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The tweetymail User Guide
Overview
To start using tweetymail, you must first sign in
and link at least one email address. Linking an email address tells tweetymail to associate that email
address with your Twitter identity. You can then use your linked email address to:
- Send emails to tweetymail in order to tweet and use Twitter
- Automatically receive emails containing tweets, mentions, or Twitter search results
- Receive detailed notifications for new followers and direct messages
See the email address reference to learn how you can use Twitter by sending emails to tweetymail.
See the scheduling instructions for details on how to schedule tweets and other actions from your email.
Send emails in order to tweet and use Twitter
You can send emails from your linked email address to any one of the "@tweetymail.com" email addresses and
tweetymail will interact with Twitter on your behalf. For example, you can send emails to
tweet@tweetymail.com to tweet,
message@tweetymail.com to send direct messages, or
latest@tweetymail.com to receive the latest tweets from the people you follow.
See the email address reference for a full list and explanation of the email
addresses supported by tweetymail.
FULL/MAX access only tweetymail allows you to schedule all of these actions too! For
example, you can schedule a tweet at exactly 3:35 pm or ask tweetymail to send you the latest tweets from your
friends after 20 minutes. Be sure to read the scheduling instructions for more details.
Automatically receive tweets, mentions, and Twitter search results by email
When you sign in to tweetymail, you have the option of creating one or more email alerts. There are four types
of email alerts supported:
- Mentions Alert - automatically receive an email when someone mentions you on Twitter
- Timeline Alert - automatically receive your Twitter timeline (can be filtered)
- List Alert - automatically receive new tweets from a specific list of Twitter users
- Search Alert - automatically receive new tweets that match a search
tweetymail constantly monitors for new tweets matching your alerts and automatically forwards the tweets to your email address. You can
set up each alert to wait for a specific number of tweets to accumulate before tweetymail sends you an email. In most cases,
you can expect to receive emails within a few minutes (and sometimes only a few seconds!) of tweets being posted on Twitter.
FULL/MAX access only When you receive an email alert from tweetymail, every tweet will have links to reply, retweet, or forward the tweet.
Selecting one of these links will automatically compose a new email to perform the action. You can optionally
edit the email first (for example, if you want to add a comment to a retweet) and then send.
Received detailed notifications for new followers and direct messages
FULL/MAX access only By default, Twitter sends you email notifications for new followers and direct messages.
You can replace these standard emails with much more detailed notifications from tweetymail. In order to do that, you have to update your
Twitter settings to use a personalized notification email address assigned to you by tweetymail. You can view your notification email
address along with setup instructions by signing in to your tweetymail account and viewing the "Notifications" tab.
The tweetymail notifications contain links that allow you to perform actions directly from the email (for example: reply
to the direct message). Selecting one of these links will automatically compose a new email to perform the action.
You can optionally edit the email first (for example, if you need to write a message) and then send.
Email address reference
Below is an explanation of the various "@tweetymail.com" email addresses.
Each email address performs a specific Twitter action on your behalf.
Depending on the action, the subject line and body of your email might have special meanings.
Here are some of the most common actions:
- Tweet by sending an email containing text, links, and/or pictures (see also tweeting links on an iPhone)
- Post tweets longer than 140 characters
- Receive an email with the latest tweets from your friends, a Twitter list, or from any other user on Twitter
- Send and reply to direct messages from your email
- Follow, block, or unfollow a user by simply sending an email
tweet@tweetymail.com
Posts a tweet by combining the subject line and body of your email. Also supports picture attachments.
Subject line
Optional. Text from the subject line is included in the tweet. If text is also specified in the email
body, the subject line and body are joined together with a space in between. URLs in the subject line
are never shortened.
Email body
Optional. Text from the body is included in the tweet. If text is also specified in the subject line,
the subject line and body are joined together with a space in between. URLs in the body are automatically
shortened unless they are escaped.
Attachments
Optional, with support for picture attachments only. Pictures must be less than 4MB each. A shortened link is
appended to the end of your tweet for each picture attached to your email.
Additional information
- You can post tweets longer than 140 characters by sending an email to post@tweetymail.com instead.
- If your tweet exceeds 140 characters (after all URLs are shortened), the tweet will fail and you will be notified by email. Your tweet will not be posted to Twitter.
- If you want to include a URL in the body of your email, but do not want the URL automatically shortened, you can enclose the URL in [ and ] brackets. The brackets will be stripped out and will not appear in your tweet.
post@tweetymail.com
FULL/MAX access onlyPosts a tweet of any length by combining the subject line and body of your email. This email address works exactly
like tweet@tweetymail.com except that it also supports tweets longer than 140 characters. If your tweet is less
than 140 characters, it will be posted to Twitter as usual. If your tweet exceeds 140 characters, the first portion
of your tweet will be posted to Twitter with a link to the remainder of your tweet.
Subject line
Optional. Text from the subject line is included in the tweet. If text is also specified in the email
body, the subject line and body are joined together with a space in between. URLs in the subject line
are never shortened.
Email body
Optional. Text from the body is included in the tweet. If text is also specified in the subject line,
the subject line and body are joined together with a space in between. URLs in the body are automatically
shortened unless they are escaped.
Attachments
Optional, with support for picture attachments only. Pictures must be less than 4MB each. A shortened link is
appended to the end of your tweet for each picture attached to your email.
Additional information
- If you want to include a URL in the body of your email, but do not want the URL automatically shortened, you can enclose the URL in [ and ] brackets. The brackets will be stripped out and will not appear in your tweet.
- A post is considered a tweet and counts towards towards the total number of tweets you are allowed to send per month.
latest@tweetymail.com
Sends an email to you with the latest tweets (also known as a timeline)
from the users you follow, a Twitter list, or from a specific user.
The subject line can be used to indicate a Twitter list or a specific user.
The email body can be used to indicate the number of tweets you would like to receive.
Subject line
Optional. If empty, provides the latest tweets from all of the users
you follow. Otherwise, must contain the name of a valid Twitter list
or Twitter user. For example, specifying
tweetymailApp in the subject line
will provide the most recent (highly insightful) tweets from the tweetymail Twitter account.
Specifying twitter/team, on the other hand, will provide
the most recent tweets from the users in Twitter's "team" list.
Email body
Optional. If empty, provides the tweets that are new since your previous request to
latest@tweetymail.com (FULL/MAX access users only), or simply a default of twenty tweets (FREE access users).
If specified, must contain a single integer value designating
the number of tweets to provide. For example, specifying 1
provides the single most recent tweet only.
Additional information
- FULL/MAX access onlytweetymail keeps track, on a per-subject-line basis, of which tweets you have already received from previous requests to latest@tweetymail.com. You can leave the body of your email empty in order to receive only the tweets that are new. This is an easy way to periodically "refresh your timeline" and keep up with new tweets.
- You can request up to 200 tweets (e.g. values 1 through 200 are valid in the email body).
- Tweets are listed in the response email based on the "Tweet ordering" setting in your tweetymail account. By default, tweets are listed in order from newest to oldest. You can change the setting so that tweets are listed in order from oldest to newest instead.
- Specifying a negative number will reverse the order of how tweets are listed in the response email (e.g. values -1 through -200 are also valid). For example, if your tweets are normally listed from newest to oldest, specifying a value of -10 will return the ten latest tweets in order from oldest to newest instead.
message@tweetymail.com
Sends a direct message to a user. The subject line must contain the the Twitter username of the user to message
and the email body must contain the contents of your message.
Subject line
Required. Must contain the Twitter username of the user to direct message.
Email body
Required. Must contain the contents of your message. URLs in the body are automatically shortened
unless they are escaped.
Additional information
- FULL/MAX access only Easily reply to a direct message by clicking the reply link in a direct message notification email. You must set up tweetymail email notifications to use this feature.
- If your message exceeds 140 characters (after all URLs are shortened), the message will fail and you will be notified by email. Your message will not be sent to the other user.
- If you want to include a URL in the body of your email, but do not want the URL automatically shortened, you can enclose the URL in [ and ] brackets. The brackets will be stripped out and will not appear in your message.
follow@tweetymail.com
Updates your Twitter account to start following a user. The subject line must contain the Twitter username of the user to follow.
Subject line
Required. Must contain the Twitter username of the user to follow. For example, specify
tweetymailApp and you will start following tweetymail on Twitter!
Email body
Ignored.
Additional information
FULL/MAX access only Easily follow a user who
starts following you by clicking the follow link in a new follower notification
email. You must set up tweetymail email notifications to use this feature.
block@tweetymail.com
Instructs Twitter to block a user from following you. The subject line must contain the Twitter username of the user to block.
Subject line
Required. Must contain the Twitter username of the user to block.
Email body
Ignored.
Additional information
FULL/MAX access only Easily block someone who starts
following you or sends you a direct message by clicking the block link in a notification email.
You must set up tweetymail email notifications to use this feature.
unfollow@tweetymail.com
Updates your Twitter account to stop following a user. The subject line must contain the Twitter username of the user to stop following.
Subject line
Required. Must contain the Twitter username of the user to stop following.
Email body
Ignored.
Additional information
FULL/MAX access only Easily unfollow someone who starts
following you or sends you a direct message by clicking the unfollow link in a notification email.
You must set up tweetymail email notifications to use this feature.
Scheduling instructions
FULL/MAX access only tweetymail allows you to schedule all of the actions described in the
email address reference above. To schedule an action you must include some special text
at the very beginning of the subject line of your email. This portion of the subject line will be interpreted as
a "schedule" and will be ignored when tweetymail processes the rest of your subject line. There are two types of schedules:
- Specific time - The subject line of your email must start with an equals sign followed by a specific time. For example: =3:35pm. The time can be in 12-hour format or 24-hour format. The action will be scheduled for the current day unless the specified time has already passed. If the specified time has already passed, the action will be scheduled for the next day.
- Delay - The subject line of your email must start with a plus sign followed by an amount of time. For example: +1h25m. You can specify hours, minutes, or both. You can delay an action for up to 2 days.
The scheduling feature has been tested extensively and is very reliable. However, there are few things to keep in mind:
- tweetymail will attempt to schedule all actions according to your local timezone. You must ensure that your email client is configured to the correct timezone.
- tweetymail cannot guarantee that your actions will always occur at exactly the time requested due to external factors beyond its control (e.g. Twitter).
- tweetymail currently does not provide a confirmation or a way to view/cancel scheduled actions. These capabilities will be available soon!
Here are some examples of subject lines containing valid schedules:
| Subject line | Resulting schedule |
|---|---|
| =3:35pm This is my subject line | 3:35pm your time |
| =15:35 This is my subject line | 3:35pm your time |
| =3:35 This is my subject line | 3:35am your time (in the morning!) |
| =6:45pm | 6:45pm your time (notice that the rest of the subject line can be empty) |
| +1h25m This is my subject line | 1 hour and 25 minutes from now |
| +30 This is my subject line | 30 minutes from now |
| +15m | 15 minutes from now (notice that the rest of the subject line can be empty) |
| +2h This is my subject line | 2 hours from now |