Guides

Setting up Yawn to receive your low-priority email involves a few simple steps:

Step 1: Create your account

If you haven't already, sign up for a Yawn account. During the signup process, you'll receive your personal username@into.yawn.email address. This is your dedicated Yawn email address that you'll use for all low-priority communications.

Step 2: Decide what emails to direct to Yawn

Yawn works best for managing:

• Newsletters and subscriptions
• Marketing and promotional emails
• Social media notifications
• Non-urgent updates from services you use
• Discussion forums and mailing lists
• Any other non-time-sensitive communications

Step 3: Update your subscriptions

For each newsletter or service that sends you low-priority emails, update your subscription to use your Yawn email address. You can do this by:

• Finding the "update email preferences" or "account settings" link in existing emails or in the settings of each service you'd like to set up with Yawn
• Using your Yawn email when signing up for new newsletters or services
• Creating account-specific forwarding rules in your current email provider (see the Gmail forwarding guide below, for example)

Step 4: Configure your summary preferences

Log in to your Yawn dashboard to configure:

• Summary delivery time: Choose when you want to receive your daily digest
• Time zone: Set your local time zone for accurate delivery timing
• Immediate forwarding: Decide whether urgent emails (like verification links) should be forwarded immediately or included in your summary. (Immediate forwarding is enabled by default. We recommend keeping it on unless you are forwarding your entire inbox to Yawn, or unless you are certain you're not setting anything up with Yawn that might urgently need to contact you.)
• Custom summary instructions: Tell the AI exactly how you want your emails summarized. You can do this in natural language, like you'd talk to any assistant. For further advice on this, see the "Customize Yawn to your preferences" guide below.

You can find these settings in the "Account" and "Customization" tabs of your dashboard.

Step 5: Create manual classifications (optional)

For even more control, you can create manual classifications for specific senders:

• Low: Include a brief mention in the summary or ignore it
• Moderate: Include a medium-length summary
• High: Include a detailed summary
• Verbatim: Forward the entire email immediately, without summarization

What to expect

Once set up, Yawn will:

• Collect all emails sent to your Yawn address throughout the day
• Process them with AI at your chosen summary time
• Deliver one concise, organized digest to your primary email
• Forward any urgent messages immediately (if you've enabled immediate forwarding)

You can always access your dashboard to view statistics, adjust settings, or see email events. Original emails are stored for 7 days in your Events tab should you need to reference or download them.

Forwarding your Gmail messages to Yawn is straightforward, but it does require some configuration on the Gmail side. Here's how to set up forwarding for your emails:

Option 1: Forward specific emails (Recommended)

If you want to selectively forward certain types of emails to Yawn while keeping others in your main inbox, you can create Gmail filters:

1. Log in to Gmail and click the gear icon in the top right corner to access settings.
2. Go to "See all settings".
3. Navigate to the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab.
4. Click "Create a new filter" at the bottom of the page.
5. Set your criteria for the emails you want to forward to Yawn. You might filter by:
   • From: Specific senders (newsletters@example.com) or domains (*@newsletter.com)
   • To: Addresses or aliases you've used for subscriptions
   • Subject: Keywords like "newsletter," "update," or "special offer"
   • Has the words: Any text that commonly appears in low-priority emails
   • Doesn't have: Words that might indicate importance
6. Click "Create filter".
7. Check "Forward it to:" and select your Yawn email address (username@into.yawn.email) from the dropdown.

   If your Yawn address doesn't appear in the dropdown, you'll need to add it first (see "Add Forwarding Address" section below).

8. Optionally, check other actions like "Skip the Inbox" (Archive) or "Mark as read" to keep your Gmail inbox clean.
9. Click "Create filter" to save your changes.

Example filter setups:

• For newsletters: From: (*@newsletter.com OR *@updates.com OR newsletter@*)
• For marketing: Subject: (offer OR discount OR sale OR promotion OR limited time)
• For social media: From: (*@twitter.com OR *@instagram.com OR *@facebook.com OR *@linkedin.com)

Option 2: Forward all emails

If you want to forward all incoming emails to Yawn:

1. First, set up your Yawn email address as an approved forwarding address in Gmail (see "Add Forwarding Address" section below).
2. Go to Gmail Settings > "Forwarding and POP/IMAP", refresh the page if necessary, and select "Forward a copy of incoming mail to" followed by your Yawn email address.
3. Choose what Gmail should do with the original message (recommended: "keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox").
4. Click "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.

Add Forwarding Address (if needed)

Before you can forward emails to Yawn, you need to add your Yawn address as an approved forwarding address in Gmail:

1. Go to Gmail Settings > "Forwarding and POP/IMAP".
2. Click "Add a forwarding address".
3. Enter your Yawn email address (username@into.yawn.email).
4. A verification email with a confirmation code will be sent to your Yawn address.
5. If you have Immediate Forwarding enabled in Yawn, you'll receive this verification email at your primary email. If not, disable "Immediate Forwarding" in your Yawn dashboard's "Customization" tab temporarily to receive verification emails.
6. Click the verification link or enter the confirmation code in Gmail to verify the forwarding address.

Important Recommendations

For the best experience with Yawn and Gmail forwarding:

• Disable "Immediate Forwarding" in Yawn when forwarding all emails to prevent Yawn from sending you additional copies of some of the emails that are already in your inbox. You can find this toggle in the Customization tab of your Yawn dashboard.
• Add "Custom Summary Instructions" to help Yawn organize and prioritize your forwarded emails. For example: "Prioritize emails from friends who want to make plans with me, and you can ignore LinkedIn messages unless they come from recruiters." See the "Customize Yawn to your preferences" guide below for more information.
• Create multiple specific filters rather than one general filter for better control over what gets forwarded.
• Periodically review your filters and Yawn settings to ensure they still match your email priorities.

With these Gmail forwarding settings in place, your low-priority emails will flow into Yawn, where they'll be processed according to your preferences and delivered as a concise daily summary.

Customizing Yawn to match your workflow preferences:

Delivery timing customization

Control when and how your email summaries arrive:

1. Log in to your Yawn dashboard and go to the Account tab.
2. Find the Summary Delivery section and click Edit Summary Settings.
3. Set your time zone to ensure accurate delivery timing.
4. Choose your preferred daily summary time (when Yawn will process and deliver your digest).
   Tip: Consider a time that fits your routine: early morning for planning your day, lunch break for a midday catch-up, or evening for reviewing lower-priority communications after work.
5. Save changes to update your delivery preferences.

Email forwarding preferences

Control how Yawn handles urgent emails:

1. Go to the Customization tab in your dashboard.
2. Under Email Settings, find the Immediate Forwarding toggle.
3. Enable to have Yawn immediately forward urgent emails (like password resets and verification codes) to your primary inbox.
4. Disable to include all emails in your regular summary with no immediate interruptions.

Custom summary instructions

Teach Yawn's AI exactly how you want your emails summarized:

1. In the Customization tab, under Email Settings, click Customize next to "Customize Summaries".
2. Enter specific instructions for how you want your summaries formatted. For example, you could use any or all of the below:
   • "Organize emails by topic, with most important topics first"
   • "Keep summaries brief, around 3-4 sentences per email"
   • "Include all sales over 40% off"
   • "Prioritize travel deals and list prices for flights to Europe"
   • "Group all social media notifications together at the end"
3. Click Save to update your preferences.

Manual classifications

For ultimate control, create rules for specific senders:

1. In the Customization tab, scroll to Manual Classifications.
2. Add specific email addresses and choose how each should be handled:
   • Low: Brief mention in summary
   • Moderate: Medium-length summary
   • High: Detailed summary
   • Verbatim: Forward the complete email unchanged
3. Click Add Classification to save each entry.

Use manual classifications for:

• Important senders that should never be summarized (set to "Verbatim")
• Newsletters you want detailed summaries of (set to "High")
• Promotional emails you only need a brief mention of (set to "Low")

Advanced customization strategies

1. Email management workflow

Optimize your overall email strategy:

• Morning digest: Set your summary time for early morning, disable immediate forwarding, add custom instructions to prioritize by urgency. Perfect for planning your day.
• Important interruptions only: Enable immediate forwarding, set strict custom summary instructions like "Only include truly urgent items in detail, briefly mention everything else."
• Topic-based organization: Add custom instructions like "Organize into categories: Financial, Shopping, Social Media, News, and Other. List most important items first in each category."

2. Temporarily pausing summaries

If you're going on vacation or need a break from email summaries:

1. Go to the Account tab under Summary Delivery.
2. Toggle Disable Emails to on.
3. Emails will continue to be collected but no summaries will be sent.
4. Remember to toggle it back on when you return.

3. Evolving your setup

As you use Yawn, you'll develop preferences for how you want information presented:

• Review your experience: Periodically check your summary format and adjust your custom instructions accordingly. Yawn works best with custom instructions that evolve with your needs.
• Update during life changes: Different work situations or projects may require different email handling.
• Seasonal adjustments: During busy shopping periods like holidays, you might want more detailed summaries of promotional emails.

Testing and optimizing

Finding your perfect setup may take a few iterations:

• Start with basic customizations and refine based on your experience.
• Check the Events tab on your dashboard to see how Yawn is processing your emails.
• Use the Statistics on the Overview tab to understand your email patterns.
• Be specific in your custom instructions — the more detail you provide, the better Yawn can match your preferences. For detailed advice, see the AI Customization Tips guide below.

Remember that Yawn is designed to adapt to your needs. Don't hesitate to experiment with different settings until you find the perfect balance that makes your email management effortless and efficient. If you have any questions, feedback or need help with customization, feel free to reach out to us at hello@yawn.email. We're committed to helping you get the most out of Yawn, and to improving the service based on your feedback.

Even with the best email tools, you might occasionally encounter issues. Here's how to troubleshoot common problems with Yawn:

Missing verification emails

If you're not receiving verification emails from services you've signed up for using your Yawn address:

1. Check your Immediate Forwarding setting: Go to your Customization tab and make sure "Immediate Forwarding" is enabled. Verification emails are typically time-sensitive and should be forwarded immediately.
2. Check your primary email's spam folder: Some forwarded verification emails might be marked as spam.
3. Check your Events tab: Go to your Events tab to see if the email was received by Yawn but not forwarded. You can view the original email content there for up to 7 days.
4. Verify the correct Yawn email address: Confirm you're using your correct username@into.yawn.email address for sign-ups.
5. Temporary workaround: If you're setting up a new service and need to receive verification codes, consider temporarily using your primary email address for the setup process, then switch to your Yawn address afterward.

Summary delivery timing issues

If your summaries aren't arriving at the expected time:

1. Verify your time zone setting: Check that your account settings have the correct time zone selected.
2. Check summary delivery time: Make sure your preferred delivery time is set correctly.
3. Look for processing delays: During high traffic periods, there might be slight delays in summary generation (typically no more than 10 minutes).
4. Check your primary email inbox and spam folder: Your summary might be delivered but filtered incorrectly.
5. Verify summaries aren't disabled: Check that you haven't accidentally toggled "Disable Emails" on in your account settings.

Forwarding setup problems

If you're having trouble setting up email forwarding:

1. For Gmail forwarding issues:
   • Verify that you've confirmed the forwarding address by clicking the verification link or entering the confirmation code.
   • Check that your filters are correctly configured (see our Gmail forwarding guide above).
   • Make sure you haven't exceeded Gmail's forwarding limits.
2. For other email providers:
   • Check your provider's specific instructions for setting up email forwarding.
   • Some providers have restrictions on forwarding to external addresses or require special verification steps.
3. Test your setup: Send a test email to the address you've set up to forward to Yawn. If immediate forwarding is enabled, you should see it arrive in your primary inbox promptly.

Classification not working as expected

If your manual classifications aren't being applied correctly:

1. Check email address formatting: Ensure the email addresses in your classifications exactly match the sender addresses (including capitalization in some cases).
2. Verify classification settings: Double-check that you've selected the correct priority level (Low, Moderate, High, or Verbatim) for each sender.
3. Update existing classifications: If you've changed a classification for a sender, make sure you've deleted any previous classifications for that sender.
4. Check for domain variations: Some senders might use slightly different email domains. For example, emails might come from both sender@example.com and sender@mail.example.com.

Summary formatting and content issues

If your summaries aren't formatted or prioritized the way you want:

1. Refine your custom instructions: Be more specific in the Customization tab about how you want information presented. See our AI Customization Tips guide for detailed advice.
2. Use manual classifications: Set explicit priority levels for important senders to ensure their emails receive appropriate attention.
3. Provide feedback: Yawn's AI learns from your preferences over time. Continuous refinement of your instructions helps improve summaries.
4. Check for conflicting instructions: Make sure your custom instructions don't contain contradictory guidance (e.g., "be very detailed" and "keep it brief").

Account access and login problems

If you're having trouble accessing your Yawn account:

1. Reset your password: Use the password reset feature to regain access.
2. Check your authentication setup: If you've enabled two-factor authentication, make sure you have access to your authentication app or backup codes.
3. Clear browser cache and cookies: Sometimes login issues can be resolved by clearing your browser data and trying again.
4. Try a different browser: If you're experiencing persistent issues, try logging in from a different browser or device.

Immediate forwarding not working correctly

If urgent emails aren't being forwarded immediately:

1. Verify immediate forwarding is enabled: Check the toggle in your Customization tab.
2. Understand what qualifies as "urgent": Yawn identifies emails as urgent if they contain verification codes, password resets, or other time-sensitive content. Not all emails will qualify.
3. Use Verbatim classification: For senders whose emails you always want to receive immediately, set up a "Verbatim" classification.
4. Check your primary email's spam folder: Forwarded urgent emails might sometimes be filtered as spam.

Still having issues?

If you've tried the troubleshooting steps above and are still experiencing problems:

• Contact support: Email us at hello@yawn.email with a detailed description of the issue you're experiencing.
• Include relevant information: When contacting support, include your Yawn username, when the issue started, what steps you've already tried, and any error messages you've received.
• Check service status: Major service issues will be communicated to all users. Make sure your contact email is up to date in your account settings to receive these notifications.

Most issues with Yawn can be resolved through these troubleshooting steps. Remember that Yawn is constantly evolving, and your feedback helps us improve the service for everyone.

Yawn's AI is powerful and adaptable, capable of following detailed instructions to create precisely the email summaries you want. This guide helps you craft effective custom instructions to get the most out of Yawn's summarization capabilities.

Understanding how Yawn's AI works

Yawn uses advanced AI to process and summarize your emails. The AI:

• Reads and understands the content of each email
• Identifies important information, dates, numbers, and action items
• Categorizes emails by type (promotional, transactional, newsletters, etc.)
• Prioritizes content based on your instructions
• Generates concise summaries while preserving key details
• Organizes all summaries into a coherent digest

The better your instructions, the more tailored your summaries will be to your specific needs.

Crafting effective AI instructions

1. Be specific about content preferences

Tell the AI exactly what information matters most to you:

2. Specify organization preferences

Guide how you want information structured:

3. Define importance criteria

Help the AI understand what "important" means to you:

4. Specify detail level preferences

Control how verbose or concise you want summaries to be:

5. Include personal context

The more the AI knows about your situation, the better it can prioritize:

Sample AI instructions for specific needs

For busy professionals:

For deal hunters:

For newsletter readers:

For minimalists:

Advanced techniques for power users

1. Conditional formatting

You can create complex rules for how different emails should be handled:

2. Exclusion criteria

Specify what to minimize or ignore:

3. Format specifications

Control exactly how information is presented:

Refining your instructions over time

The best AI instructions evolve based on your experience with the summaries:

1. Start with basic preferences and add detail as you notice opportunities for improvement.
2. Inspect your summaries to identify patterns of information you either don't need or wish were included.
3. Add specific examples when clarifying what you want: "When I get emails from Amazon, I want to see the specific items mentioned, like you did with the 'Amazon - Your order of Bluetooth headphones has shipped' summary."
4. Update seasonally or when your priorities change. For example, add special instructions during holiday shopping season or when working on a specific project.

Combining custom instructions with manual classifications

For the most control over your summaries, use both tools together:

1. Use manual classifications for specific senders that always require a certain treatment.
2. Use custom instructions for general rules and handling of all other emails.
3. Reference your classifications in your instructions: "For emails not already set to Verbatim or High in my manual classifications, prioritize based on these criteria..."

Examples of effective instruction adjustments

By taking the time to craft detailed, specific instructions for Yawn's AI, you're effectively creating a personal assistant that knows exactly how you want your email information presented. The initial investment in creating good instructions pays off with summaries that perfectly match your preferences and workflow needs. Remember that the nature of AI means that each summary will always slightly differ, just as each conversation does when you're talking with the same person.