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I would like to know exactly what text causes the Gmail pop-up dialog box that warns that you may have forgotten to attach files to an e-mail.

I have visited a lot of webpage describing the feature, but most of them just give a few examples of text strings and allude to there being more. The longest list I have found is here, and even that site does not say it has an exhaustive list.

It gives:

  • "I have attached"
  • "I've attached"
  • "I have included"
  • "I've included"
  • "see the attached"
  • "attached file"

If someone can find the definitive list, please post it!

Note: In case Gmail is being intentionally secretive about this (so that they can more easily make changes to it in the future), I intend to upvote answers that mention text strings that are not on this list and that do cause the warning (I will test them first though, and anyone else voting should too!). That way we will be able to piece together the answer.

Note also that depending on the answer to this question: Can I customize the Gmail missing attachment alerter?, you might be able to change what text triggers the warning, but I would still like to know the default.

4
  • 4
    I doubt that you'll be able to find a list. One, it's probably a trade secret that allow Gmail to differentiate itself, and two, they'd have to maintain two lists: one in the code and one on the support page.
    – ale
    Jul 16, 2013 at 15:40
  • “See the attachment” also works.
    – Alex
    Dec 13, 2014 at 12:08
  • You can't work out a complete list by collecting text that triggers the message. To know you have a complete list, you also have to have a list of all text that doesn't trigger the message, which is obviously impossible.
    – Mike Scott
    Jul 6, 2015 at 5:52
  • 1
    @MikeScott It is possible. JavaScript code is loaded in browser and can be looked into using Chrome Dev Tools
    – IsmailS
    Mar 6, 2016 at 19:35

3 Answers 3

11
+50

I'm implementing a similar feature in another application, and rather than guessing my way, I went ahead and stole the JavaScript source from Gmail itself. As of today, Gmail matches on the following:

see attached
see attachment
see included
is attached
attached is
are attached
attached are
attached to this email
attached to this message
I'm attaching
I am attaching
I've attached
I have attached
I attach
I attached
find attached
find the attached
find included
find the included
attached file
see the attached
see attachments
attached files
see the attachment
5
+100

Using Chrome Dev Tools, while inspecting/searching within all loaded scripts in GMAIL, I found this code

if (!a && !c) {
  c = m_c(this, d, b, this.Jk);
  c = hZc(new cZc(this.rv(b)), c, b, "");
  if (Ea(c))
    c = null ;
  else {
    var e = this.Yp.zi("sx_dl"), 
    d = "see attached|see attachment|see included|is attached|attached is|are attached|attached are|attached to this email|attached to this message|I'm attaching|I am attaching|I've attached|I have attached|I attach|I attached|find attached|find the attached|find included|find the included|attached file|see the attached|see attachments|attached files|see the attachment";
    /^(zh|ja|ko)/.exec(e) ? d = "(" + d + ")" : (e = /[^!-~\s]/.exec(c) ? "(?:[\\s!-/:-@[-`{-~])" : "\\b",
    d = e + "(" + d + ")" + e);
    c = (c = (new RegExp(d,"i")).exec(c)) ? 
    c[1] : null 
  }
  if (c) {
    (d = !this.bx.dIa('It seems like you have forgotten to attach a file.\n\nYou wrote "' + (c + '" in your message, but there are no files attached. Send anyway?'))) ? this.Tq.ra(fRa, c.toLowerCase()) : this.Tq.ra(cRa, c.toLowerCase());
    c = d;
    break a
  }
}

Closely observing the code, it says, these are the words which GMAIL matches

see attached
see attachment
see included
is attached
attached is
are attached
attached are
attached to this email
attached to this message
I'm attaching
I am attaching
I've attached
I have attached
I attach
I attached
find attached
find the attached
find included
find the included
attached file
see the attached
see attachments
attached files
see the attachment

and alerts It seems like you have forgotten to attach a file. You wrote <matched words> in your message, but there are no files attached. Send anyway?

1

There is no such list.

But You can send feedback to Google, click the gear while you are in gmail and click send feedback - note not all accounts have that option , if you don't , click the gear , click help , click send feedback.

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