Jira Service Desk, can I respond to external emails without using licenses?

[Chrisjir Parkin]

The web page listed below seems to support the idea that Jira Service Desk can ingest and respond to external emails without using up licensed seats either in SD or Jira.  But I have not been able to find a way to configure this native capability.  The goal is to do all of the following without using up Jira licenses:

User can send email to Service Desk to open/create an issue.
Service Desk acknowledges and sends the Issue's URL to the user's external email address.
User can Reply to Jira's email and the user's email will be added as a comment.
Any public Comments on that Service Desk issue will be sent to the user's email address.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/are-anonymous-or-unlicensed-users-able-to-use-jira-service-desk-432801251.html

[Chrisjir Parkin · Accepted solution]

The answer to my question is "yes".

In Jira Service Desk, one can change Customer Permissions to allow non-Jira users to raise requests via email and via a web portal.

• Project Settings > Customer permissions > Set "Who can raise requests?" to "Anyone can email the service desk or raise a request in the portal"

Sadly, there is no option to have one permission level for emails and another for the web portal.  This causes security concerns at my institution because email can be filtered before reaching the Jira intake, but isolating the web portal is more difficult.  That aside, one can first allow "Customers who have an account on this Jira site" and then add more Customers <manually>.  Not great, but better than "the world" until this feature can be tamed.  Note:

• The person raising an issue via email/portal is a Customer not a licensed user.
• When the Issue is raised, Jira notifies the Customer via email.
• If the Customer replies to Jira's email, the reply is added as a Comment to the Jira ticket.
• Any Jira Comment marked "Share with Customer" is sent to the Customer via email.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Customer accounts are unlimited and do not cost anything.

See https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-desk-cloud/docs/receive-requests-from-an-email-address/

[Chrisjir Parkin]

Thanks @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- .  I see that your link is for Jira Service Desk Cloud documentation.  I don't seem to be able to find similar material for my Jira Server instance.  May I rely on Cloud documentation for Server, too?  Thanks for your quick response!  -Chris

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ah, I wasn't sure.  There's a "server" link at the top right which drops down a list of all the versions of JSD Server so you can get the right one (although the functions haven't changed a lot)