E-MAIL - E-MAIL USE - 11.10.2019

The right time for e-mailing

Scheduled sending

There are situations when you will want to prepare a message in advance and have it delivered later. For example, an important message for your employees, a newsletter for your customers or even sending birthday greetings in advance.

The method for scheduling e-mails is different in each mail app. In Outlook , this option is somewhat hidden. In the window where you compose a new message, click on the arrow at the bottom in the Tags menu group. Then tick the Do not deliver before option under the Delivery Options section and enter the desired delivery time. Outlook will then place the message in your Outbox and send it at the time you’ve set. If you change your mind afterwards, you can still open the message in the Outbox and adjust the delivery options, e.g. choose a different time, or send directly. Outlook.com and the mobile Outlook app unfortunately don’t have such an e-mail scheduling option.

Gmail was recently updated with a mail-scheduling option. Click on the arrow next to the Send button and then on Schedule Send . All messages with a scheduled sending date are brought together under the Scheduled label. Select a message here if you want to change the settings. By clicking on the Cancel Send option in the upper right corner, you can send the message directly, delete it or schedule a new sending date. E-mail scheduling is also available in the Android and iOS Gmail apps ( https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9214606 ).

The standard Mail app on iOS and MacOS does not allow scheduled sending, but you can use an alternative app such as Spark ( https://sparkmailapp.com ).

Receive

You may sometimes receive messages to which you cannot reply straightaway because you’re too busy at that moment. If you want to process these e-mails at a later time and do not want to lose sight of them, you can snooze them for a while. They will then appear again in your mailbox at the moment you’ve chosen.

Not all mail apps come with such a snooze function, however. For example, the desktop version of Outlook does not have one, but you can resolve this by setting a reminder for a message (right-click on the message, choose Follow Up ; Add Reminder ). Outlook will then create a task for the message, and you will receive a notification at the right time.

Conversely, the mobile Outlook app can snooze messages. This option, which is somewhat confusingly called Schedule here, can be linked to a swipe ( https://www.lifewire.com/postpone-email-outlook-ios-1170626 ). The Outlook.com web app has also been equipped with a snooze function in the recent update, although it’s not yet active for all users ( https://bit.ly/2L60apy ).

If you hold the mouse pointer over a message in Gmail, you will see a clock on the right which lets you set the desired snooze time. If you’ve already opened the message, you will find this clock icon at the top. In the mobile Gmail app, the snooze function is located in the More menu at the top (see https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7622010 ).