# Getting started

> Get started with AY Inbox: connect a mailbox you own, warm it up, launch your first cold email campaign and answer every reply from one unified inbox.

Source: https://docs.ayinbox.com/guides/

AY Inbox sends cold email from mailboxes you own. It warms them up, spreads your campaigns across them, and brings every reply into one inbox.

The product tour [#the-product-tour]

The first time you open the dashboard, whether you signed up or joined a workspace by invitation, it opens on a tour of the whole product. It runs in chapters (mailboxes, campaigns, contacts, the inbox, analytics, the CRM, automations, [Aya](/guides/ai-assistant/) and [Slack](/guides/slack/)) and ends on the plans: what every plan includes, how they compare on daily sends, AI credits and isolated sending, and the plan cards to pick one. A workspace that already has a plan sees which one it is on, with the owner able to upgrade or switch from the same cards. On a self-hosted instance without billing every feature is already on, so the cards link to the hosted plans on ayinbox.com instead, next to a way to warm the instance's mailboxes in the hosted pool through [AY Inbox Cloud](/guides/ayinbox-cloud/). On a phone or a narrow window the chapters sit in a row along the top, and you can swipe between slides. Each slide highlights where that part lives in the top bar and shows it filled with sample data. Aya narrates along the way, and every slide carries a request you could give Aya instead of clicking through it yourself.

* **Skip tour** in the corner, **Skip the tour** under the chapter list, or `Escape` ends it at any slide. Skipping first shows the plans once, where the owner of a workspace without a plan can choose one straight from its card; skipping again, or **Maybe later**, closes the tour. The arrow keys move between slides, and any chapter in the list opens straight away.
* Finishing or skipping it is saved to your account, so it does not open again on another device. Replay it any time from your profile menu at the bottom of the sidebar: **Take the tour**.
* The tour changes nothing in your workspace. The data in it is made up.

After the tour, the dashboard opens on [Home](/guides/home/): today's sends, the latest replies, live activity and the mailboxes warming now. The workspace switcher and **Quick search** sit at the top of the sidebar.

Set up your workspace [#set-up-your-workspace]

<Steps>
  <Step>
    Connect your mailboxes [#connect-your-mailboxes]

    Open **Accounts** and choose **Add account**. Connect Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, or any host over SMTP and IMAP.

        <img alt="Add account: Google, Microsoft, any SMTP and IMAP host, a file import, or an inbox vendor" src={__img0} placeholder="blur" />

    [More about mailboxes](/guides/mailboxes/)
  </Step>

  <Step>
    Check your domains [#check-your-domains]

    **Sending domains** shows whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC are published for every domain you send from.

        <img alt="Sending domains: each domain with its mailboxes, authentication and tracking host" src={__img1} placeholder="blur" />

    [More about sending domains](/guides/sending-domains/)
  </Step>

  <Step>
    Turn on warmup [#turn-on-warmup]

    New mailboxes start with warmup off. Switch it on from the mailbox's **Warmup** tab. Warmup is part of every paid plan.

        <img alt="A mailbox's Warmup tab: participation, today's sends against the ramp target, pool standing and the ramp settings" src={__img2} placeholder="blur" />

    [More about warmup](/guides/warmup/)
  </Step>

  <Step>
    Send a campaign [#send-a-campaign]

    Open **Campaigns**, choose **New campaign**, write the emails, add contacts and pick the sending hours.

        <img alt="The Steps canvas: the first email, then follow-ups that reply in the same thread, each with its wait on the line" src={__img3} placeholder="blur" />

    [More about campaigns](/guides/campaigns/)
  </Step>

  <Step>
    Answer the replies [#answer-the-replies]

    Every reply, from every mailbox, lands in the **Inbox**. With [inbox tagging](/guides/inbox-tagging/) turned on, replies are also labelled by what the person wants.

        <img alt="The unibox: folders, mailboxes and labels on the left, the conversation list, and the open thread" src={__img4} placeholder="blur" />

    [More about the inbox](/guides/unibox/)
  </Step>
</Steps>

Next [#next]

<Cards>
  <Card title="Automations" href="/guides/automations/">
    Turn a reply or a booked meeting into a deal, a task or a Slack message.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Contacts and CRM" href="/guides/contacts-crm/">
    Contacts, deals, tasks and meetings in one place.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Deliverability" href="/guides/deliverability/">
    See where your mail lands and what to fix.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Analytics" href="/guides/analytics/">
    Sends, opens, replies and bounces over time.
  </Card>
</Cards>