Glossary: the words FuturePostman uses

What the words in FuturePostman mean, from access code to tracked delivery, each with a link to the article that explains it.

Updated October 1, 20269 minutes to read

Look up a word you met in the app or in this help centre. Each entry says what the word means here and links to the article with the details.

Letters

Email letter: A letter delivered by email. The recipient gets a notice email and reads the letter on FuturePostman. The Terms of Service call it a digital letter. See Write and schedule an email letter.
Paper letter: A letter that is printed, put in an envelope and sent by post. The Terms of Service call it a physical letter. See Write and schedule a paper letter.
Composer: The page where both kinds of letter are written, opened with Compose. A switch at the top chooses between Email and Paper letter. See Send your first letter.
Recipient: The person a letter is for. An email letter can have up to 20 addresses, in To, Cc and Bcc together. A paper letter has one. See Add recipients and manage your contacts.
Contact: A saved email address with a name, kept under Contacts. The To field of the composer suggests your contacts, and an address you send to is added to them. See Add recipients and manage your contacts.
Draft: The letter you are writing, saved by the composer in the browser you write in. It is not stored in your account and does not include attached files. See Send your first letter.
Delivery time: The date and time an email letter goes out, in the time zone of the device you wrote it on. See What happens between writing a letter and its delivery.
Posting day: The day a paper letter is handed to the print centre, at 12:00 UTC. The letter arrives some days later, depending on the country. See Choose standard or tracked delivery and a country.
Schedule ahead: How far ahead your plan lets you schedule. For email letters the longest range of any plan is 100 years. A paper letter can wait 5 years at most, or as long as your plan schedules if that is less. See Plans and what each limit means.
Date written on the letter: A date you can set under More options in the composer, up to 1 year back. For an email letter it is shown in the notice email and on the opened letter. On a paper letter it is printed. Without one, the notice shows the day of delivery and a paper letter the posting day.
Status: Where a letter is on its way, shown under Manage Letters, for example Scheduled, Sent, Viewed or Not delivered for an email letter and At the print centre or Posted for a paper letter. See What the status of an email letter means and Follow a paper letter: tracking and statuses.
Manage Letters: The page that lists all your letters, with the tabs Email, Paper letter and Credits.

How an email letter is opened

Notice email: The email a recipient gets on the delivery time. It holds the private link, the access code and the names of attached files, not your text and not the files. If it gets lost, you can send it again from Email Details. See What happens between writing a letter and its delivery.
Private link: The link in the notice email. Each recipient gets a different one, and it opens only with the email address the letter was sent to. See What your recipient sees and how they open the letter.
Access code: The code in the notice email that the recipient types to open the letter. Each recipient gets a different one. Nobody can look it up afterwards, not even support. A notice that is sent again brings a new code, and the earlier one keeps working. See How your letters are protected.
Link stays open for: How long the private link works, set in the composer. It counts from the delivery, not from the day you write. After delivery you can add time with Extend link. See What happens between writing a letter and its delivery.
Trying again: The status of an email letter whose last try failed. FuturePostman tries again by itself, up to 5 times, and the date you chose stays as it is. See What the status of an email letter means.
Not delivered: The status of an email letter that failed for good. It is not tried again by itself, and you get an email about it. You can correct it with Edit or send it once more with Try again. See An email letter shows Not delivered or Trying again.
Bounce: The mail server of a recipient returns the notice email after it had accepted it. When every address of a letter does that, the letter changes from Sent to Not delivered, and the reason given is that the address refused the email. See Not delivered: the email and the reasons.
Reference: A short code that starts with FP-, shown to the recipient on the page of a letter. It opens nothing. Support can find the letter by it. See Contact FuturePostman support.
Attachment: A file sent with an email letter. The recipient opens it on the page of the letter, not from the email. How many files and how large depends on your plan. Your sent files are listed on the Files page. See Attach files and recordings to an email letter.
Recording: A voice or video message recorded in the composer with Voice or Video. It travels as an attachment. How long it can be depends on your plan. See Attach files and recordings to an email letter.
Sharing settings: What recipients may do with the attached files: download them, view them online, or both. The composer shows the choice in a line under Attachments, with Change next to it. See Control how recipients open your files.
Download limit: How many times each recipient can download a file. Viewing on the page is not counted. It is part of the sharing settings and can be changed later on the Files page. See Control how recipients open your files.
Layout: The look of the notice email: colours, header and type. Every plan has the standard layout. Plans with more layouts: Time Master Pro and Postmaster. See Choose a layout for the email your recipient gets.
Send anonymously: A switch under More options in the composer. The email letter then does not show your name or your email address to the recipient. Plans that include it: Time Master Pro and Postmaster. See Send an email letter without showing your name.
AI writer: Write with AI in the composer drafts a letter from a short description. You can edit the result. Plans that include it: Postmaster. See Let AI write a first draft of your letter.

Paper letters

Credit: What a paper letter is paid with. A letter costs one credit or more, depending on the country and the delivery option. Credits do not expire. See What a paper letter costs in credits.
Credit pack: A number of credits bought in one payment. See Buy credits for paper letters.
Standard delivery: Ordinary mail. There is no tracking and no confirmation that the letter arrived. See Choose standard or tracked delivery and a country.
Tracked delivery: Mail with a tracking number and a delivery confirmation. It is offered only for some countries. See Choose standard or tracked delivery and a country.
Print centre: The partner that prints a paper letter, puts it in an envelope and hands it to the postal service. The text, the address of the recipient, your name and, if printed, your address are passed to it. See What happens between writing a letter and its delivery.
Paper style: The typeface of the printed letter: Formal, Casual or Business. See Write and schedule a paper letter.
Greeting and sign-off: The line above your text and the line above your name on a paper letter. Both can be changed or emptied in the composer.
Page break: A mark in the text of a paper letter that starts a new page. Insert page break in the composer adds one. The mark itself is not printed.
Your postal address: Your own address as the sender of a paper letter, kept in Settings under Your postal address for paper letters. A paper letter cannot be sent without it. It is printed under your name at the end of the letter, unless you switch off Print my address under my name in the composer. See Set up your account and profile.
Stopped at inspection: The status of a paper letter the print centre could not accept as it is, often because of the address. See Follow a paper letter: tracking and statuses.
Returned: The status of a paper letter that was posted and came back, because the postal service could not deliver it. Its credits are not returned. See Follow a paper letter: tracking and statuses.
Could not be printed: The status of a paper letter the print centre has but could not process. It was not printed, and it cannot be sent again: delete it to get the credits back. See Follow a paper letter: tracking and statuses.

Plans and payment

Plan: What your account includes: how many email letters a month, how far ahead you can schedule, files, recordings and extras. The plans on sale are Free, Time Master Pro and Postmaster. See Plans and what each limit means.
Subscription: A paid plan, charged every month until you cancel. See Change or cancel your plan.
Letters this month: The count of email letters you sent or scheduled in the current month, shown in the composer and, as Email letters this month, on the Subscription page. A letter is counted when you schedule it, not when it is delivered. The count starts again on the first day of each month. Paper letters are not counted. See Plans and what each limit means.
Priority delivery: When many email letters are due in the same minute, letters from plans with priority delivery go out first. See What happens between writing a letter and its delivery.
Billing portal: The page of Stripe, the payment service, where you change your card and pay an open invoice. It opens with Manage Billing on the Billing page. See Find your invoices and change the payment method.
Credit ledger: The list of every change to your credits, on the Credits tab of Manage Letters: Purchase, Credits used, Refund and Bonus. See Buy credits for paper letters.

Public letters

Public letter: An email letter you also publish for everyone to read, with Also publish in the public gallery under More options. The recipient is never shown. See Share a letter in the public gallery.
Public gallery: The page Public Letters, where published letters can be read by anyone, without an account.
My public letters: The page in the sidebar that lists the letters you chose to publish, each with its status: In review, Approved, Published, Not approved or Not public.
Moderation: The review of a public letter by a moderator before it appears in the gallery. You get an email with the decision. See How public letters are reviewed.