject.

Step 5: Take over or hand back

• Click Pause AI to take over. Sending your own reply from the Inbox also takes over.
• Click Resume AI to hand the thread back to Pippin.

Step 6 (Admin): Change what happens to Pippin's replies

1. Go to Settings › AI Studio and open the Guidance tab.
2. In Routing preferences, under Automation level, choose Review every reply, Supervised or Full auto. The choice saves as soon as you click it.

Verify It Worked

Success criteria:

• The new email shows in the Inbox as its own lead, or inside the existing lead's thread.
• The bar shows AI is handling this thread, and Pippin's reply appears in the thread.
• With Review every reply, the reply appears as a card in the Review Queue instead.

Troubleshooting

Common errors

• "No automatic reply was sent because no email account is connected.": no email inbox is connected. Fix: an Admin connects Gmail or Zoho Mail on the Email card under Settings › Channels.
• "No automatic reply was sent because the email inbox connection has expired or was revoked; reconnect it in Settings → Channels.": Google (for Gmail) or Zoho (for Zoho Mail) stopped accepting your email connection, so new emails also stop arriving. Fix: an Admin clicks Reconnect Gmail (or Reconnect Zoho Mail) on the Email card in Settings › Channels. Emails that arrived meanwhile are picked up after the reconnect. See How to Disconnect or Reconnect Gmail.
• "No automatic reply was sent because sending failed — check that your email account is still connected.": the send failed for another reason. Fix: reply by hand. If the Email card shows Reconnect needed, reconnect your email inbox.
• "No automatic reply was sent because this contact was already answered a moment ago.": the same sender wrote twice in quick succession and already got one automatic reply. Fix: reply by hand if the second email needs an answer.
• "No automatic reply was sent because the AI was temporarily unavailable.": Pippin could not write a reply at that moment. Fix: reply by hand, or wait for the customer's next message.
• "No automatic reply was sent because your Pippify subscription is inactive; reactivate it under Settings > Billing.": the workspace is read-only. Fix: an Admin reactivates the subscription under Settings › Billing.
• "No automatic reply was sent because this lead is marked won or lost.": Pippin does not reply to closed leads. Fix: reply by hand, or change the lead's stage.

Limitations & considerations

• An email you expected but cannot find was probably dropped as automated mail or by your ignored-senders list. Check your list in How to Stop Certain Senders From Becoming Leads.
• Pippify also re-checks your inbox regularly, so an email missed at first can still arrive a little later.

Next Steps & Related Resources

• Next steps:
  • How to Check a Lead Pippin Held for Review
  • How to Approve or Reject Items in the Review Queue
• Related articles:
  • How to Connect Gmail
  • How to Connect Zoho Mail
  • How to Stop Certain Senders From Becoming Leads
  • How Pippin Reads and Scores a Lead
  • When Pippin Hands a Conversation to a Person
  • Why Some Replies and Follow-Ups Wait for Approval
  • How to Choose Quotes or Meetings and the Automation Level
  • Why Didn't Pippin Reply to This Email?

Need more help? For more information and assistance, please send an email to support@pippify.ai.

Last Updated: 10/19/2026