For a while now, I’ve been pining for a ‘Draft Response’ kind of module for Gmail, in which a draft would be created within an existing email conversation. To note, Zapier already has this and it works perfectly. This would be so useful for integrating AI to generate responses that’re 90% ready to send. Currently, the Gmail module can only generate a fresh draft - you would need to copy and paste the content into the desired conversation.
Anyway, I came across a reddit post whereby the user stubbled across the built-in Email module pretty much having this functionality already. The caveat I’ve found, however, is that it doesn’t seem to work from the first initial email. An initial response is needed to generate a conversation (or so it seems) before the ‘Create a Draft’ module (using ‘In-Reply-To’) can latch into the conversation. Otherwise, the first draft is made up, but not in the conversation.
To echo the reddit user, I found trying the HTTP OAuth 2.0 module path too complicated for my understanding and gave up on that avenue. This would be far simpler and easier to utilise.
My question is, can anyone think of a clever workaround / solution to being able to draft a response to that initial email?
Below is a very basic blueprint of how the scenario would essentially work. blueprint.json (12.4 KB)
If the Oauth aspect is the biggest challenge, look for @samliew’s responses to that…
One of them is here:
My question: what is not working from the reddit post? In-Reply-To means that there was an email to reply to. I’m trying to understand why you would want to have that in the first email of the thread. Normally, that only appears in the second email in a thread, i.e. a response.
I followed a similar step by step for the Oauth approach, but ultimately I couldn’t get it to work (I can’t remember exactly what the roadblock was, something to do with permissions or something). I didn’t follow this exact guide, so perhaps I could give it a go again. However I’m a bit demoralised after trying to get it to work for so long before.
Regarding your question. Perhaps I’m not being clear enough (this is why I added the blueprint so it can be tested independently).
Basically, from looking at the scenario execution after receiving an initial email, there is no data passed on in the ‘In-Reply-To’ field. Which I guess is why the subsequent draft doesn’t latch into the conversation.
It seems that data is only generated for the ‘In-Reply-To’ field once the email thread has a conversation already i.e. there is at least one response to the first email. Then there is visible data passed on in the ‘In-Reply-To’ field.
Example of what I would like to do (but can’t due to this drawback):
Customer A initial email:
Hi, I would like access to your online portfolio.
Drafted in-line response:
Hi A, certainly, you can create a login by visiting abc.com etc.
Does that make any more sense?
I’d include some screenshots, however I don’t have access to my desktop at the moment.
As said prior, I just wish Make supported this natively in the Gmail module like Zapier do.
So, from what I can tell, the first In-Reply-To references the Message ID.
You can see this by sending an email to your Gmail account and sending a reply.
Then, click on the three dots for each message in Gmail and choose “See original.” The very first line at the top shows the message ID.
If you look at the headers in the reply, you will see that the “In-Reply-To” Matches the Message-ID of the first message. That’s what you need. Then, whenever you create a reply, you should be using the Message ID of the email you’re responding to.
I haven’t had time to test it yet, but that’s the mechanics. I don’t think you can do this with the GMail module, but the email module should work.
You could make a suggestion to the Make team to add this.
If you’re still having trouble doing it, let us know.
I can confirm setting both the MessageID in the “In-Reply-To” or “References” field (as an array or csv) will work.
Some email providers like Gmail prefers “In-Reply-To”, while others use the “References” field, so it is wise to just fill in both fields in case the recipient doesn’t use Gmail.
Hope this helps! Let me know if there are any further questions or issues.
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@jht99 I pretty much work with Gmail, however, I saw this video which may help you before I found the solution in this thread.
Also, I’d like to expand on my original question. I’ve noticed that when the draft is created in the thread, it doesn’t contain the email thread before the footer, as would be the case making a draft manually. Does anybody have any solutions how to replicate Gmail’s method of doing so?
Solution!
