To make it quicker and easier to follow a conversation, replies are grouped with the original message. This lets you see all related messages together in a single thread, rather than having them scattered throughout your mailbox.
When conversations are enabled, the number listed at the bottom of your message list will reflect the number of conversations in the folder you're viewing, rather than counting each individual message.
- Replying in a conversation
- Conversations split into new threads
- Muting a conversation
- Memos
- Deleting a conversation across folders
- Deleting an individual message
- Turn off conversation grouping
Replying in a conversation
By default, when you respond to a message in a conversation, your response is sent to everyone included in the email. You can change this in your settings by following these steps:
- Open Settings → Signature & Compose.
- Click the Compose options tab.
- Scroll down to the When replying section.
- Under Default reply to, change Everyone in the conversation to Just the sender.
If you are viewing a conversation and you only want to respond to an individual sender, click the Actions button and select Reply to sender.
Conversations split into new threads
Conversations get split apart and form new conversation threads when:
- The subject changes. This usually means a new topic is being discussed, so a new conversation thread is formed.
- A conversation gets too large. When there are are more than 100 messages in a conversation, a new conversation thread is made.
Muting a conversation
If you're not interested in reading new messages in a conversation, you can mute the conversation by clicking the More button in the top toolbar and selecting Mute replies. Any further replies to the conversation will go straight to your archive, and will not show a notification.
Conversation grouping must be enabled for the mute option to appear.
For further information on muting, please see our Mute conversations help page.
Memos
Use memos to add private notes to your email conversations. Memos are only visible to you and will not be sent to anyone else in the conversation.
You can add a memo by clicking the sticky note icon at the top of a message (next to the pin icon), then typing in the yellow box. The memo will save automatically. You can edit a memo by returning to the message and clicking the yellow box.
The memo will be visible on the message itself, as well as on the conversation in your message list.
Fastmail search can find keywords in memos. If you want to search for a keyword in a memo, you can use memo:. If you want to locate messages that have memos, you can use has:memo.
If you use a third-party mail client, any memos created in the Fastmail web interface will be available in your mail client. The memo will be shown in the conversation as a message with no recipients.
Conversation grouping must be enabled for the memo icon to appear.
Memos cannot be added to shared messages in a multi-user account.
Deleting a conversation across folders
By default, deleting a conversation deletes all of the messages in that conversation across all folders, not just the message you see in the mailbox. This includes messages in your Sent folder that are part of the conversation.
If you'd prefer to only delete messages from the currently selected folder, go to your Settings → Display options screen. In the Mail section, deselect the Delete grouped messages from all folders option.
Deleting an individual message
You can delete a single message from a conversation by opening the conversation, clicking the Actions button in the header of the individual message you wish to delete, then clicking Delete.
Turn off conversation grouping
If you'd prefer to see all of your messages separately, you can turn off conversations. Each message will be treated independently.
- Open the Settings → Display options screen.
- In the Mail section, select the option to Show every message separately.