Request preview access to ACS Email inbound (EmailInboundReceived event)

Sandun Ranaweera 0

We're building a transactional email workflow on our ACS resource

XXXXXX-communication-service (region: United States).

We're using ACS Email for outbound (verified domains: XXXXXXXXXXXX)

and would like to enable the preview "Email Inbound Received" feature so we

can receive replies via Event Grid (Microsoft.Communication.EmailInboundReceived).

Currently this event type is not exposed in the Event Grid Subscription wizard

on our resource — only EmailDeliveryReportReceived and

EmailEngagementTrackingReportReceived are listed.

Please enable preview access for:

Subscription: <paste your Azure subscription id>
Resource:XXXXXXXXce (resource group: <paste rg>)
Domain receiving inbound: rXXXy.XXXXla.com

Use case: customer/carrier replies to broker emails need to thread back into

our TMS app. Without inbound events we have to fall back to an IMAP poller,

which adds complexity we'd prefer to avoid.

Thanks.
edited PII info

Praneeth Maddali 12,670 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-18T23:02:28.7533333+00:00
Hi @Sandun Ranaweera

Thanks for the detailed explanation I completely understand what you're trying to achieve. Capturing customer and carrier replies via Event Grid and threading them into your TMS workflow makes perfect sense, especially to avoid complex polling.

Current Capabilities Azure Communication Services Email currently supports outbound email scenarios along with delivery and engagement tracking. The only email-related events available today in Event Grid are:

Microsoft.Communication.EmailDeliveryReportReceived

Microsoft.Communication.EmailEngagementTrackingReportReceived

Regarding Inbound Email (EmailInboundReceived) Inbound email processing and the EmailInboundReceived event are not available in the general release of ACS Email. ACS does not currently receive or process incoming emails natively, which is why the inbound event doesn't appear in your Event Grid subscriptions.

Immediate Workaround (Recommended for now) Set up a mailbox (e.g., Exchange Online or any standard mailbox) on and process incoming replies using:

IMAP or Microsoft Graph API

Triggered via Azure Functions or Logic Apps

This lets you reliably capture replies and integrate them into your application logic using standard email headers (Message-ID, In-Reply-To, References).

Raise feature request / feedback If inbound email handling is important for your workflow, I recommend submitting feedback directly to the product team here: https://feedback.azure.com/d365community/
Submit Azure Communication Services feedback

This helps Microsoft understand your use case and prioritize future enhancements.

Reference :

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/communication-services/concepts/email/email-overview

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/event-grid/communication-services-email-events

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/communication-services/quickstarts/email/handle-email-events

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Praneeth Maddali 12,670 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-19T19:04:39.66+00:00

Hi @Sandun Ranaweera

Just following up to see if your issue has been resolved or if you had a chance to review my earlier comment?
Alex Burlachenko 25,285 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-20T09:16:23.2733333+00:00
Sandun Ranaweera hi, and yeah right now this is not something u can enable yourself from the Event Grid wizard. inbound email event is not public in ACS yet, u need preview allowlist or use Exchange/IMAP workaround.

Public ACS Email events are still delivery + engagement only, and Microsoft docs list EmailDeliveryReportReceived and EmailEngagementTrackingReportReceived, not EmailInboundReceived. So if Microsoft.Communication.EmailInboundReceived is not showing, thats expected unless ur subscription/resource has private preview allowlist enabled.

For now the correct path is to open Azure Support Ticket under Azure Communication Services > Email and request private preview / allowlist for inbound email events. Include subscription ID, ACS resource name, domain, region, business use case, and ask specifically for Microsoft.Communication.EmailInboundReceived enablement.

If support says it is not available for ur tenant, then fallback is still Exchange Online shared mailbox + Graph change notifications, or IMAP polling. Not as clean, but supported today.

rgds,

Alex

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