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What your AI assistant does, how to use it, and where the limits are.
15 answers
EmailWhat gets flagged — and what gets left alone
What it is
While watching, your assistant judges each new email against your own world — your contacts, your calendar, your standing rules — and flags the ones that need your eye. Flags appear under the "Inbox" tab on the Email page — the AI-filtered inbox, and each one also puts a matching to-do on the desk's Tasks list. Urgent ones wear an "URGENT" tag. What gets flagged: - Mail written by a real person — a request, an introduction, news. The posture is generous: when in doubt, you see it. - Replies to mail you or your assistant sent — even when the answer arrives as a brand-new thread. - Anything your standing rules ask for. A rule naming a sender's address or their mail domain gets that sender a look even when Gmail files them under Promotions or Updates. What's left alone: - Machine mail — receipts, notifications, newsletters — unless it carries a real consequence for you. - Gmail's Spam and Trash: never read. - Gmail's Promotions, Social, Forums, and Updates tabs from senders you don't know. Your saved contacts and rule-named senders still get through. - Senders you've ignored: never read at all. - A stranger shouting "URGENT" earns nothing by itself — urgency is judged against your world, not obeyed.
Limits
- One flag per email thread. A new message on a thread you already handled flags again.
EmailCan my assistant have its own email address?
What it is
Yes. Your assistant can have a mailbox of her own — like a real assistant's — connected beside your Gmail. When someone emails her address and it needs an answer, she writes a reply herself. It waits under Drafts on the Email page, you get a phone notification, and you approve, edit, or discard it with a click. You're CC'd on what she sends.
How to do it
1. Create the address with your email provider (a Gmail or Google Workspace account for her). 2. In the left-side menu open your desk, then Desk Settings → AI Assistant → Email. Under "Mailboxes," connect it in the row named after your assistant. 3. Her inbox is watched from then on. Her replies appear under Drafts, marked with her name. 4. Paste her sign-off in the "signature" box on the same tab. 5. In chat or on a call, a new email you ask for goes from her mailbox by default, in her name, with you CC'd. Say "as me" for your own Gmail instead. A reply goes from the mailbox the email is in. By voice she reads it back and sends on your yes; in chat you click Send.
Limits
- Every email she writes needs your explicit okay — a click on Send, or your spoken yes after she reads it back. - One mailbox per assistant. - Deskcovered doesn't create the address yet — you make it with your email provider and connect it here.
EmailAsk about your email on a call
What it is
On a call with your assistant, your connected Gmail is in its reach: what needs your eye, an email by person or topic, and what a message says.
How to do it
1. Call your assistant and ask what needs your eye. It names the emails the watcher brought to you, the urgent ones first — the same list as the Inbox tab on the Email page. 2. Ask what came in lately, or for an email from a person or about a topic, and it searches your Gmail. 3. Ask what an email says or what the sender wants, and it gives you the gist and the asks in its own words. Ask to hear it read and it gives you the sender's exact words.
Limits
- Only the person who connected the mailbox can ask about it by phone. - It never reads an email address or a web link aloud; those are on your screen. - Replying by phone: say what to tell the sender and your assistant drafts it, reads it back whole, and asks "Okay to send?" — see "Send an email by voice". - If inbox watching is off, nothing has been sorted for you; a search by person or topic still works.
EmailConnect your Gmail
What it is
Each desk can connect one Gmail account. Once connected, your assistant can search it, read messages for you, prepare drafts, and watch the inbox.
How to do it
1. In the left-side menu, under "My Desk", click "Email". 2. If nothing is connected, the page says "No mailbox connected". Click "Connect Email". (The same button lives under Desk Settings → "AI Assistant" → "Email", under "Mailboxes".) 3. Google asks you to allow access. During beta, Google shows a "Google hasn't verified this app" screen — that's expected. Click "Advanced", then "Go to deskcovered.com (unsafe)", then allow the permissions. 4. You land back on the Email page with a "Gmail connected" note. If the connection drops later, the address shows "needs reconnecting" beside a "Reconnect Email" button — on the Email page and in the Email settings tab. Watching pauses until you reconnect.
By voice or chat
Nothing — connecting is your own click through Google.
Limits
- Only Gmail connects today. - One mailbox per desk. - The mailbox belongs to the person who connected it; teammates cannot search or read it.
EmailDisconnect your Gmail
What it is
Disconnecting removes Deskcovered's access to the mailbox.
How to do it
1. Open Desk Settings (the gear on the AI Assistant card) → "AI Assistant" → "Email". 2. Beside the connected address, click "Disconnect". What happens: access is revoked with Google and the saved access keys are deleted. Watching stops with it. You can also cut access from the other side, in your Google Account's security settings (myaccount.google.com/permissions). To pause only the watching and keep the connection, use the "Inbox watching" switch instead.
By voice or chat
Nothing — disconnecting is a click.
Limits
- Only the person who connected the mailbox, or an organization owner, can disconnect it. - A record that the address was connected (the address and its status) is kept for the security books, as the Privacy Policy describes.
EmailEmail reply signature
What it is
Your saved sign-off — it rides under every reply written from your desk, exactly as you paste it.
How to do it
1. On the Email page, click "Reply" on an email — your signature already sits at the bottom of the box, so you see the email exactly as it will send. Type above it. 2. To change it, click "Edit your signature" (or "Add your signature") right under the reply box. Desk Settings slides over; paste your sign-off, click "Save", and you're back at the reply with the new signature in place. 3. It also lives under Desk Settings → "AI Assistant" → "Email" → "Reply signature". Leave the box empty for none. "Polish" never adds its own closing on top — your signature carries the sign-off, so "Best," appears once.
Limits
- Only the person who connected the mailbox can set it. - Plain text only.
EmailHave your assistant search, read, draft, and send email
What it is
In chat, or by text, your assistant can search the connected Gmail, read a message and relay what it says, and prepare drafts — replies or fresh emails — into your own Gmail Drafts. The draft is shown to you whole; nothing sends until you say so.
How to do it
1. Ask — "find the email from the landlord", "what did she ask for?", "draft a reply saying Tuesday works." 2. The draft appears whole, then "Okay to send this to Dana?" Answer in your own words: a yes sends it; what to change rewrites it and shows it again; a no keeps it in Drafts. Ask who it goes to, or to see it again, and she answers. 3. In the app the draft is also a review card with "Send" and "Discard", and waits under "Drafts" on the Email page. 4. A held draft comes back up when you ask — "send the one to Dana after all."
Limits
- A reply goes from the mailbox the email is in. A new email goes from your assistant's own mailbox when one is connected, in her name with you CC'd; say "as me" for your own Gmail. - Sending is your explicit okay: your word in chat or by text after the draft is shown whole, a click on Send, or your spoken yes on a call. - Only the mailbox's connector can use these, and only their okay sends.
EmailSee and handle a flagged email
What it is
Flagged mail lands under the Email page's "Inbox" tab; Gmail keeps everything else. Unread is bold, read goes quiet; a lightning bolt before a name means urgent. The left-side menu's "Email" item counts unread. The assistant's own mailbox shares this Inbox; the "ALL MAIL" dropdown filters it.
How to do it
1. In the left-side menu, under "My Desk", click "Email", then "Inbox". 2. Click a row — opening it marks it read. A drawer shows a "Summary" and the message. A row's "⋮" marks read/unread or mutes the sender. When an email states a meeting, a "Suggested event" line sits under the Summary — "Add" puts it on the calendar, "Ignore" dismisses it (none for an event already there). Nothing lands without that click. 3. The drawer's bottom buttons: - "Reply": jot what to say and click "Polish", or type it yourself. "Send" sends; "Save draft" keeps it under Drafts. - "Reply all": shows only when others are on the email; it goes to everyone listed, you left out. - "Forward": type the address and a note — the original rides below, with its To and Cc. - "Ignore": clears and mutes this sender. Undo under Desk Settings → "Email" → "Ignored senders". A reply sent from Gmail marks the row read within 15 minutes.
By voice or chat
By phone, ask what needs your eye; she lists these, urgent first.
Limits
- Teammates see the rows; only the mailbox's connector opens the body.
EmailSend an email by voice
What it is
On a call, your assistant drafts a reply, or a new email to someone in your contacts, and sends it on your spoken okay after she reads it back whole.
How to do it
1. Say what to tell the sender — "reply to Dana that Tuesday at ten works." 2. She reads it back whole, names the signature, and asks "Okay to send this to Dana?" 3. Yes sends it. Say what to change and she rewrites it and reads it back. Ask who it goes to, or to hear it again; she answers. Anything else holds it in Drafts. 4. A waiting draft works the same way. 5. For a new email, name a person in your contacts — "email Dana that the slides are ready." The address comes from their card; two with one name, she asks. 6. Whose mailbox: a new email goes from your assistant's own mailbox when one is connected, in her name, you CC'd; say "as me" for your Gmail. A reply goes from the mailbox the email is in.
Limits
- Only the mailbox's connector approves by voice. - A send is a yes to a draft read back on this call. - No address by ear; no card means a typing job. - "Reply all" answers everyone on it. - Your yes is recorded: who, which call, when. - In chat or by text it works the same: the draft is shown whole; your typed yes sends it.
EmailSend email as your work address
What it is
Every email written from your desk can go out from the address people know — for example your company address — while your Gmail stays the one connected mailbox. The desk learns the addresses your Gmail account is set up to send as straight from your Gmail settings; nothing to type, and nothing has to be sent first.
How to do it
1. When you reply on the Email page, a "From" choice appears above the message whenever your account has more than one address. Pick one, like in Gmail. 2. To set the default for everything your assistant writes — by voice, in chat, or on the page — open your desk, then Desk Settings → AI Assistant → Email, and pick under "Send as." Save. 3. Missing an address? Add it in Gmail (Settings → Accounts → Send mail as) and verify it, then click Refresh on that card.
Limits
- Only verified addresses from your Gmail Send mail as list are offered; a pending one waits until Gmail verifies it. - Your assistant's own mailbox always sends as itself. - Reply all never sends to you at any of your addresses. - A second full mailbox is a later feature.
EmailTeach your assistant standing mail rules
What it is
Standing rules are your own words about what matters in your inbox — "Any email from a casting director should alert me." Your assistant reads them when judging every new email, and your rule outranks its defaults.
How to do it
Three ways into the same rule book: 1. In Desk Settings (the gear on the AI Assistant card) → "AI Assistant" → "Email", under "Standing rules": type the rule in "Add a rule…" and press "Save". The pencil edits a rule in place; the trash can deletes it. (The "Rules" button at the top of the Email page jumps here.) 2. In chat: tell your assistant the rule — "emails from casting directors are urgent." 3. By phone: say the same thing on a call with your assistant. However it arrives, the rule lands in the settings list, where you can edit or remove it. Rules apply to mail that arrives from then on. A rule that names a sender's address or mail domain does extra work: that sender's mail always gets a look, even when Gmail tabs it under Promotions or Updates.
By voice or chat
Both — a lasting instruction about kinds of email becomes a rule; a one-time ask or a question does not.
Limits
- Up to 25 rules, 200 characters each. - Only the person who connected the mailbox can add or change its rules — by any road.
EmailTurn inbox watching on or off
What it is
With watching on, your assistant checks the connected inbox for new mail about every 15 minutes and flags what needs your attention. Flags land on the desk's Email page and its task list.
How to do it
1. Open Desk Settings (the gear on the AI Assistant card) → "AI Assistant" → "Email". 2. Under "Inbox watching", click the switch. The line reads "Your assistant is watching this inbox" when it's on. 3. Click the switch again to stop. The checking stops. Watching starts from the moment you turn it on — older mail is never read, so switching it on over a full inbox is safe. On the Email page, the "Fetch" button at the top runs one check right now; the background check still runs every 15 minutes.
By voice or chat
Nothing — the switch is only yours to click. (What COUNTS as important can be taught by voice or chat — see standing mail rules.)
Limits
- Only the person who connected the mailbox can turn watching on or off. Everyone else sees the honest status. - If the Gmail connection needs a reconnect, watching pauses until it's reconnected.
EmailWrite a new email from the Email page
What it is
A fresh email, started on the Email page — on the desktop or in the app — and sent from your own Gmail. No thread needed, and no call to your assistant first.
How to do it
1. Open Email in the left-side menu, then click "New Email" at the top right (on the phone the button reads "New"). 2. In To, type a name from your contacts and pick it, or type an address. Each person becomes a chip; click its X to remove it. Cc and Bcc sit as links at the end of the To line. If your Gmail has more than one From address, pick it above the To line. Then a subject and your message. 3. Or jot what you want in the box and click "Polish": your assistant shapes it into the email, subject included. Change anything. 4. Click Send. Or click Save Draft to send it later from the Drafts tab.
Limits
- Only the person who connected the mailbox can write from it. - Your saved signature is added for you. - A saved new draft opens from the Drafts tab ready to edit: change anything, then Save or Send. No trip to Gmail. - Nothing sends until you click Send.
EmailWhat your assistant never does with your mail
What it is
The lines the email features never cross, whatever you ask of them.
Limits
- It never sends mail on its own. Every send is your explicit okay on a specific message — your word in chat or by text after it shows you the draft whole, a click on Send, or your spoken yes on a call after it reads the draft back word for word. No automatic replies. - It never drafts unasked. Drafts exist only when you ask for one — in chat, or with "Reply" on a flag. - It never reads Gmail's Spam or Trash. - It never reads your backlog. Watching starts at the moment you turn it on. - It doesn't call or text you about mail. Flags appear on the Email page and the Tasks list. - It doesn't keep your mail. Each flag keeps only its short summary, the sender, and the subject — never the body. The full text shows from Gmail when you open it. - An email can't talk its way up. A sender's words are reported material; "URGENT" from a stranger earns nothing. - Teammates can't read the mailbox. Searching, reading, drafting, and sending work only for the person who connected it — on the screens, in chat, and on a call. - By phone it reads only what you ask about, in summary; exact words only on request. It never reads an address or a link aloud. - Only Gmail connects today.
EmailNot yetDoes it work with Outlook or other email accounts?
What it is
Gmail only today. A desk can connect one Gmail inbox. Other email providers do not connect.
Limits
- No Outlook, Microsoft 365, Yahoo, or other providers today.