Going on vacation? No access to the Internet? Use Gmail’s vacation responder to let people know that you won’t be able to get back to them right away. While your vacation responder is turned on, Gmail will send your reply to people who email you. Here is how to use it.
How to turn on your vacation responder
- Computer
- Sign in to Gmail
- In the top-right, click the gear
, select Settings. - Scroll down to the Vacation responder section (stay in the “General” tab).
- Select Vacation responder on.
- Fill in the date range, subject, and message.
- You can limit who can see your vacation response.
- Check the box next to Only send a response to people in my Contacts if you don’t want everyone who emails you to know that you’re away from your mail.
- If you use Google Apps, you’ll also see an option to only send a response to people in your domain. If you check both of these boxes, only people who are in your contacts and your domain will receive the automatic response.
- Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
- Android
- Open the Gmail app
- Touch the menu
. - Touch Settings.
- Choose your account.
- Touch Vacation responder.
- Fill in the date range, subject, and message.
- Switch from OFF to ON at the top
- Touch Done.
- iOS
- Open the Gmail app
- Touch the menu .
- Touch the gear .
- Switch Vacation Responder from OFF to ON
- Choose start and end dates.
- Fill in the subject and message.
- Touch Save.
- Mobile Web
- Sign in to Gmail
- Touch the menu .
- Touch the gear .
- Switch Vacation Responder from OFF to ON
- Choose start and end dates.
- Fill in the subject and message.
- Touch Apply.
Note: Your vacation responder settings are synced for all versions included: desktop & mobile version of Gmail.
How to turn off your vacation responder
While the vacation responder is on, you’ll see a banner across the top of your Gmail that shows the subject of your vacation response. Click the End now link in the banner to turn off the vacation responder, or click Vacation Settings to edit your response.