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Email and AI glossary

Every term here is one you meet on an ordinary Tuesday, with the part that actually matters to your inbox.

You just approve.

Bytes2Pro teamUpdated 4 October 2026

The short version

Triage, snooze and scheduled send are the three habits that keep an inbox moving.
Queued is not sent, and archived is not answered. Check the result, not the intent.
Otto stores message details for its inbox list; saved work can retain selected content.
Ordinary assistant sends, deletes and bulk changes ask for review; optional rules need explicit setup.

AI assistant

Software you give a goal to instead of a sequence of clicks: it reads the request and comes back with an answer, a draft or a proposed action. The question worth asking is what it can change on its own. Otto asks for review of ordinary assistant sends, deletes and bulk changes; separate standing rules need explicit setup.

Human approval

A review step where a person reads a proposed action and authorizes it before it happens. It is what makes handing over a mailbox reasonable, because a sent message cannot be unsent and a deleted thread is gone. Approving starts the work, so it is still worth checking the result afterwards.

AI email assistant

An assistant that works on the mailbox itself: drafting replies, sorting what arrived, booking time from a thread and tracking what you still owe. That is a step past a chat window, because it acts on real mail rather than talking about it. Before you connect one, find out what it can do without asking you first.

Email delegation

Handing part of your mail to someone else, or something else, with an explicit boundary: what needs a fresh decision, what a standing rule may do and what history you can inspect. In Otto, ordinary assistant sends and destructive changes come for review; optional automatic rules use limits you set.

Email triage

Deciding, message by message, what happens next: a reply, a meeting, a task, a later look or nothing. Triage is the part that eats the morning, because each decision is small and there are two hundred of them. Otto can sort the pile and suggest the next step for each thread while you stay the one deciding.

Inbox zero

An inbox with nothing left in the current view, usually after a triage pass. It is a tidy desk rather than a finished day: the replies you owe and the meetings you have not booked still exist, they just live somewhere else now. Treat it as a checkpoint, not a score.

Unified inbox

One list showing mail from several accounts at once, so you stop switching windows to find out whether anything happened. Each account keeps its own sending identity, so the risk that moves with you is replying from the wrong address. Otto connects Gmail and Outlook accounts side by side, and the selected account supplies the mail, calendar and tasks.

Email thread

A chain of related messages shown as one conversation instead of twelve separate items. Threads hide things: the decision is often in the middle and the real ask is often in the last line. Read the replies that matter before you answer, or take a summary and check it against the thread.

Labels and folders

Two ways of filing the same mail. Gmail labels stack on one message, while an Outlook folder holds it in a single place, which matters the moment you work across both. Otto shows whichever one your selected account uses, so filing behaves the way that mailbox expects.

Hide a message until a time you pick, when it returns to the top of the inbox. It turns not now into a decision with a date attached, which is the difference between deferring something and losing it. Otto can snooze a thread to a time you describe in plain words.

Scheduled send

A message you write now and have delivered later, so a reply written at 1 a.m. lands at 9 a.m. Queued is not sent: until the send time passes the outcome is still pending, so check the result rather than assuming it went. Otto parks a scheduled message as a real draft in Gmail or Outlook until it goes.

Smart reply

A short suggested response, generated from the thread, that you can send in one tap. It handles acknowledgements well and decisions badly, which is where a one-line suggestion quietly costs you. Otto drafts the full reply in your voice instead, and the send still waits for you.

Follow-up

The second message: the one that asks again about something nobody answered. Most of what leaks out of an inbox leaks here, because a thread looks finished when it is only waiting. Decide what you are waiting for and when asking again is useful.

Follow-up reminder

A nudge that brings a thread back if a reply has not arrived by a date you set. It moves the waiting out of your head and onto a schedule, which is the habit most inboxes are missing. Otto can track what you are waiting on and surface the thread when it goes quiet.

Morning brief

A short daily summary of what arrived and what is due, read once instead of scrolling the inbox to find out. It works because it is a scheduled report rather than an interruption. Otto can run one on the schedule you choose and deliver it in the app, by email, as a push or to a connected chat app, alongside other routines.

Email digest

One message that bundles many updates on a schedule, in place of a notification per item. A digest trades a little delay for far fewer interruptions, which is a good trade for anything that is not urgent. Otto can build digests on a recurrence you set, as routines, and deliver them in the app, by email, as a push or to a connected chat app.

Shared inbox

One address, such as support or hello, that several people work from together. The hard parts are not technical: who owns a message, who already replied, and who is allowed to send. Otto's shared inbox, assignments and shared drafts sit in the Team tier.

Email signature

The block at the end of a message carrying your name, role and how to reach you. It travels on every mail you send and every forward after that, so include what you are happy for a stranger to have and nothing more. Otto has a free signature generator you can use without signing in.

Mailbox metadata

Information about a message rather than its full body: sender, recipients, subject, snippet, labels, dates and read or starred flags. It lets an inbox list and search quickly and is personal data in its own right. Otto keeps this index; selected content can also be retained separately in chats, notes or prepared work.

Commitment

A specific promise or piece of work you accept from a thread. Otto can keep its source link, owner and state so waiting on someone else remains visible without treating every suggested task as accepted work.

Focus bundle

A named group of senders or categories you choose. When enabled, Otto can batch its own alerts for that group at a time you set; every message remains accessible in the mailbox and its provider delivery is unchanged.

Booking link

A guest-facing link for requesting time within an availability policy you publish. A request needs email verification and a fresh availability check before confirmation; the offered times can change meanwhile.

Public note link

A read-only web page for a note that anyone with the link can open, no account needed. It shows the current note rather than a snapshot, so edits appear within a minute, and it stops working once you turn it off. In Otto, Pro can also set a link to expire after 1, 7 or 30 days.

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