Action Step: Email

Email action steps can be used to create an email message pre-filled with recipients (to, cc, bcc) as well as subject and body content.  It can also send that message, either by opening an iOS Mail app message window or in the background through the SendMail messaging service.

Email action steps make it easy to create single tap "Email myself" actions, pre-addressed group emails, and actions that integrate with online services with email gateways, such as Evernote, IFTTT.com, Toodledo, OmniFocus MailDrop or others.

When configuring an email action step, the values that can be configured on are:

• To: A comma-delimited list of email addresses. This value is required for email actions which send in the background. Use the “+” button to select and email address from your contacts.
• CC: A comma-delimited list of email addresses. Use the “+” button to select and email address from your contacts.
• BCC: A comma-delimited list of email addresses. Use the “+” button to select and email address from your contacts.
• Subject: Subject of the email. The default "[[title]]" tag value uses the first line of the current draft as the subject, but this subject can be generated using any of Drafts many template tags.
• Body: Body of the email.  The default "[[body]]" tag uses everything but the first line of the draft. 
• Send as Markdown HTML: If ON, the draft will be passed through the Markdown engine and sent as HTML email. If OFF, the draft will be sent as plain text.
• Send in background: If OFF, a normal iOS email prompt window will appear before sending, pre-filled based on the action settings – you still have to tap “Send”, but also have the opportunity for further edits, your iOS configured email signature will be attached, and the email will come “From” your iOS configured email accounts. Leave this OFF if you are sending emails to which to expect to get replies. If ON, the action requires a single tap and the email will be sent in the background using web services. Background emails will come FROM “[e-mail]”. Background sending is intended primarily for email actions used to feed some service or workflow, not for direct messages to contacts.
• “From” Prefix: This is an optional value used only if “Send in Background” is ON. If included it will be prefixed to the from address, like “[prefix][e-mail]”. This is to allow easy identification for setting up rules/triggers based on different email actions. Also works great with IFTTT’s Gmail channel to setup multiple recipes based on different from addresses.

Note that the "From" address for foreground emails can not be configured due to limitations in the email interfaces provided by Apple.

Not sure what to do with custom email actions? We’ve also put together some information and links on using them to work with the following services:

• Evernote email interface
• Toodledo’s Email Integration
• Tumblr Email Publishing
• Remember the Milk Email Interface
• Typepad
• SquareSpace

Note: Background emails are sent via MailGun over secured SSL connections and are subject to their terms of services and privacy policies.