Mailbox
Where the mailbox looks, how to archive, delete, restore and mark mail read from the list or the keyboard, how your signature is added to the mail you send, and what happens at Gmail and Outlook.
The mailbox shows one location at a time: Inbox, Drafts, Archived or Deleted. The first tab of the bar names the location in force, with the inbox's unread count; click it to open the menu of the four locations. The location is part of the address (/emails?location=archived), so the browser's Back returns to the previous one and a link opens the same view.
Unread is not a location: it is a condition in the bar's Filters menu, beside With attachment, and it combines with any location and any category tab. While it is on, a chip under the bar reads Unread, and its cross lifts it.
Triage from the list
Hover a conversation: its category tag and date give way to its actions, on that row only.
- In the Inbox: the category's icon (it opens the category menu, see Correcting a category), Archive, Delete, Mark read or unread, Reply, Forward.
- In Archived: Restore (back to the inbox) and Delete.
- In Deleted: Restore.
- In Drafts: Delete, in the date's place.
Archiving, deleting or restoring says so in a toast for five seconds, with Undo, which moves the mail back where it was, and View, which opens the location it went to. Reading and marking unread happen silently. If the server refuses some of the mail, a second toast counts it ("2 not archived") and offers Retry; the rest stays where it went.
A deleted draft disappears at once and is deleted when its toast closes. Undo brings it back untouched; closing the tab within the five seconds still deletes it.
Several conversations at once
Point at a row's avatar to reveal its checkbox. Once one row is checked, every row shows its checkbox and the bar becomes the selection bar: "3 selected", Archive, Delete and Mark read in the inbox; Restore and Delete in Archived; Restore in Deleted. The gesture is one request whatever the count.
Keyboard
Outside a text field:
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
E | Archive |
# | Delete |
Shift + I | Mark read |
Shift + U | Mark unread |
G then I | Open the inbox |
G then D | Open the drafts |
G then A | Open Archived |
G then # | Open Deleted |
A key acts on the checked rows, otherwise on the focused row, otherwise on the open conversation. The location menu does not print these keys.
At Gmail and Outlook
Archive, delete, restore and read state are written to the mailbox itself, in one call per gesture: Gmail moves the conversation out of the inbox or into its trash, Outlook moves the messages to its Archive or Deleted Items folder. What you do in Gmail or Outlook comes back the same way. A shared mailbox has one state for every member: archiving there archives it for the whole team. A mail you also received in your own mailbox (sent to contact@ with you in copy) keeps your own state: a colleague archiving it in contact@ leaves it in your inbox, and opening it marks it read for you only. Filter the list on the shared account to read and triage contact@'s state instead.
Gmail and Outlook empty their trash after 30 days; the Deleted location says so. Standards never deletes mail permanently.
A mailbox connected before archiving reached Standards may lack the permission to change mail. Triage then stays in Standards, and a strip above the list reads "This Gmail mailbox is not synced: archiving stays in Standards." with Reconnect, which asks the provider for that permission once.
Gmail's write path needs a permission Google verifies per deployment, so it is off until the deployment turns it on (STANDARDS_GMAIL_MODIFY=1, see Configuration). Until then, authorizing sending on a Gmail mailbox asks to send only, triage on it stays in Standards with the same strip, and what you do in Gmail still comes back. Outlook mailboxes are written either way.
Recipients
In the composer, each recipient is a chip with its image and name: the contact's photo, else its company's logo, else its domain's, the same image the mailbox shows for a sender, and the initials when there is none. A recipient with no known name shows its address, and a named chip keeps the address on hover. When two recipients of a mail share a name, each chip adds its domain: Claire Martin (acme.fr). Suggestions show the image, then the name over the address. The meeting guests field works the same way.
Click a chip, or reach it with the arrow keys and press Enter, to select it and open its menu:
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open contact: opens the record the address matched; absent when no record you can see holds it | |
| Move to To, Move to Cc, Move to Bcc: the rows the chip is not in | ⇧C for Cc, ⇧B for Bcc |
| Edit address: the address goes back to the input; Enter puts the edited one in its place; Escape, or an emptied address, keeps the chip as it was | F2 |
| Copy address | ⌘C (Ctrl+C) |
| Cut: copies the address and removes the chip; if the browser refuses the copy, the chip stays | ⌘X (Ctrl+X) |
| Remove | ⌫ |
The shortcuts work while the chip is selected. A move takes the recipient out of its row and adds it to the other one in a single change, and never twice if it is already there. Moves are offered in the composer only; the meeting guests field and the member invitation offer the rest. While a mail is sending, the chips are frozen and open no menu.
When you move on to the subject or the body, the compose window folds its recipients into one line, "To: Claire Martin, [email protected] · Cc: Julie Lefèvre", each recipient by name, else by address. Click the line, or Tab onto it, to open the rows again. A new message opens on the To row; the reply bar keeps its rows open.
A chip also drags between To, Cc and Bcc, and within its row. From the keyboard, reach it with the arrow keys and press Space to lift it, then the arrow keys move it, Space drops it and Escape cancels; Enter opens its menu instead. While a chip is lifted, a hidden Cc or Bcc row opens as a drop zone. A drag and a menu move make the same single change.
Over the API, GET /emails/recipients/identities?addresses= answers the name and image of each address (comma-separated, at most 100), and each suggestion of GET /emails/recipients carries its image. An identity also carries contact: { recordId, objectName } when a record you can see holds the address: the first one the mailbox matches, the same record whose name the chip shows when the address never signed a mail. Without one, the key is absent.
Signatures
Each person has one signature per mailbox they send from, a shared mailbox included: on contact@, every member signs with their own. Write it from Settings › Integrations: the mailbox's ⋯ menu offers Signature, a small editor with bold, italic, underline, links and images. Nothing is saved until Save; Cancel forgets the edit. The composer's footer has the same Signature button, for the account the mail sends from.
Include replies, on by default, adds the signature to replies and forwards as well; a new mail is always signed. The signature is taken when the draft opens: a change applies to the next mail, not to drafts already open.
The signature shows under the body, as the recipient will read it, and is not edited there. Hover it for ×: it is removed from this mail only. An agent's draft carries your signature too; an agent never writes, changes or removes one.
Signatures are not imported from Gmail or Outlook: write yours once in Standards. An image in a signature is uploaded as a public file, the only kind of image a signature keeps.
Next steps
Read how email categories file your mail, or how agents and routines can read and draft mail for you.