Say ‘Dear @firstname’ like you mean it
As Android Police’s newsletter editor (go subscribe if you haven’t already!), I’ve come to know the power of merge fields first-hand. If you don’t know what they are, they’re extremely useful in sending mass emails where, if you’ve collected the data from people, you can slot them into specific places as needed. It’s how organizational senders are about to personalize their greetings to each recipient. Well, Google is giving its Workspace customers the power of something it’s called merge tags in Gmail.
The merge tags are limited in usefulness at this point and it’s based on basic information tied to recipients’ email accounts including their name and email address.
Any user can use merge tags by turning on multi-send mode in the composition toolbar — the icon is a stack of envelopes — and then type ‘@’ to bring up a drop menu of tags including @firstname, @lastname, @fullname, and @email. Each recipient will receive their own information merged into their own message without you having to send 30 separate emails with unique greetings.
Google has greatly expanded the power of @tags through its Workspace suite of products from Docs to Sheets to Slides. From keeping people up to date with drafts to referencing points of interest, they’ve really become a handy shortcut in a world full of tedious processes.
The rollout is ongoing and will last for at least a month to saturate all domains. Customers on Workspace Business and Enterprise from the Standard tier on up as well as Education Plus and Individual subscribers are eligible to use this feature.
