I was tooling around in my email today and creating a new filter so when I got a new email from Rochenhost (my hosting company) it would get starred when I saw the most amazing thing!

Send a Canned Response as a Filter Option in Gmail

This means you can now setup filters so when you get an email from a particular person or with a certain subject, you can send them a reply automatically!

I’m sure Microsoft is so very jealous because Outlook has nothing like this! Microsoft Exchange, eat your heart out! Okay, back to the awesomeness of Google Gmail and Google Apps.

What You Need

Canned Responses need to be enabled so you can select it as a filter option

1. Go to Settings
   
   
2. Go to Labs
   
   

3. Enable Canned Responses
   
   

You can now send out auto replies like Merlin Mann does which provide helpful FAQ information or whatever your mind can dream up!

I could use this to say to Rochenhost, “I have received your notice. Please allow 4-6 hours for a reply.”. This is like vacation reply but much more powerful. You can choose who gets a reply and then you can create as many “canned responses” as you want.

Yes, if you’re not using Gmail or Google Apps for your email, you’re living in the dark ages while everyone else has electricity.