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Message a stream by email

This feature is not available on self-hosted Zulip servers where the incoming email gateway has not been configured by a system administrator.

You can send emails to Zulip streams. This can be useful:

  • If you have an email that you want to discuss on Zulip

  • For mirroring mailing list traffic

  • For integrating a third-party app that can send emails, but which does not easily lend itself to a more direct integration

If you're planning on doing this in an automated way, and have some programming experience, another option is to use our send message API.

Message a stream by email

  • Instructions for all platforms

  1. Go to Subscribed streams.

  2. Select a stream.

  3. Select the General tab on the right.

  4. Copy the stream email address under Email address.

  5. Send an email to that address.

The email subject will become the Zulip topic, and the email body will become the Zulip message.

Note that it may take up to one minute for the message to show up in Zulip.

Configuration options

The options below control which parts of the email are included in the Zulip message. To add a configuration option, add it right before the @ in the email address.

For example, if the stream email address is [email protected], you can add the first two options below by sending email to general.abcd1234.show-sender.include-footer@example.zulipchat.com instead.

  • .show-sender: Adds From: <Sender email address> to the top of the Zulip message.

  • .include-footer: By default, Zulip tries to automatically remove some footer text (like signatures). With this option, Zulip will include all footers.

  • .include-quotes: In many email clients, when you reply to a message (e.g. a message notification email), a copy of the original message is automatically added to the bottom of your reply. By default, Zulip tries to remove that copied message. With this option, Zulip will include it.

  • .prefer-html: The body of an email is typically encoded using one or both of two common formats: plain text (text/plain) and HTML (text/html). Zulip supports constructing the Zulip message content using either (converting HTML to Markdown for the HTML format). By default, Zulip will prefer using the plain text version of an email over the converted HTML version if both are present. This option overrides that behavior to prefer the HTML version instead.

  • .prefer-text: Similar to .prefer-html, but explicitly asks Zulip to prefer the plain text version of the email if both are present (the current default behavior).