If you’re planning to take some time off from work, it might be a good idea to set up a vacation responder: an automated reply that notifies anyone who emails you that you’re out of the office, and therefore out of the office. not checking emails regularly. (It’s also a good idea to let them know when you’ll be back in this email.) In Gmail, it’s easy to set up and you can choose start and end dates for auto-reply.
Although it’s called an autoresponder, you can customize it and use it for other things – for example, if you don’t check that email account very often or if you want people to reach you at a different address.
All the steps to follow are here.
How to set up your autoresponder on a computer
- Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen
- Click “See all settings” at the top of the Quick settings sidebar on the right
- Under the General tab, scroll down to Holiday responder
- Make sure “Autoresponder on” is selected
- Next to “First day,” enter the start date for the respondent. To set an end date, check the box next to “Last day” and enter the date in the field that appears next to it.
- You can add a subject line next to “Subject” for the respondent.
- Type your autoresponder message in the box under “Message”. You can format it just like you would a regular email.
- If you don’t want the responder to go out to everyone who emails you (for example, all people who spam you), you can check the box next to “Only send replies to people in my Contacts”.
- Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the menu
How to set up an autoresponder on a mobile device
- Open your Gmail app
- Tap the three bars in the upper left corner (in the search bar)
- Scroll down and select “Settings”
- Select the email account for which you want to set the responder
- Tap “Autoresponder”
- Open Vacation Responder. You can then set start and end dates, add a subject line, and write your message. You also have the option to turn on “Send to My Contacts Only”.
- Click “Save” in the upper right corner of the screen
Update July 13 at 10:12 pm ET: This article has been updated to include instructions for the Gmail app.
