Plussing people in

and some etiquette

It seems everybody around here likes to copy more and more (and more) people in emails as the reply chains get longer.

But did you know you can do it in style - and if everybody did it in style, we would probably get less email?

Plussing and mentioning in Gmail

A little-known feature is "plussing people in". It goes like this:

Write plus + or at @, followed by somebody's name.
Select your contact's name from the dropdown. Bonus points if you use the arrow keys and the tab key to confirm!

That's it.

This will insert the persons' full display name and link it in the email. Additionally, it will add the person to the email's to field - unless the person was copied (or part of to/bcc) before.

Plussing in all over G Suite

Editors: +holger, @holger will mention me in a comment and assign tasks. I'll get email (and the task done, eventually)
Google+: +holger, @holger will mention me in your post, notifying me
Chat: @holger will send me a high-priority notification. If I'm not in your chat room, this adds me to your room
Gmail: +holger, @holger will call me out and add me to the recipients, if I'm not copied already

Etiquette of plussing in people

I've seen many people (including Googlers) use the + to add people to an email thread. I like that, because it's transparent to others (you're not sneaking somebody in) and because it makes a statement. It's usually done at the top of emails.

This is also a way of introducing people to the conversation, as if they'd join your conversation personally.

This requires a bit of courage sometimes - which can be a good test if that person really needs to be cc'd.

I'm making a point of including somebody.

Etiquette of mentioning people

Note: @ and + technically are exactly the same thing.

Usually, people use the @ way to mention somebody who is already part of the conversion. This happens mostly in the body of the email.

Mentioning people this way can be understood as exposing people (or giving orders) in front of the whole crowd. Use good judgement.

Etiquette of mentioning people

Note: @ and + technically are exactly the same thing.

Usually, people use the @ way to mention somebody who is already part of the conversion. This happens mostly in the body of the email.

Mentioning people this way can be understood as exposing people (or giving orders) in front of the whole crowd. Use good judgement.

Etiquette of removing people

There's no command for removing people, so I usually do:

I write "-Person" in the beginning of the email, to make it clear I removed an important person
I drag-and-drop the person's address from "to" to "BCC".

This way, the person will still get my email, know that it was me who removed them and can still say "please keep me cc'd". But future replies will save that person time.

It may be uncomfortable to do this in the beginning, but people will thank you.

Saved the boss a ton of emails.

Applied nerdery

When you delete the mention, the person will be removed from the to field again if
The technical terms seem to be "mentioning". The @ sign is usually used, as every social media pro will tell you. + seems to have been a gimmicky invention from when Google+ was launched.
Gmail recognizes this link as special. You can't change it and you can't abbreviate it, to only use somebody's first name for example.

Wow, I managed to make a blog post out of two characters. But hey - these features are subtle and can make email fun, right? Thank you for reading!

#gmailPublished 2019-08-07 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2019-08-08 by Holger Matthies.Written listening to BT - A song across wires

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