6 ms·

Fastmail reminded me when I forgot an attachment

37 points by prirun 5y ago

I'm switching to Fastmail, and today when I tried to send an email, I got a popup window saying "It looks like you might have forgotten to include the attachment, because you wrote 'Attached is' but there is no attachment". And it was right! Wow, what a great feature! I can't even say how many times I have forgotten attachments and had to send a follow-up email.

delgaudm 5y ago
Cool. Right? Gmail and Zoho mail do this too. Not sure about others.
jason2323 5y ago
Its awesome to see folks get excited about simple features!
- slowmovintarget 5y ago
  It's funny how that works. Before there was The Web, I was porting a POS system to Windows 95 from Windows 3.11. This was a big deal, going from 16 to 32 bits! OK, not really a gigantic deal. More addressable memory was great. But there was a monkey wrench that we didn't catch until the evening we were to ship the new version (as in put it on an installers hard drive for installing on site). The POS software had to run a receipt printer, send text to a tower display, and pop a cash drawer for change. Each of these used to work by sending interrupts directly to the ports. Interrupt... Ka-ching, cash drawer popped. Interrupt + ASCII... {flash} and total displayed on LED Interrupt + ASCII... receipt prints out I dug through Win32 manuals to figure out the new system-wrapped way to do this. Win32 wrapped the port interrupts in an API, no more direct sends to the ports without a handshake to the OS. But I figured out the drawer and tower... no problems. But receipt printing! Interrupt + line of text + line feed... new line, text, new line, new line What?!? Windows was opening the port, causing a line feed, sending the text with my line feed, then sending another line feed and closing the port. A fifteen item receipt that once took three inches of receipt paper, now took two feet. It was 6pm the night before install... I wrestled with it into the wee hours, and managed to get Windows to leave the in between alone so that receipts printed properly. Except for the first time. The first time the software printed during an executable session, you got the clown-receipt. It was 2am... I couldn't figure out how to fix this last item. So I coded in a welcome message. When the user logged in to the POS system for the first time, it would print out "Good morning {user}" or "Good afternoon {user}." This buried the problem of the extra lines, hiding it behind this small bit of odd behavior. All the rest of the receipts for the session would print properly. It was 3am... I'm shipping it. Sent... Delivered. Customers remarked "heh... that's new." A few months went by and I finally got around to fixing that bug. So I removed that little greeting work-around. The complaints were immediate, consistent, and pronounced. "Why doesn't it say 'good morning' to me any more? I liked that! Put that back." My boss got a good laugh at that. We put the feature back in with a setting, on by default. Users can be delighted by small touches.
codegeek 5y ago
Gmail web app has it for a while :)
- geocrasher 5y ago
  Really? I looked, and mine does not, and I don't see where to enable it. I believe you of course, I just can't replicate. Edit: Fixed. Toggled experimental features on, then off again, and it now works. ¯\(º_o)/¯
brnt 5y ago
Thunderbird also has for years. Come to think of it, which clients don't?
- randomhodler84 5y ago
  It’s literally been a thing for decades. Eudora had this feature in the 90s. I’d be suspect of any mail client that doesn’t.
- wodow 5y ago
  I believe Apple's Mail.app doesn't without some third-party tooling. Suggestive: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/229472/macmail-forgotten-attachents-reminder https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/229472/macmail-for... (five years old)
- geocrasher 5y ago
  Gmail. Gmail doesn't have it. And as somebody who used Thunderbird since the early 00's, it was a disappointment when I moved to using gmail.com instead of IMAP/Tbird. But, the move solved other problems for me, so ¯\(º_o)/¯ Still wish Gmail had it, though. EDIT: See below. It was an issue unique to my account
  - MattJ100 5y ago
    Actually it does have this feature, and has done for many years. Many clients have it now, but Gmail was where I first encountered it. I don't know if it was the pioneer. Here's a blog post by someone digging into how it works: https://www.labnol.org/internet/gmail-attachment-reminder/31959/ https://www.labnol.org/internet/gmail-attachment-reminder/31...
    - geocrasher 5y ago
      Indeed I've seen other comments in this thread that indicate the same. I tested sending an email with the word "attachment" in it, with no attachment, and Gmail didn't have any problem sending it. I tested it with my work email on Google Workspace, and it showed the popup. It must be a setting. Weird. EDIT: After toggling experimental features on, then off again, it now works. ¯\(º_o)/¯
jacob019 5y ago
Fastmail is fantastic, so glad to be off gmail. I've been enjoying the masked email feature. There really isn't much competition in this space, fastmail get's it right: clean, simple, fast. I wish I could self host something comparable, but open source webmail doesn't come close, especially for search.
- theandrewbailey 5y ago
  When I signed up for Fastmail, I decided to use my own domain. Having a wildcard inbox is awesome. For any random account, I make up an email address on the spot.
  - jacob019 5y ago
    I do that too, but the masked emails are more disposable.
- mcint 5y ago
  The CEO, Bron Gondwana, is a core contributor to Cyrus IMAP, and is working to standardize JMAP (jmap.io) for broader use, through IETF, as well. I pay for fastmail, but saying this all again makes me want to sponsor this guy too. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=brongondwana https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=brongondwana
oxymoran 5y ago
Outlook does this too
chanandler_bong 5y ago
Surprised nobody is commenting about the fact that [service] is effectively reading your email and parsing it for keywords. What else are they parsing for?
- mwint 5y ago
  Probably implemented in client side JS, which somehow makes this far less creepy to me.
- rbinv 5y ago
  It's probably checked on the client.
- tirpen 5y ago
  The next thing you know they will be looking at the CC and REPLY-TO headers! When will it stop?! Irony aside, I don't think this is any worse than for instance a text editor detecting programming languages by, yes, parsing the content in order to provide a useful function to the user.
- Saris 5y ago
  The service also has to read your email to send/receive, and needs to parse the to: field at least to figure out where to send to. If you're worried about that I don't email is a good choice for you.
miki123211 5y ago
Thunderbird does this too. It's especially ironic when you're telling somebody that they forgot the attachment, and Thunderbird detects the word "attachment" in your email and pops up that warning.
nzach 5y ago
Yesterday I was trying to setup a webdav client and in the process tried to use my master password. Strangely the connection was refused and it left me slightly confused about how to properly configure it. Shortly I received an email saying something along the lines: "We blocked a login attempt via webdav using your master password. If you want to use this feature this is how you do it properly." I couldn't be a happier customer.
ss108 5y ago
Gmail, ProtonMail, and Outlook all do this.
temp_praneshp 5y ago
Fastmail is great, but this is not a reason. Gmail had this >10 years ago, and Thunderbird too.
- prirun 5y ago
  OP here. I've been on Gmail for around 13 years and it has never reminded me of this. So I just now ran a test, sent a mail that said "attached is a copy of your letter.", and Gmail sent it without comment. But, when I enable the Javascript/Standard interface, it did remind me. I use the "Basic HTML" interface and never switched to the JS/Standard interface so I never saw the reminder. I tried the Standard interface recently and really don't care for it much, though I concede it has more features, like being able to select all messages in a mailbox. I had to use that to get all my Inbox mail moved the the Archive folder on Gmail when I migrated to Fastmail.
bravenous 5y ago
Implies they scan your email. Creepy. So no difference if it is FastMail, Gmail, Proton. Irony is they all pitch privacy, except from themselves.
- diroussel 5y ago
  How can you be surprised that a web email front end is able to do .indexOf() on your text? It’s not creepy, it’s user friendly.
greggturkington 5y ago
slenk 5y ago
Gmail has had this for quite a while...

37 points by prirun 5y ago

delgaudm 5y ago

Cool. Right? Gmail and Zoho mail do this too. Not sure about others.

jason2323 5y ago

Its awesome to see folks get excited about simple features!

slowmovintarget 5y ago
It's funny how that works. Before there was The Web, I was porting a POS system to Windows 95 from Windows 3.11. This was a big deal, going from 16 to 32 bits! OK, not really a gigantic deal. More addressable memory was great. But there was a monkey wrench that we didn't catch until the evening we were to ship the new version (as in put it on an installers hard drive for installing on site). The POS software had to run a receipt printer, send text to a tower display, and pop a cash drawer for change. Each of these used to work by sending interrupts directly to the ports. Interrupt... Ka-ching, cash drawer popped. Interrupt + ASCII... {flash} and total displayed on LED Interrupt + ASCII... receipt prints out I dug through Win32 manuals to figure out the new system-wrapped way to do this. Win32 wrapped the port interrupts in an API, no more direct sends to the ports without a handshake to the OS. But I figured out the drawer and tower... no problems. But receipt printing! Interrupt + line of text + line feed... new line, text, new line, new line What?!? Windows was opening the port, causing a line feed, sending the text with my line feed, then sending another line feed and closing the port. A fifteen item receipt that once took three inches of receipt paper, now took two feet. It was 6pm the night before install... I wrestled with it into the wee hours, and managed to get Windows to leave the in between alone so that receipts printed properly. Except for the first time. The first time the software printed during an executable session, you got the clown-receipt. It was 2am... I couldn't figure out how to fix this last item. So I coded in a welcome message. When the user logged in to the POS system for the first time, it would print out "Good morning {user}" or "Good afternoon {user}." This buried the problem of the extra lines, hiding it behind this small bit of odd behavior. All the rest of the receipts for the session would print properly. It was 3am... I'm shipping it. Sent... Delivered. Customers remarked "heh... that's new." A few months went by and I finally got around to fixing that bug. So I removed that little greeting work-around. The complaints were immediate, consistent, and pronounced. "Why doesn't it say 'good morning' to me any more? I liked that! Put that back." My boss got a good laugh at that. We put the feature back in with a setting, on by default. Users can be delighted by small touches.

codegeek 5y ago

Gmail web app has it for a while :)

geocrasher 5y ago
Really? I looked, and mine does not, and I don't see where to enable it. I believe you of course, I just can't replicate. Edit: Fixed. Toggled experimental features on, then off again, and it now works. ¯\(º_o)/¯

brnt 5y ago

Thunderbird also has for years. Come to think of it, which clients don't?

randomhodler84 5y ago
It’s literally been a thing for decades. Eudora had this feature in the 90s. I’d be suspect of any mail client that doesn’t.
wodow 5y ago
I believe Apple's Mail.app doesn't without some third-party tooling. Suggestive: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/229472/macmail-forgotten-attachents-reminder https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/229472/macmail-for... (five years old)
geocrasher 5y ago
Gmail. Gmail doesn't have it. And as somebody who used Thunderbird since the early 00's, it was a disappointment when I moved to using gmail.com instead of IMAP/Tbird. But, the move solved other problems for me, so ¯\(º_o)/¯ Still wish Gmail had it, though. EDIT: See below. It was an issue unique to my account
- MattJ100 5y ago
  Actually it does have this feature, and has done for many years. Many clients have it now, but Gmail was where I first encountered it. I don't know if it was the pioneer. Here's a blog post by someone digging into how it works: https://www.labnol.org/internet/gmail-attachment-reminder/31959/ https://www.labnol.org/internet/gmail-attachment-reminder/31...
  - geocrasher 5y ago
    Indeed I've seen other comments in this thread that indicate the same. I tested sending an email with the word "attachment" in it, with no attachment, and Gmail didn't have any problem sending it. I tested it with my work email on Google Workspace, and it showed the popup. It must be a setting. Weird. EDIT: After toggling experimental features on, then off again, it now works. ¯\(º_o)/¯

jacob019 5y ago

Fastmail is fantastic, so glad to be off gmail. I've been enjoying the masked email feature. There really isn't much competition in this space, fastmail get's it right: clean, simple, fast. I wish I could self host something comparable, but open source webmail doesn't come close, especially for search.

theandrewbailey 5y ago
When I signed up for Fastmail, I decided to use my own domain. Having a wildcard inbox is awesome. For any random account, I make up an email address on the spot.
- jacob019 5y ago
  I do that too, but the masked emails are more disposable.
mcint 5y ago
The CEO, Bron Gondwana, is a core contributor to Cyrus IMAP, and is working to standardize JMAP (jmap.io) for broader use, through IETF, as well. I pay for fastmail, but saying this all again makes me want to sponsor this guy too. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=brongondwana https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=brongondwana

oxymoran 5y ago

Outlook does this too

chanandler_bong 5y ago

Surprised nobody is commenting about the fact that [service] is effectively reading your email and parsing it for keywords. What else are they parsing for?

mwint 5y ago
Probably implemented in client side JS, which somehow makes this far less creepy to me.
rbinv 5y ago
It's probably checked on the client.
tirpen 5y ago
The next thing you know they will be looking at the CC and REPLY-TO headers! When will it stop?! Irony aside, I don't think this is any worse than for instance a text editor detecting programming languages by, yes, parsing the content in order to provide a useful function to the user.
Saris 5y ago
The service also has to read your email to send/receive, and needs to parse the to: field at least to figure out where to send to. If you're worried about that I don't email is a good choice for you.

miki123211 5y ago

Thunderbird does this too. It's especially ironic when you're telling somebody that they forgot the attachment, and Thunderbird detects the word "attachment" in your email and pops up that warning.

nzach 5y ago

Yesterday I was trying to setup a webdav client and in the process tried to use my master password. Strangely the connection was refused and it left me slightly confused about how to properly configure it. Shortly I received an email saying something along the lines: "We blocked a login attempt via webdav using your master password. If you want to use this feature this is how you do it properly." I couldn't be a happier customer.

ss108 5y ago

Gmail, ProtonMail, and Outlook all do this.

temp_praneshp 5y ago

Fastmail is great, but this is not a reason. Gmail had this >10 years ago, and Thunderbird too.

prirun 5y ago
OP here. I've been on Gmail for around 13 years and it has never reminded me of this. So I just now ran a test, sent a mail that said "attached is a copy of your letter.", and Gmail sent it without comment. But, when I enable the Javascript/Standard interface, it did remind me. I use the "Basic HTML" interface and never switched to the JS/Standard interface so I never saw the reminder. I tried the Standard interface recently and really don't care for it much, though I concede it has more features, like being able to select all messages in a mailbox. I had to use that to get all my Inbox mail moved the the Archive folder on Gmail when I migrated to Fastmail.

bravenous 5y ago

Implies they scan your email. Creepy. So no difference if it is FastMail, Gmail, Proton. Irony is they all pitch privacy, except from themselves.

diroussel 5y ago
How can you be surprised that a web email front end is able to do .indexOf() on your text? It’s not creepy, it’s user friendly.

greggturkington 5y ago

slenk 5y ago

Gmail has had this for quite a while...