Integrations4 min readBeta

Connecting Outlook

Connect an Outlook mailbox so your agents can read, draft, and send email through Microsoft 365.

Info

The Outlook integration is currently in Beta. Agents can read, draft, and reply to email in one mailbox, and can be started by new mail in it, on a schedule, or run manually. We welcome your feedback.

What This Integration Does

The Outlook integration connects one Outlook mailbox so your agents can search messages, read full conversations, draft replies, and send email — all in that mailbox. It's a company connection: one mailbox is shared by the agents you bind to it, the same shape as a company Gmail connection.

New mail in the mailbox can start an agent directly. Bounced messages and automatic replies (out-of-office, vacation) don't, unless the agent's trigger is set to include them — this keeps an agent from replying to its own bounces, or looping with another auto-replier.

Connecting Outlook

  1. Open Settings → Connectors and click the Outlook tile
  2. Click Connect — you're redirected to Microsoft to sign in
  3. Sign in with the Microsoft work or school account for the mailbox you want to connect. Personal Microsoft accounts aren't supported, and you'll be asked to pick an account if you're signed in to more than one
  4. Review the permissions and click Accept
  5. Symbi reads the mailbox address and takes you to a page listing it as the one discovered resource — there's no picker to choose among several, since one connection is exactly one mailbox
  6. Click Register selected to register the mailbox, or Skip to register it later from the same page

Your agents can be bound to the mailbox once it's registered.

Only an Owner or Admin can connect Outlook, since it creates a company-wide connection.

While the connection is active, reconnecting requires signing in to the same mailbox — signing in to a different one is refused. Disconnect first, then connect the new mailbox; agents follow the connection, so switching mailboxes is a deliberate step.

If Microsoft Asks for Admin Approval

Many organisations let only an administrator approve apps that read or send mail. If Microsoft shows "Need admin approval", go back to Symbi and click Need an admin to approve? on the Outlook card in Settings → Connectors (if Outlook is already connected, open Manage first). It gives you a link to send to your Microsoft 365 admin, and it is there even if you closed Microsoft's page or sent Microsoft's own approval request. You can also send them symbi.no/connect/microsoft/admin-approval yourself. Once they approve, connect Outlook again — you won't be asked for approval. What the admin sees and approves: Approving Symbi in Microsoft 365.

What Your Agent Can Do

Once connected, a company agent can:

  • Search Messages — search the mailbox, or list the latest Inbox messages
  • Get Message / Get Conversation — read a message or a full conversation by id
  • Send Reply — reply to the sender of a message, in its conversation — the primary response tool
  • Create Draft — save a reply or new-message draft without sending (opt-in)
  • Send New Email — send a new outbound message (opt-in)

Opt-in actions are off by default. Enable them per agent from the What it does section on the agent's page.

Replies and new email go through your agent's configured review setting before they send — the review card shows the address the reply resolves to.

Security and Scopes

Outlook sign-in uses Symbi's own Microsoft app — you don't need to register anything in your own Microsoft Entra tenant. The scopes requested are limited to the signed-in mailbox: reading and writing mail, and sending — never access to other mailboxes or the wider tenant. Tokens are encrypted and decrypted only when needed to call Microsoft Graph.

You can revoke access at any time from Settings in Symbi, or from your Microsoft account's app permissions.

What's Next?

  • Connect Microsoft 365 alongside Outlook for SharePoint document and workbook access
  • Configure Scheduled Triggers if you'd rather the agent check the mailbox on a schedule than start on new mail
  • Review replies and drafts in the Operation Center