How to reply to emails faster with AI
If you spend more than fifteen minutes a day on email, you can cut that in half by having an AI draft the first pass. The important word is first pass — a good draft that you edit for thirty seconds beats a bad draft you rewrite for five minutes. Here is how to get consistently good drafts.
What this works with
WriterPi works on Gmail, Outlook web, Yahoo Mail, Fastmail, and any other webmail. It reads the conversation you have open, understands the context, and writes a reply in the tone you pick.
The four step process
Step 1. Open the email you want to reply to
Open the message thread in your mail client. You do not need to click Reply yet — WriterPi will do that for you if you want it to. Just have the message visible on screen so WriterPi can read it.
Step 2. Open WriterPi and pick a tone
Click the WriterPi icon. In the sidebar, look for the tone selector near the input box. You get eight options:
- Professional — polished, neutral, no slang. Default for client work.
- Friendly — warm and personable, like helping a friend.
- Casual — contractions, plain words, no corporate stiffness.
- Concise — one to three sentences, no filler.
- Detailed — thorough with examples and rationale.
- Funny — actual humour, not corporate-comedy.
- Gen Z — internet-brained, all lowercase, real slang.
- Auto — WriterPi picks the tone based on the incoming email's register.
For most work replies, start with Professional or Friendly. For customer support, Concise. For a snarky reply to a spam pitch, Funny.
Step 3. Ask for a draft
Turn on the Page toggle at the bottom so WriterPi reads the email thread. Then type any of these:
- "Write a short professional reply agreeing to the meeting"
- "Draft a polite decline for this pitch"
- "Reply asking for two more days on the deadline, don't sound stressed"
- "Answer their three questions with specifics"
- "Follow up on the invoice they haven't paid, firm but polite"
Be specific about the outcome you want. "Reply to this" gives a generic reply. "Reply saying yes to Wednesday but push back on the price" gives you the actual draft you needed.
Step 4. Review, edit, insert
The reply appears in the sidebar. Two options:
- Copy — hit the Copy button, click into Gmail's reply box, Ctrl+V.
- Insert directly — WriterPi shows an "Insert draft" action card. Click Gmail's reply box first (so WriterPi knows the target), then click Apply on the card.
Always read before you send. Even the best AI draft benefits from one human touch — a first name, a specific reference, a joke that only you and the recipient share.
Tips that make replies dramatically better
Give the AI your constraints
"Write a reply under 40 words" is more useful than "write a reply". "Don't mention the budget yet" saves you an edit. "Reference the roadmap document they attached last week" makes the reply sound informed.
Match tone to relationship
You do not write to your boss the way you write to your best friend. Use the tone picker deliberately. A quick heuristic: Professional for external, Casual for internal, Friendly for freelance clients you have worked with for a while.
Use "reply" not "respond"
Small language cue but it changes what you get. "Reply to this" tends to produce a direct answer. "Respond to this" tends to produce a more considered take. Both are fine, just know which you are asking for.
Do not use it for grief, romance, or family disputes
AI-drafted replies to emotionally heavy messages feel wrong even when the words are technically correct. Some things deserve your own words, even the awkward ones. Especially the awkward ones.
Common questions
Does WriterPi read my whole inbox?
No. WriterPi only sees the specific email or thread you have open, and only when you attach the page with the toggle. It does not scan your inbox in the background.
Is my email content stored?
No. The reply passes through our backend just long enough to get an answer from the AI provider, then it is discarded. Nothing is stored on our servers. See our privacy policy for the full detail.
How much does it cost?
Ten free messages with no signup. Twenty-five messages per month for free after signup. Paid plans start at one dollar for three days of unlimited use, six dollars per month for five hundred messages, or nine dollars per month for eight hundred messages.