Replying to a message by email

When someone messages you, we send you an email so you don't miss it. You can reply to that email directly — no need to open the site at all.

How it works

Open the email we sent. Press Reply in your email program. Type your reply at the top, as you would with any other email, and send it. Your reply goes straight back into the conversation on the site, and the other person sees it in their inbox.

Where in the email to type

Type at the top — your usual reply position. We detect and trim the quoted older message automatically, so you don't have to do anything special; just don't paste your reply down inside the quoted text.

What works in an email reply

Plain text and emojis work well. Attachments don't come through — if you reply by email with a photo or PDF attached, the text of your reply lands in the conversation but the attachment is dropped. To send a file, open the site instead.

Formatting (bold, italic, links) is preserved on a best-effort basis but doesn't always survive an email round-trip, so for nicely formatted replies, open the site instead.

When to open the site instead

If your reply is long, includes lots of formatting, or you're sending a photo or document, opening the site is faster. The link in the email takes you straight to the conversation.

Reply from the same address

Reply from the address the email was sent to. If you forward the email to a different address and reply from there, we won't be able to match it to your account and the reply will be dropped. Auto-replies and out-of-office messages are also dropped on purpose — they'd otherwise spam the conversation.

If you've left the conversation, replies by email are rejected. Open the site to see what's going on.

What if my reply doesn't appear?

It usually arrives within a minute or two. If it doesn't show up after five minutes, open the site and try sending it from there. If that fails too, contact support.

Replying to a comment notification

You can reply to comment notification emails the same way — your reply becomes a new comment on the post.