How to share an email thread or a large file by link

Why a link

• A thread reads better as a page. Forwarding ten messages sends ten quoted copies. A link shows the conversation once, message by message, with its attachments.
• You stay in control. You choose how long a link works, you see how often it was opened, and you can stop it at any time.
• Big files don’t bounce. The file waits on mello’s servers, and the recipient downloads it when they like. Their inbox only gets a short line with the link.

Share a conversation

1. In the webmail, open any message of the conversation.
2. Choose More above the message (or press m), then Share by link. You can also press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux) and type “share”.
3. Next to Link works for, pick 1 day, 7 days, 30 days or until I stop it. 7 days is preselected.
4. Choose Create link, then Copy (or press y), and paste the link wherever you need it: a chat, a ticket, another email.

The link covers the whole conversation, the messages you received and your replies, wherever they are filed, up to 100 messages. It’s a snapshot: replies that come later aren’t added. To share those too, make a new link.

What the other person sees

They open the link in any browser, with no account and no sign-in. The page is titled Shared conversation: the subject, the number of messages and how long the link works, then each message with its attachments, ready to download.

A few things are left out on purpose:

• Bcc recipients are never shown, not even on the messages you sent.
• Remote images stay off, so opening the link doesn’t report to the senders’ trackers.
• Search engines don’t index the page. Only people who have the link can find it.

Anyone with the link can read the conversation, so share it as carefully as the messages themselves.

Stop sharing

You can stop a link whenever you like, and it stops working at once. Whoever opens it next reads “This link has expired or was stopped.”

• From the conversation: open More → Share by link again. Under Links to this conversation, each live link shows until when it works and how many views it has had, with Copy and Stop sharing.
• All your links in one place: open Settings → Accesses and scroll down to Conversations shared by link. Each one is listed with its subject, its end date and its views, and the same two buttons.

Deleting the messages doesn’t stop a link: what you shared stays readable until the link expires or you stop it. Use Stop sharing for that.

Send a large file

Attach the file as you always do. mello decides on its own whether it goes in the message or as a link.

1. In a new message, choose Attach and pick your files. The hint next to it says it too: files over 20 MB, up to 1 GB, are sent as a link.
2. As long as a message’s files add up to 20 MB, they are attached as usual. Any file past that is uploaded to mello instead, with its progress beside it: Uploading 42%.
3. When the upload is done, the file shows Link added, and the message gets a line with the file’s name, its size and the link, followed by the date it’s valid until.
4. Send the message. Send waits until every upload is finished.

The line is ordinary text: you can move it or write around it. Cancel next to a file stops its upload.

What the recipient gets

The link opens a page titled Download a file, with the file’s name, its size, the date it’s available until, and a Download button. No account is needed. Images, PDFs, text, spreadsheets and office documents also show a preview on the page, as long as they aren’t too big (10 MB for images, 25 MB for the rest).

The file is kept for 30 days, then deleted from mello’s servers. After that, the page reads “This link has expired or was removed.” If someone needs it later, send it again.

The limits

If you reach the 10 GB, mello asks you to wait until older files expire.

What you can’t do yet

• Remove a file before it expires. The webmail doesn’t list the files you’ve shared yet, so a file stays reachable for its 30 days. If you need one gone sooner, the mello API does it with your address and password: curl -u you@mello.mx https://mail.mello.mx/api/file-shares lists your files with their ids, and curl -u you@mello.mx -X DELETE https://mail.mello.mx/api/file-shares/<id> removes one.
• Share mail from a shared mailbox. Only your own mail can be shared by link. In a shared mailbox, or one someone delegated to you, the option isn’t there: forward the messages instead.
• Keep a file longer than 30 days. For a link that lasts, use a cloud drive.

If several people need to follow a conversation as it goes on, a shared mailbox suits that better than a link.