Where exactly does the draft appear?

In the Drafts folder of the mailbox itself — a real Gmail draft or a real Outlook draft. Open the Gmail app on your phone and it is sitting there like any draft you started yourself. You can also work from the shared inbox here; both are looking at the same draft.

Can I edit it before it goes?

Yes, and the edit is what gets sent. Change the wording, add a cc, drop an attachment in — approving hands the final version over in one step rather than saving and then sending, so there is no window where an older version can slip out.

What if I click approve twice?

The second click does nothing. Approval is only accepted while the message is still a draft; once it has been sent it is no longer in that state, so a stray second click, a duplicate tab or a flaky connection cannot send the same reply twice.

What if I delete the draft in Gmail instead?

Deleting it is a discard: nothing is sent. Approving is a separate act — if you delete the draft in Gmail and then approve from here anyway, the reply still goes, from the content that was stored. Neither action fails silently on you.

A colleague answered it from Gmail before I got there. What happens?

Their reply syncs back onto the thread here, because the sent folder is watched as well as the inbox. The thread shows the answer that actually went to the customer, and the agent is not left drafting a reply to a question that has already been handled.

Can some threads send by themselves while others wait for me?

Yes. Draft mode is a default you set on the mailbox, and any individual thread can override it in either direction. Most people leave a mailbox in draft mode and let a handful of routine threads run autonomously — or the reverse, with one difficult customer pinned to human-only.

It writes the reply. You press send.

Draft mode has the AI compose the answer to a customer email and save it as a draft in your own Gmail or Outlook Drafts folder, where you edit it, approve it, or discard it. Nothing reaches a customer until a person approves it, and approving the same draft twice cannot send it twice.

Connect a mailbox What it costs

Drafting draws on your plan's included credits. Discarded drafts are the cost of finding out whether you trust it — which is the point of the mode.

Or just ask for it

Ask for the draft. Approve it anywhere.

It’s a real draft, so your phone’s mail app already has it.

Gmailin:drafts from:octo

Octo7 drafts waiting — Oldest is from yesterday 4:12pm9:05am

OctoSent: Kepler invoice reply — You approved it at 9:319:31am

OctoApproval ignored — already sent — Second click could not send it twiceTue

Inbox7 drafts waiting

Dme9:02 AM

Draft a reply to Kepler about the invoice. Firm but not rude.

OOcto9:05 AM

In your Drafts folder — written through Gmail’s own drafts API, so it’s on your phone too. Approving updates that same draft and sends it, so there’s no orphan copy left behind.

Octoonline

read me the kepler draft9:20 AM ✓✓

“Thanks for flagging this. Invoice 4471 covers March and April; I’ve attached both timesheets…” — want the rest?9:20 AM

change “thanks for flagging this” to “understood”9:22 AM ✓✓

Edited in place. Same draft, still in Drafts.9:22 AM

send it9:23 AM ✓✓

Sent. If you tap approve again on your phone it won’t go twice — approval only counts while it’s still a draft.9:23 AM

Message➤

#omniocto4 members

MRMarcus2:10 PM

@Octo draft answers for everything in the queue, I’ll go through them tonight

OOctoAPP2:10 PM

On it 🔧(runningdraft_email_reply…)

Nine drafted, each with the right mailbox signature. Nothing sent. (edited)

🙏 2✅ 1

2 replies · last reply 11m ago

DWDana2:40 PM

discard the one to the recruiter, that’s spam

Message #omniocto

Email octo@agent.omniocto.com · WhatsApp 1-MAN-ASK-OCTO · Slack #omniocto

Where the draft lives

In your Drafts folder. Not in another tool's review queue.

This is the whole difference. A reply waiting in a vendor's dashboard is one more thing to check. A reply waiting in Gmail is where you already look, on the phone you already carry, with the send button you already trust.

support@harbourdental.com Drafts

Draft Saved to Drafts

Todana.whitfield@example.com

SubjectRe: Chipped tooth — can I be seen this week?

Hi Dana,

Sorry to hear about the tooth — that sounds miserable. We keep same-week slots for exactly this, and I've flagged your message for the front desk to call you back this morning on the number you gave us.

If the pain gets worse overnight, please call us directly rather than waiting for the callback.

Harbour Dental

This is the mailbox you already have open. Edit it, send it, or delete it — approving sends the version on your screen, recipients and attachments included, in a single step.

Recorded walkthrough

Evidence slot — not yet recorded A screen recording of a draft appearing in a real Gmail Drafts folder and being approved belongs here. It has not been filmed, so nothing stands in for it. This page is not published while the slot is empty.

How you'd hand it over

Three steps, and you keep the send button.

Connect the mailbox in draft mode

Nothing can send on day one.

Connect Gmail or Outlook and set the channel's default to draft. From that moment the AI is writing, and nothing it writes can leave without you.

"Connect support@harbourdental.com and put it in draft mode — I want to read everything before it goes out."

Read a week of drafts

Edit the ones that need it. Notice the ones that don't.

This is the real trial. You are not evaluating a demo, you are reading the answers it would have sent to your actual customers, and correcting them costs a sentence.

Loosen it thread by thread

Let the boring mail answer itself.

When a category of mail stops needing edits, let those threads run autonomously and keep the rest in draft. The setting is per thread, so it is a dial rather than a leap.

✓ Opening-hours questions autonomous · everything else still drafts

Why it holds up

The approval is the safety, so the approval is built carefully.

A real provider draft, and it is consumed on send

The draft is created through Gmail's and Outlook's own drafts APIs, and approving updates that same draft and sends it — so the Drafts folder is left clean instead of accumulating one orphan per approval.

native drafts · updated then sent · no orphans

Double-send-proof

Approval only works while the message is still a draft. Once it has gone, that door is closed — a second click, a stale tab or a retried request cannot produce a second email to your customer.

approve accepted once · edits ride in the same call

A colleague replying from Gmail is not invisible

The sent folder is watched alongside the inbox, so a reply typed straight into Gmail lands on the thread here too. The shared inbox shows what the customer actually received, and the AI is not left answering a settled question.

sent-folder sync · two-way thread state

Per thread, not just per mailbox

Draft is a default, not a cage. A single thread can be pushed to autonomous or pulled back to human-only without touching the mailbox setting, and the thread's own choice always wins.

thread override > channel default

Or approve from the shared inbox

If you'd rather work in one place, the same draft is in the shared inbox next to your WhatsApp, SMS, chat and call threads, with Edit, Approve & send and Discard on it.

same draft · either surface

Questions

The things people actually ask.

Where exactly does the draft appear?: In the Drafts folder of the mailbox itself — a real Gmail draft or a real Outlook draft. Open the Gmail app on your phone and it is sitting there like any draft you started yourself. You can also work from the shared inbox here; both are looking at the same draft.
Can I edit it before it goes?: Yes, and the edit is what gets sent. Change the wording, add a cc, drop an attachment in — approving hands the final version over in one step rather than saving and then sending, so there is no window where an older version can slip out.
What if I click approve twice?: The second click does nothing. Approval is only accepted while the message is still a draft; once it has been sent it is no longer in that state, so a stray second click, a duplicate tab or a flaky connection cannot send the same reply twice.
What if I delete the draft in Gmail instead?: Deleting it is a discard: nothing is sent. Approving is a separate act — if you delete the draft in Gmail and then approve from here anyway, the reply still goes, from the content that was stored. Neither action fails silently on you.
A colleague answered it from Gmail before I got there. What happens?: Their reply syncs back onto the thread here, because the sent folder is watched as well as the inbox. The thread shows the answer that actually went to the customer, and the agent is not left drafting a reply to a question that has already been handled.
Can some threads send by themselves while others wait for me?: Yes. Draft mode is a default you set on the mailbox, and any individual thread can override it in either direction. Most people leave a mailbox in draft mode and let a handful of routine threads run autonomously — or the reverse, with one difficult customer pinned to human-only.

Keep reading

Related jobs you can hand over.

Start

Start it in draft mode. Loosen it later.

Connect a mailbox See pricing

Drafting draws on your plan's included credits. Discarded drafts are the cost of finding out whether you trust it — which is the point of the mode.