Message Expiration

Applies To: □ PoliteMail Desktop  ■PoliteMail Online  ■ PoliteMail M365

Version: □ 4.9   □ 5.0  ■ 5.1+

Message Expiration is a great new feature of PoliteMail that allows you to set an expiration date on a message.  Messages that are expired will show in an Inbox, but when viewed it will only display for a brief moment before an alternate message shows stating the message has expired.

Use Cases

• This can be an excellent feature for time-sensitive message that are invalid after a specific date and time.
• Expiring a message is a great option if a message was sent in error; the expiration built into Outlook has very little functionality, and recalling a message asks the recipient to allow it first.  In PoliteMail, an Expired Message can take place almost immediately, even to large lists.

Pre-Requisites

For Message Expiration to work, you must 1) have a Sender ID entered in your Account Settings, 2) O365 Measurement must be enabled by your PoliteMail admin, and 3) have O365 Measurement enabled in the message itself.  

Setting a Message Expiration

PoliteMail Online: When composing a message, click on Send Options in the toolbar, and then select 'Expire Message'.  If the message has already been sent, look under the Actions drop-down from Results > Messages.  Note that setting an expiration AFTER the message has been sent will work only if the message was sent using M365 measurement.

PoliteMail 365: In the PoliteMail panel on the right side of the screen, select 'PoliteMail Expiration' towards the bottom of the panel.

The Schedule Message Expiration window appears:

• Select a date and time for the message to expire.  The date and time you choose will adjust relative to the time zones of your recipients.
• [optional] Use the Message Header toggle to include a custom message that the recipient will see if they open the message after it has expired.
• [optional] Use the Expiration Link toggle to include a URL the user can click on for further information.  You can also include the link text if you want it to say something unique.  This link will be measured like any other link in your measured message but will only appear to users after the message has expired.
• Click 'Confirm Expiration'.

Viewing Message Expirations

You can view the expiration dates of all messages when you click on Results > Messages. Expiration Date is a column heading you can display by clicking the down arrow in any column heading to customize your view.

• Messages that say 'Never' have no expiration associated. 
  • Messages sent using an earlier version of PoliteMail that did not support expiration will also display 'Never' and cannot be updated with an expiration (i.e., Message Expiration is not compatible with versions of PoliteMail prior to version 5.1).
• Messages with a yellow clock will expire within the next hour.
• Message with a red clock have expired already.

Deleting or Modifying Expirations

• From the Results > Messages list, select the message to modify and go under Actions > Expiration Settings. 
• The Edit Message Expiration window will display, which is the same window that displayed when you first created the Expiration.
• To change the Expiration, make any desired changes to the fields and then click 'Confirm Expiration.'
• To delete the Expiration, click the 'Revert Expiration' button.

Notes

• You can also select multiple messages to change their Expiration in bulk, although you will not be able to view details.
• Changing or deleting an Expiration will not have any effect on messages that have already been viewed/read by a recipient.
• Admins can manage the Expirations of all messages; Users can modify the expiration of only their own messages.