What emails can your app send

Apps built on Playcode can send real email - password resets, order confirmations, receipts - without signing up for an email provider. Because every app sends through shared infrastructure, one rule applies: transactional mail only. Here is what that means in practice.

What Playcode Email is

When your app needs to send an email, it uses the platform's built-in email service. There is no provider account to create, no API key to paste in, no DNS to configure - sending works out of the box, and every message your app sends shows up in the Emails panel in the editor.

Playcode Email is send-only. It does not receive mail, and it does not host mailboxes for you or your users. If you expect replies, set a reply-to address on the messages your app sends - replies do not come back into Playcode.

What "transactional" means

A transactional email is a message triggered by one person's own action, sent to that person or to your own team about that action. Examples a builder will recognize:

• Password resets and sign-in links
• Order and booking confirmations
• Receipts and invoices
• A notification to your own inbox when someone submits your contact form

If your app would feel broken without the message, it is almost certainly transactional.

What you cannot send

• Marketing email and promotions
• Newsletters and digests
• Cold outreach
• Anything to a purchased, scraped, or imported address list

Here is the honest reason. Every Playcode app sends through shared infrastructure with one shared sending reputation, and transactional-only is a condition of our relationship with our email provider. Mailbox providers like Gmail score the sender, not the individual app - so one app sending marketing mail or spam hurts the delivery of every other customer's password resets. We keep the rule strict so that mail from your app keeps landing in inboxes.

If you want to run a newsletter or a marketing campaign, use a dedicated email marketing service alongside your app. Playcode Email is not built for that job.

Who your app can send to today

• Your team: project members can receive mail automatically, no setup.
• Up to 10 outside addresses per project. Add each one in Settings > Email; we send that person a confirmation link, and their click is what allows delivery.

A message to an address that has not been verified yet is held, not lost. It appears in the Emails panel with a Held status. Once the recipient verifies, you can deliver the held messages with one click - nothing sends without you.

Sending to your app's own users at scale - for example, password resets for everyone who signs up on your site - arrives with custom sending domains, which are planned. Until then, delivery is limited to the verified list.

What happens if something goes wrong

Sending pauses automatically when something looks off: a send loop, too many bounced addresses, or recipients marking mail as spam. A pause protects your own delivery and everyone else's, and it is reversible by you: messages sent while paused are stored, not lost, and once you have fixed the cause you can resume sending yourself in Settings > Email. No support ticket needed.

Marketing mail is the one case that goes further: a project that keeps sending marketing mail after being paused for it has Playcode Email switched off for its workspace.

Common questions

Where do I see the emails my app sends?

In the Emails panel in the editor. Every message appears there with its status, and when a message was not delivered, the reason is shown on the row.

What does Held mean?

The message is waiting on you: its recipient has not verified their address yet. It is stored safely. Verify the address in Settings > Email, then deliver the held messages with one click.

How does verification work?

Add the address in Settings > Email. We email that person a confirmation link; the link works once and expires after 24 hours. After they click it, your app can deliver to them.

Do free projects send email?

On the free plan, messages are captured into the Emails panel instead of being delivered, so you can build and test the whole flow and see exactly what would have been sent. Delivery is part of paid plans.

Need help?

Not sure whether the mail your app sends counts as transactional? Ask us through the chat button in the bottom right corner of any page - we would much rather answer up front than pause your sending later.