The Inbox: reading, labelling and answering replies
How Vecta finds replies, reading the whole answer, labels, answering from Vecta in the same thread, blocking someone, and what to do when something is missing.
Inbox holds everyone who answered one of your campaigns, newest first: a list on the left, the open reply on the right. A number on the Inbox link shows how many you haven't opened.
How replies arrive
Replies land in your own mailbox. Every minute Vecta reads the mailbox's inbox over IMAP and matches each incoming message to the email it answers. The match is exact and uses the message's own reply headers, never the subject line, so a stranger writing "Re: Hello" is not counted.
Needs IMAP
Without the IMAP details on the mailbox (Mailboxes, the mailbox, reply tracking), Vecta can't see replies at all. That also means follow-ups can't be used with that mailbox.
The filters
| Filter | Shows |
|---|---|
| To answer | Real replies you haven't labelled or answered yet. Work it down to zero. |
| All replies | Every real reply. Out-of-office answers are left out. |
| Interested, Not now, Not interested, Wrong person | Replies with that label. |
| Auto-replies | Out-of-office and other automatic answers. |
Labels
Click a label to sort a reply: Interested, Not now, Not interested, Wrong person or Out of office. Click it again to clear it. Labels are for you: they never change who gets emails. Anyone who replied has already left that campaign's follow-ups.
Answering from Vecta
Write in Answer and press Send answer. It goes from the same mailbox the campaign used, with "Re:" and the thread headers, so it lands in the same conversation on their side. Your mailbox signature is added and their message is quoted underneath, the way mail programs do. Your answer shows under their reply, and the reply is marked Answered.
Your Sent folder
Answers go out through your mailbox's SMTP, like campaign emails, so most providers don't copy them into your Sent folder. They are kept in Vecta under the reply. Their next answer arrives back here as usual.
Stopping someone
If they ask not to hear from you, press Don't email this person again. They go on Do not email, so no campaign, follow-up or answer reaches them. Lift it from Contacts › Do not email if they change their mind.
Example
Ana writes "Sounds good, can we talk Thursday?". Open To answer, label her Interested, write "Thursday 10:00 works, here's the link" and Send answer. She gets it in the same thread, and her Atlas card already shows her reply.
If something looks wrong
- Only a few lines show: replies that arrived before 27 Oct 2026 kept only their first lines. Everything newer keeps the whole answer.
- "The text couldn't be read here": the reply was found but its body couldn't be read, for example it was only an image. Open it in your mailbox. The reply still counts.
- Send answer is greyed out: the person unsubscribed or was deleted. Answering is blocked so a "please stop" is respected.
- "This address is on Do not email": you or a teammate blocked it. Lift the block first if they asked you to write.
- The answer failed to send: the message under the box says why, usually the mailbox's password changed. Fix it under Mailboxes and send again; nothing was sent.
- A reply is missing: it may be in a different mailbox, or came as a new email instead of a reply, or the mailbox's inbox check is failing. Look for an error on the Mailboxes page.
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Related articles
Follow-up emails that stop when someone replies
How follow-ups are timed, who they go to, what takes someone out of the chain, and why they need reply tracking.
Out-of-office replies
How automatic replies are recognised, why they don't stop a sequence, and how they delay the next email.
A signature for each mailbox
Paste your HTML signature once and every email from that mailbox ends with it, in every campaign and every answer.