Mail¶
Connect your own mailboxes and the AI helps you with them: what's new, what an email says, a reply in your words. Your mail is yours only: nobody else sees it, the Captain included.
Connecting a mailbox¶
Ops → Messages → Connect email: type your email address and its password. Starfarer works out the provider from the address and fills in the server settings (change them under Server settings, or pick Other for your own).
| Provider | What to type as the password |
|---|---|
| Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL | an app password made on the provider's own site (the line under the box links straight to the page that makes one) |
| Fastmail, Proton Mail (through its Bridge), most others | the app password or normal password the provider gives mail programs |
| Outlook.com | no password: Sign in with Microsoft instead (see below) |
Starfarer tries the password before keeping it, and keeps it scrambled and locked to the Starbase computer. If you change or cancel it at the provider, Ops asks for a new one. It works over IMAP (or POP3, which can't mark or delete).
Outlook.com takes no passwords from other programs, so it uses Microsoft's own sign-in: each person signs in on Microsoft's page. This needs a Microsoft app registered once for the household; the steps are in Ops → Messages → Outlook.
Reading and answering¶
Click a mailbox in Ops → Messages to open its inbox; an email opens beside it, in its own layout dressed in the ship's look (made safe first: nothing in it runs, trackers are dropped, its pictures are fetched by Starbase, links open in a new tab). Pictures attached show after it, and a PDF opens with a click. Opening an email marks it read, as a mail app does; Mark unread puts it back.
An open email has Reply, Reply all, Forward, Mark read / unread and Delete (to your provider's Trash, never gone for good). New email writes a new one. Each has To, Cc and Bcc. Draft it for me has the AI write the reply in your voice, from what you type or from the email alone, for you to change and send. A reply quotes the email and stays in its thread; a forward takes the attachments along.
Asking the AI¶
| Ask | It |
|---|---|
| "Any emails from Kim today?", "do I have new mail?" | checks |
| "Check my email" | puts your inbox on the Viewscreen to tap or pick by number |
| "Read me the email from the bank", "read email 2" | reads it (and opens it in full on the Viewscreen) |
| "What's the code in my latest email?" | gives a sign-in code only when you ask for it |
| "Mark them all read" | does it |
| "Reply to Kim saying I'll be there at 7" | writes it, reads the whole reply back with who it goes to, and sends it only after your PIN |
| "Forward that to joe@example.com", "delete the email from the bank" | the same: read back, then your PIN |
Who gets your mail only ever comes from your own words or the email itself: the AI asks for an address rather than guess one. An email's words are never taken as instructions. At most 30 emails go out an hour.
New-email notices are off to start with: turn them on in Ready Room → You → Notifications (Starbase then looks every few minutes). A notice says who it's from, never what it says.
Away missions never get your mail: anything with your mail is talked through with you first.