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SupportTheFriendMail User Guide
Overview
To start using TheFriendMail, you must first sign in
and link at least one email address. Linking an email address tells TheFriendMail to associate that email
address with your Facebook identity. You can then use your linked email address to:
- Send emails to TheFriendMail in order to post messages and use Facebook
- Automatically receive emails containing your news feed and other notifications
See the Email Address Reference to learn how you can use Facebook by sending emails to TheFriendMail.
See the Scheduling Instructions for details on how to schedule posts and other actions from your email.
Send emails in order to post messages and use Facebook
You can send emails from your linked email address to any one of the "@thefriendmail.com" email addresses and
TheFriendMail will interact with Facebook on your behalf. For example, you can send emails to
status@thefriendmail.com to update your status,
wall@thefriendmail.com to post on a friend's mail, or
news@thefriendmail.com to receive your news feed.
See the Email Address Reference for a full list and explanation of the email
addresses supported by TheFriendMail.
Automatically receive your news feed and other notifications
When you sign in to TheFriendMail, you have the option of creating one or more email alerts. There are currently
four types of email alerts supported:
- Notifications Alert Replace the standard email notifications from Facebook with rich emails that look and behave like your news feed. You can group multiple notifications into a single email and choose your own schedule.
- News Feed Alert Automatically receive your news feed in your email. You can create your own schedules and "like" and comment using email.
- Facebook Page Alert Receive email notifications for new wall posts and comments on your Facebook page. You can reply with comments and "like" using email.
- Birthday Alert Receive reminders on your friends' birthdays and easily write on their walls using email.
Alert emails from TheFriendMail include convenient links to take action without leaving
your inbox. For example, when you receive an email containing posts from your friends, you can "like" and comment on
those posts directly from the alert email itself: just click a link and send!
Email Address Reference
TheFriendMail provides several "@thefriendmail.com" email addresses that you can send emails to in order to use Facebook and
receive information from Facebook. The subject line and body of each email may have special meanings depending on the
email address you use. Learn more about each email address below:
- Update your Facebook status with text, links, and photos
- Post text, links, and photos on a friend's wall
- Post text, links, and photos on a Facebook page
- Receive an email with the latest news from your friends
- Receive an email containing a friend's profile and recent wall posts
- Comment on a status or post
- Like a status, post, or comment
status@thefriendmail.com
Updates your Facebook status by combining the subject line and body of your email.
Supports URLs (links) and image attachments.
Subject line
Optional. Text from the subject line is included in your status. If text is also specified in the email
body, the subject line and body are joined together with a space in between. URLs in the subject line
are never shortened.
Email body
Optional. Text from the body is included in the your status. If text is also specified in the subject line,
the subject line and body are joined together with a space in between. URLs in the body are automatically
shortened if you have selected a URL Shortener under General Settings.
Attachments
Optional, with support for image attachments only. Images must be less than 4MB each.
Additional information
- If your email includes URLs or image attachments, TheFriendMail will automatically generate a rich post instead of a plain text status.
- If you want to include a URL in the body of your email, but do not want the URL automatically shortened, you can enclose the URL in [ and ] brackets. The brackets will be stripped out and will not appear in your status.
wall@thefriendmail.com
Posts on a friend's wall. The subject line must contain the friend's name
and the email body must contain the contents of your post. Supports URLs (links) and
image attachments.
Subject line
Required. Must contain the first, last, or full name of the friend whose wall to post on.
Email body
Required. Must contain the contents of your post. URLs are automatically shortened if you
have a selected a URL Shortener under General Settings.
Attachments
Optional, with support for image attachments only. Images must be less than 4MB each.
Additional information
- If your email includes URLs or image attachments, TheFriendMail will automatically generate a rich post instead of a plain text message.
- If you want to include a URL in the body of your email, but do not want the URL automatically shortened, you can enclose the URL in [ and ] brackets. The brackets will be stripped out and will not appear in your post.
page@thefriendmail.com
Posts on a Facebook page. The subject line must contain the vanity name of the Facebook page
and the email body must contain the contents of your post. Supports URLs (links) and
image attachments.
Subject line
Required. Must contain the vanity name of the Facebook page to post on. For example, the
vanity name of Starbuck's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks) is
starbucks.
Email body
Required. Must contain the contents of your post. URLs are automatically shortened if you
have a selected a URL Shortener under General Settings.
Attachments
Optional, with support for image attachments only. Images must be less than 4MB each.
Additional information
- If your email includes URLs or image attachments, TheFriendMail will automatically generate a rich post instead of a plain text message.
- If you want to include a URL in the body of your email, but do not want the URL automatically shortened, you can enclose the URL in [ and ] brackets. The brackets will be stripped out and will not appear in your post.
news@thefriendmail.com
Sends an email to you with the latest news from your friends (also known as your news feed).
The subject line and body of your email can be empty.
Subject line
Optional. If empty, provides the latest news from all of your friends. Otherwise,
must contain the first, last, or full name of the friend whose posts you would like to
receive.
Email body
Optional. If empty, provides the latest news since your previous request to news@thefriendmail.com.
Otherwise, must contain a number indicating how many recent posts you would like
to receive. For example, specifying a value of 1 will instruct
TheFriendMail to send you the single newest post from your news feed.
Additional information
- You can request up to 200 of the newest posts (i.e. values 1 through 200 are valid in the email body).
- Posts are listed in the response email based on the "Post ordering" setting under General Settings. By default, posts are listed in order from newest to oldest just like on facebook.com. You can change the setting so that posts are listed in order from oldest to newest instead.
- Specifying a negative number will reverse the order of how posts are listed in the response email (i.e. values -1 through -200 are also valid). For example, if your posts are normally listed from newest to oldest, specifying a value of -10 will return the ten newest posts and list them in order from oldest to newest instead.
profile@thefriendmail.com
Sends an email to you containing a friend's profile and the latests posts from his or her wall.
The subject line of your email must contain the friend's name.
Subject line
Required. Must contain the first, last, or full name of a friend.
Email body
Optional. If empty, provides the latest 20 posts from your friend's wall.
Otherwise, must contain a number indicating how many recent wall posts you would like
to receive. For example, specifying a value of 1 will instruct
TheFriendMail to send you the single newest post on your friend's wall.
Additional information
- You can request up to 200 of the newest wall posts (i.e. values 1 through 200 are valid in the email body).
- Wall posts are listed in the response email based on the "Post ordering" setting under General Settings. By default, posts are listed in order from newest to oldest just like on facebook.com. You can change the setting so that posts are listed in order from oldest to newest instead.
- Specifying a negative number will reverse the order of how wall posts are listed in the response email (i.e. values -1 through -200 are also valid). For example, if your posts are normally listed from newest to oldest, specifying a value of -10 will return the ten newest posts and list them in order from oldest to newest instead.
comment@thefriendmail.com
Adds a comment to a status or post. This action can only be used by clicking on a
comment link in an email sent by TheFriendMail.
Subject line
Ignored.
Email body
Required. Must contain your comment.
like@thefriendmail.com
Likes a status, post, or comment. This action can only be used by clicking on a
like link in an email sent by TheFriendMail.
Subject line
Ignored.
Email body
Ignored.
Scheduling Instructions
TheFriendMail allows you to schedule all of the actions described in the
Email Address Reference above. To schedule an action you must include some special text
at the very beginning of the subject line of your email. This portion of the subject line will be interpreted as
a "schedule" and will be ignored when TheFriendmail processes the rest of your subject line. There are two types of schedules:
- Specific time - The subject line of your email must start with an equals sign followed by a specific time. For example: =3:35pm. The time can be in 12-hour format or 24-hour format. The action will be scheduled for the current day unless the specified time has already passed. If the specified time has already passed, the action will be scheduled for the next day.
- Delay - The subject line of your email must start with a plus sign followed by an amount of time. For example: +1h25m. You can specify hours, minutes, or both. You can delay an action for up to 2 days.
The scheduling feature has been tested extensively and is very reliable. However, there are few things to keep in mind:
- TheFriendMail will attempt to schedule all actions according to your local timezone. You must ensure that your email client is configured to the correct timezone.
- TheFriendMail cannot guarantee that your actions will always occur at exactly the time requested due to external factors beyond its control (e.g. Facebook).
- TheFriendMail currently does not provide a confirmation or a way to view/cancel scheduled actions.
Here are some examples of subject lines containing valid schedules:
| Subject line | Resulting schedule |
|---|---|
| =3:35pm This is my subject line | 3:35pm your time |
| =15:35 This is my subject line | 3:35pm your time |
| =3:35 This is my subject line | 3:35am your time (in the morning!) |
| =6:45pm | 6:45pm your time (notice that the rest of the subject line can be empty) |
| +1h25m This is my subject line | 1 hour and 25 minutes from now |
| +30 This is my subject line | 30 minutes from now |
| +15m | 15 minutes from now (notice that the rest of the subject line can be empty) |
| +2h This is my subject line | 2 hours from now |