Gmail Gets "Canned Responses"

Aha, here's a Gmail Labs option that we don't need to joke about. The last one, Mail Goggles (we don't know about anyone else, but we keep typing Mail Googles) we felt was worthy of an April Fool's Day launch. But this one could be pretty useful.


It's called "Canned Responses." To access it, go into your Settings, then Labs, and scroll down a little until you see the above, and enable it.


Once enabled, as you see above, you get a new option when composing email. You can save the email body you are currently typing as a "Canned Response," that can be selected when emailing someone.


Or, even better, you can create a filter that might send back a "Canned Response" to someone based on a set of parameters. We're assuming you might have played with Gmail's filter options (explained here, if you haven't).

Think of it as an advanced version of "auto-reply." Now most people (with the exception, perhaps, of some politicians) don't use webmail for work, but if you did, you could have a "Canned Response" that said "I'll start working on it" if your boss sends you an email.

Yes, we're sure there are more legitimate uses, and this is actually a pretty cool feature, particularly when coupled with Gmail's filter options.