Getting Started
Creating cards by email
You can create cards on a board by writing or forwarding an email to Trello.
From 17 October 2024, we’re adding an Atlassian Intelligence option, that when turned on, will use AI to summarize the email content, create action items and assign due dates. If you can’t see this option right away, it’ll be available to you by 25 October 2024!
For the AI version of this email-to-board feature, you will need to first ensure the AI is enabled by an admin of the Premium Workspace or Enterprise Organization.
To learn about enabling AI in Trello, visit Activate Atlassian Intelligence for your Trello Workspace or Enterprise
To get your unique email address for a board, log in to Trello in the browser and open the board you would like to create cards by email on. Open the Menu in the right sidebar and then click on "Email-to-board". From here, you can select the list in which the emailed card will be created. You can click on the current list name ('None' in the below example) to change that to a different list.
If Atlassian Intelligence is enabled, you will see an option to use “Summarize with AI”. Toggle this off if you don’t want Atlassian Intelligence to parse the email content. You can use the same unique board email address with or without summarizing with AI by toggling this setting.
With Atlassian Intelligence enabled, your email becomes the prompt that will be intelligently summarized for you including action items and due dates.
Once an email is sent to your board email address, it will automatically create a card on your board. The original email will appear as an attachment for reference. You can make any edits to the AI generated card just like any other Trello card.
Atlassian Intelligence will summarize the email subject and body to create relevant card titles and descriptions.
You can also have your email address for that board emailed to you. Please note that the email address is unique for each board and board member. Also, comments must be enabled for the board in order to generate the email-to-board address.
The card will show up in the next few minutes after the email is sent.
Each Trello board has a unique email address.
Formatting tips
When you email a card to Trello, you can immediately add attachments, labels, and members to the card, in addition to setting the name and description.
Email-to-Board | AI Email-to-Board |
|---|---|
The Subject of the email becomes the card's title. | The card title will be a summation of the email Subject. |
The Body of the email becomes the card's description. | The card description will be a summation of the email Body. |
| When applicable, Atlassian Intelligence will create a checklist based on the email content. |
| When applicable, Atlassian Intelligence will create a due date. |
Attachments in the email will be added to the card. | |
Labels: In the subject, add #labelname, #labelcolor, or #labelnumber
| |
Members: In the subject, add @username. Members can also be added by putting @username in the body of the email on its own line. If you send an email to Trello and include other Trello users' email addresses as "to" or "CC" addresses, Trello will add them as members of the card as well. | |
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I see the original email I sent?
The original email will be attached to the card with the name original-email.eml. You can click on the tile next to the filename in the attachment list to preview the email in a pop-up over your board. You can also download the original email by clicking on the arrow next to the filename.
How long will my original email be kept?
Your original email will be deleted from our email-to-board service after 90 days but will remain as an attachment on your card until you delete the card, board or close your account.
Is my board email address private?
Your board email address is unique to your board, however, please note that anyone with your board email address can add cards to your board as you.
What are the limitations of the AI Summaries?
There are a few situations where Atlassian Intelligence may not be able to provide a summary for your email.
If an email is too short, AI won’t have enough context to summarize.
This email won’t be summarized as it’s too short:
A short email | AI isn’t able to provide as much value |
In the case where your email is greater than 16,384 characters, Atlassian Intelligence will only summarize content up to such character limit. If this happens, we will send you an email informing you of the limit being reached. A card will still be generated on your board, however, the summary may be incomplete due to character limitations.
AI based on large language models can sometimes respond in ways that are inaccurate and unreliable, or include content that sounds reasonable but is false or incomplete.
For these reasons, we encourage you to review the quality of the response you receive before sharing it with others.
Most emails with attachments will make it into Trello just fine. However, there is an overall email size limit (above 10MB) that will prevent cards from being created via email. If this happens, your mail server may send you a message that it was unable to send the email.
Will my email attachments be shared with third party AI providers?
No, Atlassian does not share email attachments, such as images, with its third party AI providers providers. Instead, they’ll be added straight to your card as attachments.
Why can’t I turn on AI Summary?
If you’re already subscribed to our Premium or Enterprise plan, you’ll need to make sure AI is enabled in your Workspace settings before you’ll be able to turn this on for cards created via email, you can do this using the steps here - Activate Atlassian Intelligence for your Trello Workspace or Enterprise
Enterprise Admins can also enable or disable AI for any Workspaces in their Enterprise, if your Workspace is on Trello Enterprise, you’ll need to reach out to your Enterprise Admins to make sure AI is enabled for the Enterprise.
Attachments and email size
Most emails with attachments will make it into Trello just fine. However, there is an overall email size limit (above 10MB) that will prevent cards from being created via email. If this happens, your mail server may send you a message that it was unable to send the email.
Any images inserted into the email's body will be added as an attachment in the card, rather than being kept in the card description.
Atlassian Intelligence will not summarize the content of email attachments or images, but the attachments and images will be included on your card as attachments.
Email threads and duplicated cards
The first time a message is sent to the board email address, it will create a new card. If replying to the email the messages will be added to the original card as comments. This could happen when the board email address is added to a long email thread, and it is designed this way to prevent duplicated cards. Only replies to or forwards from the original email that created the card will result in a comment being added to the card. To maintain the threaded comments in the card, be sure to forward the original email message or add the board email in the BCC field on your responses.
Cards created using the board email will get tied only for 7 days. After this period, new replies to the email thread will generate a new card instead of adding them as comments to the original card.
If the card was originally created using Atlassian Intelligence, subsequent replies in the email thread sent to the board email address will show up as comments. But the Atlassian Intelligence feature will not be re-engaged to update the card title or description and the content of the reply will not be summarized by AI.
Email comments to card
Each card also has its own email– sending a note to this address will make your email show up as a comment. You can find a card's email under the "Share" button on the card back, in the bottom right corner.
If the card was originally summarized by Atlassian Intelligence, you can send an email to the card and the content will appear as a comment. This content will not be also summarized by AI and will be copy of the original reply.
Creating cards by email from our mobile apps
You can view and modify email-to-board settings via the Android app (versions 2021.7 and above).
AI email-to-board is not yet available on mobile apps. It will work on the Desktop app.
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