Swanly product guide

Product overview & key concepts

A quick tour of what Swanly is, how it's organised, and the vocabulary used across this guide.

What is Swanly?

Swanly is a complete, privacy-focused email and productivity suite. It has two faces:

• Webmail (mail.swanly.in) — the day-to-day app people live in: email, calendar, contacts, file drive, notes, video meetings, and email-marketing outreach. It is a fast single-page app that installs to your phone or desktop like a native app.
• Admin panel (admin.swanly.in) — where an organization signs up, sets up its domain, creates mailboxes, manages billing, and brands the experience.

Product map (webmail)

How mail flows

• Instant, then synced. Send, star, move, or delete — the change appears immediately. A background worker applies it to the mail server within ~60 seconds.
• Real-time updates. New mail and changes from other devices appear automatically via a live connection.
• Server-side rules. Filters and vacation auto-replies run on the mail server itself, so they work even when the app is closed.

Key concepts & glossary

• Mailbox — a single email account (e.g. you@yourcompany.com).
• User admin — an individual or business who manages their own domains and mailboxes.
• Identity — a "From" address you can send as. A mailbox can have several identities, each with its own signature.
• Folder — a mail container. System folders (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Scheduled, Archive, Junk, Trash) always exist.
• Thread — related messages grouped together (Gmail-style).
• Filter / rule — a server-side rule that automatically files, flags, or forwards mail.
• Segment — in Outreach, a list of recipients for a campaign.
• Credits / quota — pools you consume: storage, daily send limit, AI tokens, conferencing hours.
• BYOK — Bring Your Own Key: use your own AI provider key instead of the platform pool.
• PWA — Progressive Web App: the installable, app-like version of webmail.

What's fully shipped vs. partial

• OpenPGP — publishing a public key works today; full in-app encrypt/decrypt is on the roadmap.
• AI summarise-thread button in the mail viewer is a placeholder; AI compose-assist is live.
• Single-occurrence editing of recurring events — editing a repeating event currently updates the whole series.

Mail — reading & managing email

The Mail surface is your inbox and reading experience.

Inbox & message list

Each row shows the sender avatar and name, subject, date, one-line preview, an unread indicator, and icons for attachments or discussion comments. Click a row to open the thread. In Sent, Drafts, and Scheduled, the row shows the recipient instead.

Folders

A horizontal folder bar sits above the list. System folders — Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Scheduled, Archive, Junk, Trash — appear first, followed by custom folders alphabetically. Each tab shows an unread badge and total count.

Manage folders in Settings → Folders: create, rename, delete custom folders, hide them, or protect them behind a master password.

Filtering, sorting & pagination

• Filter: All, Unread, Starred, With attachments.
• Sort: Newest / Oldest, per-folder or per-page.
• Pagination: 30 messages per page with a sticky footer.

Search

A search bar scoped to the current folder (300ms debounce). Options include Subject, Sender, Recipient, and Body (full-text), a date range, and an All folders checkbox.

Reading a message

Opening a conversation shows all its messages oldest-first with a full header, Show details for envelope/auth/anti-spam info, and rich HTML body rendering. Attachments open Office docs in OnlyOffice, PDFs / images / audio / video inline, and download anything else.

Message actions

• Reply, Reply all, Forward
• Mark read/unread, star/unstar, mark as spam
• Move to folder, open in window, delete (or permanently delete from Trash)

Bulk selection

Select rows via the avatar checkbox; Shift+click selects a range. Choose Select all on page or Select all in folder. Bulk actions include mark read/unread, archive, move, mark as spam, and delete. Drag selected messages onto a folder tab to move them.

Discussions

Hold a private, chat-style discussion attached to an email thread. Post comments and attach files, manage participants and visibility, and see updates in real time.

Drafts & Scheduled folders

• Drafts — saved, unsent emails; click to reopen in a compose window.
• Scheduled — parked for future delivery; click to reschedule or edit.

Live updates & layout

Folder badges and the message list update silently as mail arrives or as you act on another device. Drag the divider between list and viewer on desktop (280–720px). On mobile the two become full-screen views.

Composing & sending email

A multi-window compose system with autosaving drafts, rich text, recipient autocomplete, scheduling, and optional AI assistance.

Opening a compose window

• New message — click Compose; a draggable, resizable window opens.
• Reply / Reply all / Forward — from the thread viewer.
• Reopen a draft — click a draft in Drafts (or Scheduled).

Open several compose windows at once — each can be dragged, resized, minimized, expanded to full screen, or closed. On mobile, compose is full screen.

Recipients

To is required. Cc and Bcc are hidden until you click their links. Separate addresses with commas or semicolons. Typing suggests matches from Contacts — navigate with arrows, accept with Enter/Tab.

Subject & body

Subject is plain text; replies auto-prefix "Re:", forwards "Fwd:". The body has two modes — HTML (rich editor) and Plain text.

Rich text editor

• Text: font family, size (10–48px), bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text and highlight colour, page background.
• Blocks: lists, blockquote, resizable tables, checklists, inline images, links.
• Undo/redo (Ctrl/Cmd+Z / Y).
• Phonetic transliteration for English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi.

Identities & signatures

Configure multiple "From" identities in Settings → Identities & Signatures. Signatures auto-append based on a mode: Always, Replies only, or Never.

Attachments

• 📎 Attach — upload local files (up to 50 MB per file).
• 📁 Drive — pick files from Drive; linked (not copied) to save storage.

Drafts: autosave & manual save

Autosave triggers ~60s after you start, then every ~20s. Closing the window saves a final time. 💾 Save saves immediately; Discard deletes.

Scheduled send

Click ⏰ Schedule to set a date/time. The message moves to Scheduled and a background worker delivers it at the chosen time.

AI compose assist

When AI is enabled (BYOK or platform-managed), click 🤖 AI, describe what you want, and the response is inserted at the top of the body above existing text, leaving your signature in place.

Sending

Click Send — validated for at least one recipient and non-empty body/subject. A placeholder appears in Sent immediately for instant feedback; the synced copy arrives within ~60s.

End-to-end encryption

Once encrypted mail is turned on in Settings → Password & Security, compose includes an Encrypt toggle. The body and attachments are encrypted in your browser before sending. Auto-encrypt flips it on whenever every recipient has a published key.

Calendar, Contacts & Video meetings

Calendar

Five views: Month, Week, Day, Agenda, and a mobile Mini view. Navigate with Previous/Next and Today.

Creating & editing events

• Title, Start / End, All-day toggle, Timezone (pinned zones + full IANA list)
• Calendar (which calendar owns the event), Category, Reminder (none, 5/10/15/30 min, 1h, 2h, 1 day)
• Location, Video meeting link (generate or paste), Description
• Repeat — Daily, Weekly, Weekdays, Monthly, Yearly
• Attendees with RSVP status (✓ / ✗ / ? / no response)

Invitations & RSVP

Attendees receive .ics invitations. When you're invited, the editor shows a Your response panel with Accept / Maybe / Decline.

Multiple calendars & sources

Calendars can be Local, CalDAV, Google, or an ICS subscription.

Contacts

Full address book with search across name, company, and email. Scope tabs: All, Favorites, Auto-collected, Birthdays, Possible duplicates.

Contact details

Each contact shows initials avatar, name/title/company, primary + extra emails and phones, birthday, address, LinkedIn/Twitter, notes, email stats, up to 8 recent messages, and a source badge.

Groups, favorites & duplicates

Create colour-coded groups; ⭐ contacts to pin them. The Possible duplicates scope matches on email/phone/name and lets you Merge.

Import / export

CSV import/export and per-contact vCard download. Auto-collection adds new senders automatically.

Video meetings

Meeting links are served from your own app domain, so meetings stay branded.

Hours & quota

• Free tier: 10 hours (600 minutes) per mailbox, non-expiring.
• Meetings are billed per minute; free hours are consumed before purchased hours.
• View balance in Settings → Conferencing.

Session history & transcripts

Up to 50 recent sessions with room, start time, and duration. In-meeting chat is archived per room and readable by you only.

Drive, Notes & Outreach

Drive (files)

A file workspace with folders, in-browser Office editing, granular sharing, and a storage quota.

• View modes: List, Grid, Gallery.
• Sidebar: My drive, Starred, Trash, plus a read-only Emails folder collecting attachments from received mail.
• Upload: drag-and-drop or + New → Upload files (100 MB per file).
• Create Folder, Document, Spreadsheet, or Presentation — new Office files open in the OnlyOffice editor.
• Rename inline, move by drag, download as ZIP, soft delete to Trash.

Sharing

• Access mode: Anyone with the link, or Restricted (password + allowed emails).
• Optional password, expiry, view count.
• Share URL copied to clipboard; delete the share to revoke instantly.

Storage quota

Sidebar widget shows used vs. total (orange at 80%, red at 95%). Default is 15 GB per mailbox, extendable with add-ons.

Notes

Quick, rich notes with labels, colours, reminders, pinning, and archiving.

• Sections: All, Pinned, Archived, plus Today / Upcoming / Overdue reminder buckets and Labels.
• Editor: WYSIWYG (bold, italic, lists, links, images/attachments) with autosave after ~600ms idle.
• Colours: 8 swatches. Labels: comma-separated tags.
• Reminders: date/time; overdue notes surface on Overdue and can trigger browser notifications.
• Send as email converts a note into a draft.

Outreach (email campaigns)

A full email-marketing suite for permission-based campaigns.

Campaigns

• Campaign list with status badges (Draft, Active, Paused, Completed, Cancelled), search, and a daily-quota widget.
• Create One-shot (single send) or Sequence (multi-step series).
• Builder: block-based editor (Text, Heading, Image, Divider, Button, Social, Signature); Desktop/Tablet/Mobile preview; merge variables like {{first_name}}.
• Send options: pick a segment, send rate (5–1000/hr), send window, schedule now or later.
• Toolbar: AI Assistant (subject suggestions), Send test, Preview, Save draft, Pause/Resume.

Analytics

Per-campaign dashboard: Recipients, Sent, Opened, Clicked, Replied, Unsubscribed, Bounced, Failed, plus a 14-day graph, top clicked links, and recent replies.

Segments

Create segments and add recipients by single entry, paste CSV, import from Contacts, or file upload. Email verification reports valid / invalid / unverified counts.

Templates & custom fields

Gallery of built-in and user templates. Define merge variables (Text/Number/Date/URL) for personalisation, populated via segment CSV uploads.

Suppression & compliance

A suppression list (Manual / Unsubscribed / Bounced / Complained) skips those addresses. Every email includes an unsubscribe footer; opens and clicks are tracked; bounces auto-suppress.

AI lead-generation tools

• Prospector — describe an ideal customer (or use filters) to build a list up to 500 and export to a segment.
• Hotlist — engaged recipients with AI-drafted follow-ups.
• Precision — AI cold outreach: define offer/benefits/pain/CTA; AI generates personalised subject + body per contact for review.
• Autopilot — recurring AI outreach on a schedule with optional approval gates.

Webhooks

Create webhooks to notify external systems on campaign events (opens/clicks/replies), with optional auto-import of responders into Contacts.

Settings, account, security & AI

Settings overview

Preferences

• Timezone — used for mail and event times.
• Inbox display — threaded view, sort order, messages per page (10–100, default 30), auto-refresh.
• Notifications — web push toggle.
• Privacy — block remote images by default, always show inline images, block embedded objects.
• Composer — autosave interval, reply quote style.

Filters (Sieve rules)

Server-side rules on incoming mail. Conditions on From / To / Cc / Subject / Body with contains / equals / matches (regex), combined with all or any. Actions: move to folder, flag, mark read, discard, redirect, or keep in Inbox.

Vacation / auto-reply

Toggle on/off; set a subject, message body, and optional start/end date window. Senders receive at most one auto-reply per week.

Email migration

Connect to a source IMAP server and test; auto-map source → target folders; optionally filter by date, cap message count, or delete from source after copying. Duplicates are skipped by Message-ID.

Backup & restore

Backup: pick folders (and an optional date range) and export to a .zip of .mbox files, saved to your Drive under /Backups/.

Restore: pick a source ZIP from Drive or upload one (up to 100 MB); tick which .mbox files to restore, choose a destination folder, optional date range, and skip duplicates.

Account, login & sessions

• Login — email + password, show/hide toggle, "Remember me for 30 days".
• Two-factor at login — 6-digit code, or switch to a recovery code.
• Forgot password — reset link valid 60 minutes.
• Reset password — minimum 10 characters.
• Active sessions — see device, IP, last activity; revoke any (except current) or all others.

Switching between accounts

Stay signed in to several mailboxes at once and switch instantly. Add another account from the switcher; each account is independent for unread counts, updates, and notifications. Sign out one or all.

The web app (install)

Swanly is a web app — nothing to download from an app store. Install it for a home-screen icon, standalone window, faster start-up, and notifications.

• Desktop (Chrome / Edge): address-bar install icon, or menu → Install.
• Safari (macOS): Share → Add to Dock.
• iPhone / iPad: Share → Add to Home Screen.
• Android (Chrome): menu → Install app.

After installing: long-press for quick links (Inbox, Compose, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Drive). Partial offline support for content you've already opened.

Notifications (web push)

Enable in Preferences → Notifications. New mail raises a notification with title and preview that deep-links to the thread. Requires Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari 16+.

Security & privacy

Two-factor authentication

• Authenticator app (TOTP) — scan a QR or enter the secret; you also get 10 one-time recovery codes.
• Email one-time code (OTP) — one-time code by email at sign-in.

End-to-end encryption

Turn on encrypted mail to generate a keypair protected by a passphrase; your public key is published so others can send you encrypted mail. Unlock for the session, test, and turn off again.

Privacy

Remote-image and embedded-object blocking. All connections over HTTPS.

AI assistant settings

• Status: Mailbox AI and Outreach AI each show Active / Not enabled.
• Source: BYOK (provide your own API key, verifiable with Test connection) or Platform Managed (admin allocates a token pool).
• Token balance — remaining / used / total with low-balance warnings.
• Usage — Today / This Week / This Month with per-feature breakdown.

Branding

Swanly's default identity: Swanly name, logo, and sky-blue palette. On an organisation with its own custom domain and branding, you may see that organisation's name, logo, colours, and support links across the login page, browser tab, PWA install, and UI accents.

Getting started — creating your account

Swanly has two kinds of account, each with its own sign-up path:

• Individual / business account — professional email on your own domain (called a user admin).

Path A — Individual / business sign-up

1. Register

Go to /register. Provide an email (used as login) and a password (minimum 9 characters, with 1 uppercase, 1 special character, and 2 digits). No plans to choose; no payment at this step.

2. Verify your email

A 6-digit code is emailed (valid 30 minutes). Enter it to confirm your address.

3. Start your free trial

You're logged straight in with a 14-day free trial including 1 mailbox (15 GB storage) — no card required.

4. Add your domain

From the dashboard, add the domain you want email on (e.g. yourcompany.com). Verify ownership and add the DNS records shown.

5. Create your mailboxes

Once verified, create mailboxes (e.g. you@yourcompany.com). During the trial you use your included mailbox; to add more, buy mailbox licences at checkout.

In short: register → verify by code → instant 14-day trial → add domain → create mailboxes → pay only when you need more.

Account requirements

• Password: minimum 9 characters, 1 uppercase, 1 special character, 2 digits.
• Email verification: 6-digit code (30-minute expiry).
• Real email only: disposable addresses are rejected.
• Domain ownership must be verified via DNS before mail can be sent or received.

User admin — managing your domains & mailboxes

You manage your own organisation: domains, mailboxes, aliases, add-ons, billing, and account.

Dashboard overview

• Totals for domains, mailboxes, available mailbox credits, and aliases.
• Mailboxes grouped by domain with storage, sending quota, expiry, and 2FA status.
• Recent orders (last few payments).

Domain management

• Add a domain — register it to your account.
• Verify ownership via DNS token.
• Add DNS records & verify — MX, SPF, DMARC, DKIM.
• Edit / deactivate / delete a domain.
• End-to-end encryption — toggle E2EE policy per domain.
• Allocate AI credits to specific mailboxes.

DNS records you'll add

DNS changes can take from minutes up to 24–48 hours to propagate.

Mailbox management

• Create a mailbox — name@yourdomain.com (uses one mailbox credit).
• Edit display name, description, alternate email, active status.
• Change password at any time.
• Save-to-Sent — control whether sent messages are stored.
• Delete a mailbox — frees a credit.
• Usage — real storage used and today's sending count vs. the daily limit. Defaults: 15 GB storage and 100 emails/day.
• Expiry — renewal date, with alerts within 30 days.
• Security policy — per-mailbox 2FA requirements and password policy.

Aliases & routing

Create aliases (e.g. sales@, info@) that deliver into an existing mailbox; edit which mailbox they point to; delete them.

Add-ons & upgrades

• Buy more mailboxes at checkout.
• Add storage in 15 GB blocks on top of the default.
• Increase sending limit in 100-email/day blocks.
• Renew mailboxes before expiry.
• Apply a coupon at checkout.

Default prices (direct Swanly accounts)

Prices can change and may vary by region; checkout always shows the current amount before you pay.

Billing & invoices

• Transaction history with order ID, amount, currency, status.
• Invoices — view and download PDF invoices.
• Review before paying — itemised costs before confirming.
• Saved billing info — name, business name, address, country/state, phone, GST number.

Profile & account

• Update your profile — name, business, phone, address, tax number.
• Change login password (complexity rules apply).
• Notification preferences for important account events.
• Compliance — review privacy, terms, and refund policy.

Your own branding (optional)

Personalise your own webmail: upload logo and favicon, set a primary colour, company name, a custom webmail URL (e.g. mail.yourcompany.com), and publish IMAP/SMTP addresses.

API keys & AI

• API keys — create, view, and revoke keys for programmatic access.
• AI settings — enable/disable AI features, verify your AI provider key, control who can use AI, view usage.