Electronic mail (also known as e-mail, an English term derived from electronic mail) is a service that allows the exchange of messages through electronic communication systems.

The concept is mainly used to name the system that provides this service via the Internet through the SMTP protocol (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), but it can also name other similar systems that use different technologies. Email messages make it possible to send, in addition to text, any type of digital document (images, videos, audios, etc.).

According to abbreviationfinder.org, email communications are common in the corporate environment.

How email works

The operation of electronic mail is similar to that of postal mail. Both allow sending and receiving messages, which reach their destination thanks to the existence of an address. Email also has its own mailboxes: they are the servers that temporarily store messages until the recipient reviews them.

The American Ray Tomlinson was the one who added the at sign (@) to email addresses, with the intention of separating the name of the user and the server where the mailbox is hosted. The explanation is simple: @, in English, is pronounced at and means “in”. For example: [email protected] reads carlos at server.com (that is, carlos at server.com).

Structure of an email

In addition to all of the above, we also have to make known what the basic structure of any email is. Thus, we find the following basic elements:

The recipient. In this box called “To”, you can include both one and several addresses of people to whom the mail will be sent. In addition, the opportunity is given so that those addresses that are going to be included are not visible to the rest of the people who receive them.

Emails can be sent from computers and phones.

The case. It is the section where the topic on which the email revolves should appear briefly and succinctly.

The message. In this large section, is where you write the message you want to send. So that said text is, aesthetically speaking, just as we wish, tools are offered with which to choose the font, the alignment, the color, hyperlinks and even emoticons.

Email Attachments

However, we cannot ignore the fact that when sending an email, and in addition to the aforementioned text, and as we have previously highlighted, we can incorporate various materials or files. This means that we can attach both documents of various types (texts, spreadsheets, databases, pdf…) as well as photographs and even videos.

Then, whoever receives said email has different possibilities. Thus, you will not only be able to read it and reply to its sender, but you will also be able to forward it to other recipients, archive it, delete it permanently, mark it, add labels to it and also classify it as spam.

The email service is offered under two modalities: known as web mail or webmail, where messages are sent and received through a web page specially designed for it; and the service through an email client, which is a program that allows you to manage received messages and write new ones.