Give the dates you are away and the day you are back, and say who is covering if anyone is. Hemmingway writes the automatic reply: that you are away, when you return, who to write to in the meantime, and nothing else. You paste it into your mail program's automatic reply setting yourself.
It sticks to what you type. No cover name means no one is named, and it does not promise a reply by a date you did not give.
What makes a good one
- Lead with the return date. The reader wants one thing: when you can deal with their email.
- Name one person and what they handle. "Ferran for anything urgent on the Kestrel account" is useful. "A colleague" is not. Ask them before you name them.
- Be honest about checking email. If you say you will look now and then, people wait for you. If you will not, say so and they go to your cover.
- Leave out where you are. The reply goes to everyone who writes, strangers and mailing lists included. They do not need to know you are abroad or that your house is empty.
An example
Asked for a message for someone away from Monday 2 to Friday 13 November and back on Monday 16 November, who will not read email until then, with Ferran Ortiz at ferran@example.com taking anything urgent on the Kestrel account, in a friendly, brief tone, a message along these lines is what to expect:
Thanks for your email. I'm away from Monday 2 November and back on Monday 16 November, and I won't be reading email until then.
For anything urgent on the Kestrel account, please write to Ferran Ortiz at ferran@example.com. I'll answer everything else when I'm back.
Other versions
Ask in the chat for a plainer one for colleagues, a one-line status for Slack or Teams, or a voicemail greeting. How to write an out of office message has more examples.
If you are off ill today, use the sick day email generator. For the handover note to whoever is covering, the AI email writer takes your rough notes.
Common questions
Is the out of office message generator free?
Yes. Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed, and this tool opens it with your answers filled in. You sign up once, and the message is written in the chat.
Does it turn on the auto-reply in Outlook or Gmail?
No. It writes the words. You paste them into the automatic reply or vacation responder setting in your own mail and set the dates there.
Can it write one for parental leave or leave with no end date?
Yes. Type "no return date yet" or the month you expect to be back in the first box, and name who is covering. Add the reason there if you want it mentioned.
Can it write a funny out of office message?
Yes. Ask for a light or funny tone in the last box. It still puts the dates and the contact first.
Will it sound like AI?
It is built not to. Hemmingway-1, the model behind it, came first on sounding like a person in our own blind test, Human-Likeness. It still helps to read it aloud and change any word you would not use.