Although SendBoard has a handy text editor for typing out emails, you can also send emails by adding a Trello comment that starts with the @reply or @email keywords.
This is useful in a few scenarios:
Send quick replies without opening the editor
If you just need to send a quick reply, it might be overkill to open up the email thread and use the editor to type out an email. Why not just type out a quick reply as Trello comment?Send emails using the Trello iOS or Android apps
3rd party Power-Ups like SendBoard are not currently supported in Trello’s native apps. However, Trello’s apps do support the ability to add comments. With the @reply and @email keywords, you can now send an email simply by typing a comment.Use Trello Automation for email automation in Trello
Trello Automation is a powerful utility for automation in Trello. One of the things that Trello Automation can do is automatically add a comment to a card based on triggers or rules. Since you can now send an email by adding a comment, this means that you can configure Trello Automation rules to automatically send emails when an event occurs.
The ability to send emails via a Trello comment is only available on certain SendBoard plans. See our plans and pricing here.
@reply - Reply to an email with a comment
If you add a comment that starts with @reply, your comment text will be sent as an email reply to all of the contacts on the thread.
You’ll notice in the above example, that after saving the comment "@reply Sure! ", SendBoard picked up that the comment had been posted and automatically sent out an email to the contact on the thread using the text from the comment. Any previous correspondence on the thread will also be included in the reply.
@email - Send a new email with a comment
In a similar way to the @reply keyword above, you can send out a new email using the @email keyword. The main difference to @reply is that @email will send out a fresh new email with the ability to set the email recipients and subject. Any previous correspondence on the card will be excluded from the email you send.
You can use the @email keyword on any Trello card, even if there is no previous email activity, and the card isn’t a “SendBoard card”.
Set the recipient of the email
To send a new email to any email address, just include the email address on the first line of your comment.
@email jane@example.com Hello there, ....
You can include multiple email addresses, separated by spaces or commas.
@email jane@example.com bob@example.com Hello there, ....
If there is already email correspondence on the card/contact assigned to the card, you can send an email to the primary contact using the @contact keyword.
@email @contactHello there, ....
To email all of the recipients of the last email on the card, use the @all keyword
@email @all Hello everyone, ....
To include cc/bcc address, use the cc: and bcc: prefixes. e.g.
@email @contact bcc:bob@example.com@email jane@example.com cc:bob@example.com
You can combine all of the above in various ways. e.g.
@email @contact cc:jane@example.com bcc:bob@example.com@email @contact,info@example.com cc:jane@example.com cc:bob@example.com
Set the subject of the email
You can specify the subject of your email by adding text between square brackets on the first line of the comment.
@email @contact [This is the email subject] Hello there, ....
If no subject is specified, the card name will be used as the email subject.
*This does not work with @reply. With @reply the subject of the email you are responding to will remain the subject. In other words, you cannot change the subject when using @reply. The subject can however be changed when responding manually from the email editor.
*It is not possible to set or change the subject on the auto-reply.
Send a Saved Reply using @email or @reply
You can send out an entire email by including the keyword for a saved reply in your @reply or @email comments.
@email jane@example.com [Welcome!] ##welcome
This comment would send out the Saved Reply with the keyword “welcome”. Any variables in the Saved Reply will be automatically expanded.
Use Variables and Custom fields with @email or @reply
Just like with other SendBoard emails, you can include variables and Trello Custom Fields in your @reply or @email comments. The variables will be replaced with their respective values when the email is sent.
@email {%email-address%} [About your order ({%order_number%})] Hello...
Use Trello Automation with @email or @reply
If you haven’t used Trello Automation before, we think it is worth checking out. Trello Automation lets you set up rules to perform actions in Trello, automatically.
@email and @reply are especially useful when combined with Trello Automation for email automation and powerful workflows. Automate sending emails by setting up Trello Automation rules to post Trello comments that start with the @reply or @email keywords.
Here is an example rule that will send out the saved reply with keyword "shipped" to the contact on the card as soon as the card is dragged into the "Shipped" list. The value of the "Order Number" custom field will be inserted into the subject of the email.
Opt-out of being added to the card when using @reply/@email
As explained above, emails can be automated by setting up Trello Automation rules to post Trello comments starting with the @reply/@email keyword. When the SendBoard bot posts the comment to the card, the user who created the command is automatically added as a member to the card. However, you might not want to be added to every card when an automated email is sent.
By adding the -me switch on the first line (before any line breaks) of the command, the user who created the automation rule will not be automatically added and will not watch the card.
For example: when a card is moved into list "Shipped", post comment "@email @contact -me [Order {%Order_Number%} shipped] ##shipped"
Note that the -me switch only applies to Trello automation and does not apply when manually posting a comment using @reply/@email or when sending an email from the email editor.