Sending email

Email in Brick goes out through your connected Gmail. If you have no connected Gmail, Brick shows Connect your Gmail to send email instead of the composer. If your Gmail is connected but cannot send, Brick shows Reconnect your Gmail to send email. Both dialogs offer Go to settings. Connect or reconnect it under Settings, then Email and calendar accounts.

Start an email#

On a contact record, click Compose email in the action row. The contact is already in the To line. A deal record has the same button and adds the deal's contacts.
In the Inbox, click Compose or press c. The arrow beside the button offers Email and Text message.
Inside an email conversation, click Reply or press Enter. A reply box opens under the thread. The last sender is in To, and everyone else on the thread is in Cc. Sending a reply closes the conversation. See Inbox.
On the Contacts page, select several rows. The bar that appears offers Send email, and the composer opens with Mass sending on. A list page's bar offers Remove from list only, so email a list's people from the Contacts page.
On a contact's hover card, click the envelope icon.

The composer#

From is your sending mailbox. Brick picks the one you used last on this computer.

To takes contacts only, up to 10 on one email. Click Add recipients, search, and tick people. A contact with several addresses gets the email at their first one. If the person is not a contact, click Create a contact at the bottom of the list. A recipient with no email address gets an amber panel under the field: type the address and Brick saves it to the contact.

Click Cc / Bcc to add plain addresses that are not contacts, up to 10 each. Press Enter or a comma after each one.

The body has a toolbar with Bold, Italic, Underline, Add link, Add image, Bulleted list and Numbered list. There are no font or colour controls.

Click the paperclip to attach up to 5 files, each under 10 MB: images, PDF, CSV or text files. Each file shows as a chip under the body with an x to remove it.

An email needs a subject, a body or an attachment. It does not need all three. An email with no subject goes out with no subject, and Gmail shows "(no subject)" to the reader.

Click Send email or press Cmd+Enter. The composer closes at once and a toast shows for about 10 seconds. Click Undo in the toast, or press Z while it shows, to get the email back in the composer.

If the email fails to send after that, it appears in the Outbox pane of the Inbox with the status Didn't send. Click Why? to read the reason, and Try again to send it again. If Brick lost the mailbox in between, reconnect it first.

The x in the header saves the email as a draft. The trash can is the only way to throw it away, and it asks Delete this email? first. The header also has a Full screen button.

Templates#

A template is a saved subject and body. Templates belong to your workspace, so everyone in it sees the same list.

To use one, click Templates in the toolbar, or click pick a template in the empty body. Type to search. Hover a row to preview it, and click it to fill the subject and body. If you already wrote something, Brick asks Replace what you've written? before it does.

The bottom of the picker has three rows:

Create template opens a blank template inside the composer. Give it a title, a subject and a body. It saves as you type. Click the arrow at the top left to go back to your email.
Save this email as a template keeps the subject and body you wrote. Name it and click Save template. Variables stay as variables. Brick does not save attachments or your signature with it.
Manage templates opens the Email Templates pane in a new tab.

The Email Templates pane sits in the Inbox's left column. Click New template to add one, click a card to edit it, or open the card's menu and click Delete template. Deleting removes the template for everyone in the workspace.

Variables#

A variable is a chip that Brick replaces with the recipient's own value when the email sends. Type { in the subject or body, or click Insert a variable in the toolbar. Pick a contact attribute such as First name, Email, Phone or Budget, including your custom attributes. Open Associated Deals to pick a deal attribute such as the deal's name, stage, amount or close date.

Click a chip to set its fallback: the text the reader sees when the contact has no value. The panel says Fallback for and the attribute's name. A chip with no fallback is yellow. A chip with a fallback is blue. When a contact has no value and the chip has no fallback, Brick sends nothing in that spot, so Hi {First name}, becomes Hi ,. Set a fallback such as "there" on greetings. A subject that empties out this way is refused: Brick says Subject is empty and asks you to add fallback text.

Deal variables fill from the deal you opened the composer from. From a contact, they fill from that contact's only deal. A contact on several deals gets the fallback instead.

When an email contains a variable, the send button reads Review. Click it and Brick shows the email as the reader gets it, with every variable filled. Click Back to editor to change it, or Send email to send. Cmd+Enter follows the button, so it never sends an email you have not reviewed.

One email to several people cannot use variables, because a shared message has one body. You can still insert one, but Brick refuses the send and says why. Turn on Mass sending or keep one recipient.

Send later#

Click the clock beside Send email. Pick Tomorrow morning, Tomorrow afternoon, Monday morning or Pick date & time. On a Sunday there is no Monday morning, because tomorrow is Monday. The button changes to Schedule send, or Schedule send (N) with Mass sending on.

A scheduled email waits in the Outbox pane of the Inbox. Click its Scheduled badge to move the time, or open the row and click Send Now or Cancel send. You cannot edit the words after you schedule it. To change them, cancel the send and compose again.

Brick does not keep a chosen time on a draft. If you close a scheduled email without sending, pick the time again when you resume it.

Drafts#

Brick saves what you write about a second and a half after you stop typing. If it cannot save, it says Couldn't save this draft. Check your connection. Closing the composer shows Email saved to Drafts with two buttons: View draft and Delete.

Your drafts sit in the Drafts pane of the Inbox. Click one to resume it, or click its trash can to delete it. Brick asks Delete this draft? first.

Brick does not save a reply in a conversation. Click Discard to throw it away, or send it.

Email many contacts at once#

Turn on Mass sending in the composer's toolbar. It is already on when you open the composer from a selection of more than one contact on the Contacts page. A selection of more than 50 is cut to the first 50, and a note under the To line says how many were left out.

Each person gets their own copy, with the variables filled from their record. Nobody sees the other recipients.
The To line collapses to Sending individual emails to N recipients. Cc and Bcc are hidden, and a mass send does not use them.
The button reads Send emails (N). With variables, Review shows one copy at a time, and arrows step through the recipients.
You can send to up to 50 people at once. You cannot turn Mass sending off with more than 10 people in To. Brick asks you to remove some or keep it on.
Each copy carries an unsubscribe link. Brick lists anyone who unsubscribed, and any address that bounced mail Brick itself sent, under the To line before you send, and leaves them out of the count. If that leaves nobody, Brick refuses the send and says so.

Copies go out about 10 seconds apart. A mailbox sends up to 200 emails in any 24 hours. Anything past that waits in the Outbox and goes out as the earliest sends fall out of that window. While a queue is going out, a line at the bottom of the composer says so and links to View outbox.

Signature#

Your signature shows under the body while you write, and Brick adds it when the email sends. Click the pen in the toolbar to add or remove it for this one email. To change the signature itself, see Email signature.

What Brick does not do#

Brick does not track opens or clicks on the email you send.
There is no forward button in a conversation. To send someone a message you received, compose a fresh email.
A reply in a conversation cannot carry attachments. To send a file, use Compose email.