Send emails in the future

October 4, 2007 6:55 AM

How can I send e-mail with an attachment to a group of people, including myself, and set it to be sent out at a designated future time? More details and info inside.

I want to be able to compose an email and have it ready to go, but not have it be delivered until a specific date in the future that I designate. I also want the option of knowing what I have in queue, and deleting the future email if plans change in the future. I currently use google mail, if that helps. I would also prefer a free service, but will pay a modest fee if it's exactly what I want.

I've browsed through similar questions that have been posed in the past on AskMefi, but the answers weren't quite what I was looking for. For example, google calendar isn't what I want because I don't want the "evite" function of having people say they'll attend or not attend, because I'm not sending an invitation to an event, but just an email. It also doesn't allow attachments.

I've also looked at other services, such as Futureme, sally, cave, but as far as I can tell, they do not allow attachments.

Thanks!

posted by jujube to computers & internet (9 answers total)

Does it need to be web based? If not, I think Outlook can do this for you.

In the e-mail, under Message Options, you can choose "Do not deliver before:" and specify a date and time.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:57 AM on October 4, 2007

It doesn't show you how many messages you have queued up though, sorry.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:58 AM on October 4, 2007

Put the attachment on your website as an encrypted ffile (or archive). Include the url and decryption key in your email.
posted by orthogonality at 6:59 AM on October 4, 2007

Sorry, don't have Outlook. . .
posted by jujube at 6:59 AM on October 4, 2007

The premium version of l8r offers attachments. It's not free, but you can schedule 100 emails for $1.99, so it's not too expensive:
http://www.l8r.nu/pro

Of course, with any of these services, the question is "how far into the future are you looking at, and will the service be actually around at that time?
posted by tuxster at 7:23 AM on October 4, 2007

Oh, by the way, that was the first thing that came up when I searched Google for "send future email attachment" . The funny thing is that this thread was #4 in the search results...
posted by tuxster at 7:25 AM on October 4, 2007

http://www.iwantsandy.com/
posted by cmiller at 8:00 AM on October 4, 2007

You might want to consider one of the suggestions in this previous question.
posted by SteveInMaine at 9:46 AM on October 4, 2007

orthogonality--I don't have a website to post things to, and even if I did, it would add extra steps in the work flow, not delete.

cmiller-- thanks for the suggestion, but as from what I can gather from reading about it, it doesn't allow attachments. Of course, I can't test drive it because registration is not open. So if you have used it yourself, and know that it allows attachments, would appreciate further info.

SteveInMaine--Thanks for the link, but as I wrote in posting my question, I have already looked at the suggestions that were offered in various previous questions and found them inadequate.

Tuxster--Thanks! It actually looks like it may be what I'm looking for.

If anyone else, however, has other suggestions, especially one that I can use directly from gmail, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!
posted by jujube at 10:08 AM on October 4, 2007