Not every email deserves a reply, and not every email should ever be missed. SmartReplyAssistant handles both ends of that spectrum with two built-in behaviours: Fast-check, which quietly skips senders that no human should answer, and VIP senders, which makes sure the people who matter never slip past you. This article explains how each one works, where you configure them, and who on your team is allowed to change them.
What Fast-check does
Most inboxes are full of mail that was never meant to start a conversation: shipping notifications, password resets, newsletters, billing receipts and do-not-reply announcements. Drafting a reply to any of these is pointless. It wastes your AI quota and tempts you into sending an answer that lands in an unmonitored mailbox.
Fast-check is a fast pre-check that runs the moment you open an email, before any reply is generated. When it decides a sender is automated, no-reply or a newsletter, SmartReplyAssistant does not generate a draft and the Reply button is disabled. You see a short note explaining why, so nothing happens silently.
- No quota burned. The AI is never called for mail that cannot be answered.
- No pointless drafts. You are not tempted to reply into a void.
- Faster triage. Automated mail is visually flagged so you can archive it and move on.
How Fast-check detects no-reply senders
Fast-check looks at signals in the message itself rather than guessing from the subject line. It combines several checks, and if any of them clearly marks the sender as non-human, the reply is skipped.
- Local part of the address. Addresses such as
no-reply@,noreply@,donotreply@,bounce@,mailer-daemon@andnotifications@are treated as automated. - Common info aliases. Generic role addresses like
info@ornewsletter@are recognised as broadcast senders rather than individuals. - Mail headers. Headers that mark bulk and automated mail, such as
List-Unsubscribe,Precedence: bulkandAuto-Submitted, are strong signals that no reply is expected. - Newsletter footprint. Unsubscribe links and standard newsletter structure reinforce the decision.
The table below shows how each sender type is handled.
| Sender type | Example | Fast-check action |
|---|---|---|
| No-reply / automated | no-reply@shop.com | Reply skipped, button disabled |
| Newsletter / bulk | has List-Unsubscribe | Reply skipped, button disabled |
| Info / role alias | info@vendor.com | Flagged as broadcast, reply skipped |
| System notification | bounce@mailer.net | Reply skipped, button disabled |
| Normal human sender | anna@bigclient.com | Reply generated as usual |
Because the Reply button is simply disabled for these senders, you can still read the message normally. Fast-check only removes the option to draft a reply where a reply makes no sense.
What VIP senders do
The opposite problem is just as costly: a contract question from your best customer arriving in the same grey list as fifty newsletters. VIP senders make sure those messages stand out the instant they arrive.
You maintain a list of important senders. When an email from any of them is opened, the plugin plays a sound and shows a VIP alert popup, so you immediately know this one matters. There is no chance of it quietly scrolling past.
- Single addresses for specific people, for example
anna@bigclient.com. - Whole domains for an entire organisation, for example
@bigclient.com, so every person at that company triggers the alert.
Setting up VIP senders
Adding VIP senders takes a few seconds and applies the next time a matching email is opened.
- Open the Plugin page in your SmartReplyAssistant workspace.
- Find the VIP senders field.
- Enter a full email address (e.g.
anna@bigclient.com) or a whole domain prefixed with@(e.g.@bigclient.com). - Add as many entries as you need, one per line.
- Save. The sound and popup now fire whenever one of these senders is opened.
Use single addresses for individual key contacts and domains when an entire client or partner organisation should always be flagged.
Where to configure both
Both behaviours live on the same Plugin page, so you manage them in one place:
- Fast-check is a workspace setting you can enable or disable. While it is on, automated and newsletter senders are skipped automatically with no per-sender setup required.
- VIP senders is the list of addresses and domains described above, with its sound-and-popup alert.
The two work together: Fast-check clears the noise so you spend no time on mail that needs no answer, while VIP senders pushes the few truly important messages to the front of your attention.
Who can edit
Both settings are part of the shared workspace configuration, so changes apply to everyone in that workspace. To keep that configuration consistent, only certain roles can edit it.
| Role | Can edit Fast-check & VIP senders |
|---|---|
| Owner | Yes |
| Manager | Yes |
| Editor | Yes |
| Member | No (uses the settings, cannot change them) |
In short: owners, managers and editors configure Fast-check and the VIP list. Members benefit from both but cannot alter the shared rules, which keeps every reply in the workspace behaving the same way.
Ready to stop wasting drafts and never miss a key client again? Create your free SmartReplyAssistant account and set up Fast-check and VIP senders in minutes.