Send Emails After Death: How It Works
Write to the people you love now, and let your words arrive when they need them most.
What does it mean to send an email after death?
Sending an email after death means writing a message today and storing it with a service that delivers it once you have died. You choose who receives it, what it says, and what has to happen before it is sent. The message waits safely until that moment, then arrives in your recipient's inbox exactly as you left it.
People use it for the things that are hard to say out loud, and for moments they know they will miss — a letter to a partner, an explanation for a child, a story only you can tell.
How does Everlasting Email send an email after you die?
You write the message once. Then you choose how it should be released. There are three ways, and you can use different ones for different messages.
Auto-Delivery check-ins
You confirm you are OK every 7 to 90 days, whichever interval suits you. Reminders go out by email and SMS before each deadline. If the check-ins stop, your messages are delivered. You can also ask a trusted contact to confirm first, so a missed check-in on its own never sends anything.
Learn more →Two-person delivery codes
You name two people and give each of them half of a delivery code. After you have died, both halves have to be entered together before your messages are released. No single person can do it alone, which makes it very hard to trigger by mistake.
Learn more →A date you choose
Some messages do not need to wait for anything but the calendar. Pick a date — next year, or thirty years from now — and the message is delivered then, whether or not you are still here.
Learn more →What should you write?
Most people overthink this. The messages that land hardest are rarely grand ones. They are specific: the nickname, the argument you want to settle, the reason you chose their name.
A few things worth including:
- What you loved about them, in detail rather than in general.
- Something practical they will be glad to know — where things are, what you would have done.
- Permission to grieve, and permission to stop grieving.
- A short video or a handful of photos, if talking comes easier than writing.
Who can read my messages before they are sent?
Nobody but you. Your messages are encrypted at rest and in transit, and our staff do not read them. There is no browsing, no scanning for advertising, and no human review of what you wrote.
Recipients only ever see a message once its delivery conditions are met — a lapsed check-in, both halves of a code, or the date arriving. Until then it simply waits, encrypted.
How is this different from leaving instructions in your will?
Unlike relying on your will or your executor, nothing here depends on someone remembering, finding a document, or being willing to carry out a personal request. A will is a legal instrument for property. It is usually read weeks or months after a death, often by a lawyer, and it was never designed to hold a private letter to your daughter.
This sits alongside your will rather than replacing it. Your executor handles the estate; Everlasting Email handles the words. It is also faster: messages can arrive within days rather than after probate.
Frequently asked questions
Can an email really be sent after I die?
Yes. The message is stored with us rather than in your own inbox, so it does not depend on your email account still existing or on anyone knowing your password. Once the delivery conditions you chose are met, our systems send it like any other email.
How does the service know I have died?
It does not know on its own — you decide what counts as the signal. With Auto-Delivery it is a run of missed check-ins, optionally confirmed by a trusted contact. With delivery codes it is two people you named entering their halves of the code. With a scheduled date it is simply the date arriving.
Is it legally binding like a will?
No. Everlasting Email is not a legal document and does not replace a will, a power of attorney, or estate planning advice. It complements them. Your will handles property and legal instructions; your messages carry the personal things a will was never designed to hold.
What happens to my messages if the company shuts down?
We would rather answer this honestly than simply reassure you. The service is deliberately cheap to run — serverless infrastructure that costs almost nothing while a message is only waiting — and long-horizon storage is funded from payments already made, so a message waiting decades does not depend on next year's sales. No service can promise it will exist forever. What we can commit to is that if we ever had to wind down, you and your trusted contact would get plenty of notice and a way to export everything you have stored, rather than finding it gone.
Can I include videos or photos?
Yes. A message can carry recorded video, photos and file attachments alongside the text, depending on your plan. Many people find it easier to say something out loud than to write it, and hearing your voice is a very different experience for a recipient than reading a paragraph.
How much does it cost?
You can write and store one message for free. Paid plans start at a low yearly price and add more messages, more recipients, video, photos and attachments, with Auto-Delivery included on the higher plans. Date-based deliveries are purchased individually and stay active indefinitely once bought. The pricing page has the full comparison.
Say it now. We will take care of the timing.
Start free with one message. No card needed.