How to Send an Email as an Attachment
Updated 5 min read
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If you've ever wondered how to send an email as an attachment, you're not alone. Whether you need to share important documents, presentations, or images, this post will walk you through the simple steps to attach an entire email to another.
There can be two scenarios where you need to attach an email to another. Maybe you simply want to forward an email to a contact, or you could wish to reply to an email while attaching another one to it.
We’ll cover both. Read through or skip to the appropriate section. Let’s go!
How to forward an email as an attachment
If you want to forward an email to a contact, you’ll create a new message with the email you want to forward as an attachment. Android users can follow the same steps. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Go to Gmail on computer
Navigate to your Gmail. If you’re using Chrome, you can find a shortcut to Gmail in the top right of a new tab or select it from the Google Apps menu. If you’re on mobile, open the Gmail app.
Step 2: Open email(s) you want to forward
Locate the email you want to forward and click to open it.
Step 3: Click “Forward as attachment”
Now, click the forward button at the bottom of the email body. You can also click the three dots in the top right-hand corner and select “Forward” there.
Step 4: Complete message, filling necessary fields
This will open up another message box under the email you wanted to forward. Add your recipient’s email address to the “To” field. If you want to add multiple recipients, simply separate their addresses with a comma and add them to the same field.
The message you want to forward begins after an information box with details of the original message.
If you want, you can delete the text of this detail box and add a message to your recipient here.
Step 5: Send your email
Once you’re satisfied with how your message appears, click “Send” to forward your email.
That’s the process if you want to forward an email to one or a few of your Gmail contacts. If you want to forward an entire email chain or thread to a contact, you can do that, too. Learn how to forward a whole email chain in Gmail.
How to reply with an email attachment
Suppose you’re replying to an email and want to attach another email to it. What then? Here are the steps.
Step 1: Open the email and click “Reply”
Locate the email you want to reply to and open it.
Now click the “Reply” button in the top right corner—it looks like a backward arrow. This will open a new message window under the already opened email.
Step 2: Hit pop-out icon to enlarge window
Click the “Open in a pop-up” button in the top-right corner.
Now that you have the reply opened up as a new window, you can click the “Back to inbox” button to return to your inbox.
Step 3: Drag in the email you want to attach
When you’ve reached your inbox, locate the email you want to attach to the reply in the pop-up window.
Now, simply drag and drop the email you want to attach in the body of the reply.
If you’ve done this correctly, the reply email will show the attached email at the bottom of the body of the email.
Step 4: Finish message and send
All that’s left to do is to add your reply text to the body of the email. Once you’ve done that, click “Send” to send your reply with an attached email. Sometimes, you can forget to attach attachments to emails. Learn how to resend an email in Gmail to correct it if that happens.
Sending emails properly is vital for effective communication. Things are relatively straightforward if you’re sending emails to one or a few contacts. The problem arises when you want to email an extensive list or all your contacts. Learn how you can effectively send an email to all your contacts in Gmail.
Check out more Gmail how-tos on the YAMM blog
Now, you have this nifty skill in your back pocket should you need to send an email as attachment. How about if you need to send the same attachment to many people or different attachments to specific people in an email list? In that case, you should use YAMM.
YAMM is a Google Workspace add-on that allows you to send mass emails right from Gmail and Google Sheets. Simply download the add-on, create your email drafts, and send them right from your email list in Sheets. With YAMM, you can select how attachments are distributed to particular recipients, making your life easier when the need arises. Check out more of what YAMM can do for you!
