11

In Gmail, when I receive a reply to a message with Subject: X, and the reply has Subject: Re: X, it correctly recognises it as a reply and sorts the message in the same thread/conversation.

However, if the reply has a subject Aw: X or Sv: X, as may happen when people use non-English e-mail clients, Gmail appears to not recognise the message as part of the conversation.

Is it possible to tune or configure Gmail to make it understand non-English reply prefixes?

If so, how?

Improve this question
4
  • I imagine this might be dependent on whatever language is set as the "Gmail display language"...? Would "Aw: X" and "Sv: X" be two different languages?
    – MrWhite
    Aug 3, 2012 at 10:13
  • Yes. Aw would be German, Sv would be Norwegian or Swedish. I communicate in multiple languages.
    – gerrit
    Aug 3, 2012 at 11:38
  • And if your display language is set as German and you get a reply as "Aw: X", is it grouped as a conversation? Or does it make no difference? I'm not saying this is an answer, just trying to figure out what Gmail is doing. I assume conversations do work in other languages, since it is a key part of how Gmail works. But I could understand that it might only work for one language at a time (although I could be wrong). Gmail currently supports 57 languages, so I imagine there is quite a variety of prefixes.
    – MrWhite
    Aug 3, 2012 at 12:15
  • 4
    Though it doesn't help your problem, the "Re:" is actually supposed to be Latin for "in the matter of", not English for "Reply", see section 3.6.5 of faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html. So the world is wrong, sort of.
    – dsolimano
    Aug 3, 2012 at 17:11

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

It should be using the References: header of the email messages. However, not all email clients provide a correct References header. There is nothing you can do about Gmail's processing of the mail headers.

Some references:

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    It seems my issue is mostly when people use Microsoft Outlook...
    – gerrit
    Aug 8, 2012 at 16:28

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.