How to Set Up an Out-of-Office Automatic Reply (Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail, Thexyz)

How to Set Up an Out-of-Office Automatic Reply: Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail and Thexyz

An out-of-office automatic reply (Gmail calls it a vacation responder, Yahoo a vacation response) sends a message back to people who email you while you are away. You choose the dates, the subject and the message, and the provider sends the reply for you. This guide covers the web versions of Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail, plus Thexyz.

All the steps below were checked against each provider's own help pages on October 24, 2026. Providers rename menus from time to time, so if a label looks a little different, look for the nearest match.

Gmail

Google's help page for this feature is written for the Gmail web app on a computer. To set up a vacation responder:

Step 1: On your computer, open Gmail.
Step 2: At the top right, click Settings, then See all settings.
Step 3: On the General tab, scroll to the Vacation responder section and select Vacation responder on.
Step 4: Fill in the date range, the subject and the message.
Step 5: Optional: to send the reply to your contacts only, check the box under the message.
Step 6: At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.

How it behaves, according to Google:

Start and end times: The reply starts at 12:00 AM on the start date and ends at 11:59 PM on the end date, unless you end it earlier.
Who gets it: In most cases a person receives your reply only the first time they message you. They can get it again if they contact you after four days and the reply is still on, or if they email you after you edit the reply.
No reply for some mail: Emails sent to your spam folder, or addressed to a mailing list you subscribe to, do not get your reply.
Signature: If you have a signature, it shows below the reply.
Turning it off early: While the responder is on, a banner shows across the top of your inbox. Click End now on the banner to turn it off.

Outlook.com

Microsoft calls this feature automatic replies. Its help page for Outlook.com and Outlook on the web gives these steps:

Step 1: Sign in to Outlook.com and select Settings at the top of the page.
Step 2: Go to Account, then Automatic replies. (Microsoft's pages spell this menu both Account and Accounts, so use whichever your Settings window shows.)
Step 3: Turn the Automatic replies toggle on.
Step 4: Tick Send replies only during a time period, then enter a start and end time. If you do not set a time period, the reply stays on until you switch the toggle off yourself.
Step 5: Type the message you want people to receive. The formatting options above the box let you change the font, colour and more.
Step 6: Tick Send replies only to contacts if you want the reply to go only to outside senders who are in your Contacts list.
Step 7: Select Save.

Microsoft's separate Outlook.com page also lists optional extras you can choose while setting the dates: block my calendar for the period, automatically decline new invitations for events during the period, and decline and cancel my meetings during the period. It also mentions a second message for people outside your organization, which applies to work or school accounts. Microsoft says that sending replies outside your organization answers every email you receive, including newsletters, advertisements and possibly junk mail, and recommends choosing Send replies only to contacts.

To turn it off, go back to Settings, Account, Automatic replies and switch the toggle off. If you are using the Outlook app on Windows or another Outlook program, note that Microsoft says automatic replies are not supported for Gmail, Yahoo or other POP or IMAP accounts added to Outlook, so set those up in the provider's own webmail instead.

Yahoo Mail

Yahoo calls this a vacation response. Yahoo's help page for the new Yahoo Mail gives these steps:

Step 1: Open Yahoo Mail in a desktop browser.
Step 2: Click the More icon on the left side of the screen, below your mail folders, and select Settings.
Step 3: Click Vacation response.
Step 4: Turn on Turn on vacation response.
Step 5: Under Show vacation response during these dates, choose a start and end date.
Step 6: Type your vacation response in the Message field. Yahoo says your changes save automatically.

To use a different message for specific senders, make sure the vacation response is on, choose Send a different response to specific domains, enter up to 2 domains (such as yahoo.com or gmail.com), and enter the message for them. To turn the vacation response off, toggle Turn on vacation response off.

Yahoo's page does not mention a contacts-only option, so I am not describing one. The domain setting is the closest control it documents.

Thexyz

Thexyz has two knowledge base articles on automatic replies, depending on which webmail you use. Thexyz knowledge base: How to Set Up an Out-of-Office Reply in SOGo Webmail and Adding an auto-reply message to your incoming emails.

In SOGo Webmail:

Step 1: Log in to SOGo Webmail.
Step 2: Open the preferences panel by clicking your user icon or going through the settings menu.
Step 3: Choose Mail from the menu on the left, then choose Vacation at the top.
Step 4: Check Enable vacation auto reply.
Step 5: Fill in the form: the start and end dates, the subject and the message.
Step 6: Click the green floppy disk icon in the right-hand corner of the page to save.

In Thexyz Webmail: Thexyz's auto-reply article says to log in to Webmail at webmail.thexyz.com and go to the settings tab on the right. There you can set the Status (auto-reply on or off), type the Auto-Reply Message, and tick Enable only during the following time frame to choose a start and end date and time.

The two articles use different names for the same job, and another Thexyz article, How to create email delivery rules in Webmail, says that for a general out-of-office message you should use Vacation Message in the Webmail settings sidebar. So look for Vacation Message in the Webmail settings, or Vacation in SOGo. Thexyz also has an Auto reply rule action for a single address such as sales@, but its article says to use the vacation setting for a general out-of-office message.

Tips for a Good Out-of-Office Message

Do not announce your travel dates publicly: An automatic reply goes to anyone who emails you, including strangers and scammers. Say you are away and when you will reply, rather than where you are going, and consider sending it to contacts only where your provider offers that option (Gmail and Outlook.com do).
Set an end date: A reply with an end date switches itself off. Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail and both Thexyz webmails all let you enter dates. Without one, Outlook.com keeps replying until you turn it off yourself.
Give an alternate contact: If people need something urgently, name a colleague or another address they can use while you are away.
Keep it short: Say you are away, when you plan to reply and who to contact. There is no need to explain more.
Test it: Send a message to your account from a different email address to see the reply, and check the end date before you leave.
Turn it off when you are back: If you ended up returning early, switch the reply off so people are not told you are still away.

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Saturday, 24 October 2026