Edit And Send Drafts From Chat
Chat writes the draft, autosaves your edits to Gmail as you type, and waits for you to click Send.
Ask for a draft#
In Chat, describe the email you want. For example:
- "Draft a reply to the latest email from Scott about next week."
- "Write a follow-up to this buyer with three options for a call."
If more than one thread or contact matches, Chat asks you to pick before it writes anything.
Edit the draft inline#
When a draft is open, Chat shows an inline editor. You can change:
- Recipients (To, Cc, Bcc)
- Subject
- Body
- Attachments, by removing them from the attachment strip
Watch the autosave status#
Your edits save to the Gmail draft on their own. The editor shows which state it is in:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| "Saving…" | Your latest edit is being written to Gmail. |
| "Draft saved" | Everything you typed is in the Gmail draft. |
| "Autosave delayed" | A save did not go through. The full message reads "Autosave delayed. Changes will retry automatically." |
There is no save button. Waiting a second for "Draft saved" is how you know your text is stored.
If "Autosave delayed" sticks around, check your connection and open the draft in Gmail to see what actually landed.
Send it#
Click Send. That single button is the send confirmation, so Chat does not ask again in a dialog.
After the send goes through, Chat writes "I sent that draft." into the conversation.
Send stays blocked until the draft has the basics. You will see:
- "Add a recipient before sending." if the To field is empty.
- "Add message text before sending." if the body is empty.
If you ask Chat to send in a message instead of clicking the button, Chat stages the send and asks you to confirm in your next reply. See Understand chat confirmations.
Discard your edits#
Click Discard to roll the editor back to the last autosaved version. Anything typed since then is dropped. The Gmail draft itself stays where it is.
Open it in Gmail instead#
Click Open in Gmail to work on the same draft in a Gmail tab. This button keeps working while you have edits in flight, so you can always check what Gmail has.