Email, calendar and tasks

Email hardly ever ends in email

It ends on a calendar, on a list, or in a promise you will remember at 2am. So the tab-switching starts: copy the date into the calendar, retype the task into another app, lose the thread that explained why any of it mattered.

Otto keeps the three in one place. Read the thread, and the reply, the event and the task all happen right there, against the account you already have.

One ask, three outcomes

Tell Otto what you want and it prepares the work: a reply drafted in your voice from the conversation, an event proposed on the connected calendar with attendees and time zone visible, a follow-up captured as a task. Each comes back as a card you read before it happens, and sends, deletes and bulk changes wait for your approval.

The calendar has day, week, month and agenda views and sits beside the thread rather than in another tab. Tasks sync both ways with Google Tasks or Microsoft To Do for the selected account, so they show up on your phone in the app you already use.

Notes sit in the same app. Insert one into an email from the composer, write one together with anyone you invite, send a copy by email address, or publish a read-only link that opens without an account. Each note keeps a version history, so an earlier draft is a restore away.

Where Work is enabled, a promise can also become a source-linked commitment you accept and track as on you, on someone else or still unassigned. Meeting preferences describe how you want to meet; an optional booking link has its own availability window and guest verification. A requested slot is not booked until it is confirmed.

Gmail and Outlook, same app

Connect Gmail or Outlook, or both on a paid tier. The selected account supplies the mail, the calendar and the task service, which is what stops a work reply leaving from a personal address. Otto runs on the web and iPhone, with Android coming soon, so the same day follows you around.

The small things that keep the day intact

Snooze a thread you cannot face until Monday and it comes back unread on Monday. Ask to be nudged if nobody replies by Thursday and Thursday is when it reappears. Schedule a send for 8am instead of writing at midnight, and Undo Send gives you a few seconds to take back the one you regret. Filters and rules keep the routine mail out of the way, and one bulk action can clear a whole search once you have read its scope.

None of that is glamorous. It is most of the reason things get dropped.

Quick enough to stay in

New mail is pushed to Otto by Gmail and Outlook rather than polled, so it arrives in the list rather than waiting for a refresh. Folder switches come off Otto’s up-to-date inbox list, and archive, snooze and send respond as you press them. If you would rather not touch the mouse, the whole inbox is drivable from the keyboard.

Your mailbox stays with your provider. Otto keeps an inbox index and selected content you save through its features; what Otto stores explains both.

You can still do it all by hand

Nothing here is compulsory. Read, sort, send, drag an event, tick a task, ignore the assistant entirely. Core mail, calendar and tasks are free on one connected account, with an AI allowance on top for when you want the help.

Start with the calendar guide or the tasks guide. If your day spans two providers, the multiple accounts guide explains how the selected account controls each one.