The short answer: connect your Gmail or Outlook to alfred_, add your phone number, and tell it once: “Text me when anyone from @morrowarchitects.com emails about an RFI.” From then on, each new email that matches sends you a text with what it says, and the rest of your inbox stays quiet. Text back what to answer and alfred_ writes the reply in the thread. Nothing sends until you say send.
The answer that holds up the pour
You’re the superintendent on a three-story medical office building. On Tuesday you sent RFI 14 to the architect: the drawings show a 4-inch slab at the loading dock, the structural notes say 6. The concrete sub is booked for Friday. Until the architect answers, nobody pours.
The answer will come by email, at some point, to an inbox you check twice a day from the trailer. Meanwhile your phone buzzes for every supplier promo, every plan-room notice and every “reply all” on the owner’s meeting thread. You have turned notifications off because the noise is worse than missing something. So the one email that matters waits until 4 PM, and the concrete sub calls you first.
The native ways, and where they stop
Phone notifications, narrowed. You can do more than all or nothing. Gmail on Android can notify you for one label, so a filter that labels the architect’s mail plus notifications for that label buzzes your phone. The Outlook app can notify you only for Favorite People, and iPhone Mail for VIPs. All of these match who sent it, not what it says, so you get a buzz for every email the architect sends, not just the RFI answer.
Outlook rules. A rule can flag, move or play a sound for an email from the architect, but the alert shows on the computer the rule runs on. If that computer is in the office, the alert is too.
Gmail filters. A filter can label, star or forward a matching email, matched on the sender and the words you list. An answer that says “see attached” with a new subject line doesn’t match the words.
Each one sorts by sender or keyword. On a job site, what you need is the one email that answers the RFI reaching you as a text, and the architect’s other mail waiting until you’re back.
Set up the text rule
- Connect your Gmail or Outlook to alfred_. Sign in with Google or Microsoft; your password stays with them.
- Add your phone number in alfred_, then text alfred_ once from that phone. That first text turns texting on.
- Say the rule, by text, in the app or on the web: “Text me when anyone from @morrowarchitects.com emails about an RFI.”
- alfred_ repeats the rule back in plain words. Check it, and it is saved.
Name the people and the subject the way you would to a colleague. Some that work on a job:
- “Text me when the architect or the structural engineer emails about an RFI or a submittal.”
- “Text me when the owner’s rep emails about a change order.”
- “Text me when the inspector’s office emails about Friday’s inspection.”
Your rules are listed in Settings, Rules. Change one there, or just ask: “stop texting me about submittals.”
What the text looks like
alfred_: Morrow Architects (Dana Price) answered RFI 14: go with the 6-inch slab at the loading dock, per structural note S-201. She attached a revised detail, SK-14.
You: thanks, we’ll pour 6 inch friday. confirm the rebar spacing on SK-14 is #4 at 12 each way
alfred_: Here’s the reply to Dana: “Thanks, Dana. We’ll pour the 6-inch slab on Friday per S-201. Can you confirm the rebar on SK-14 is #4 at 12 inches each way?” Send it?
You: send
Illustrative exchange. The firm, names and drawing numbers are invented.
Dana gets a proper email in the same thread, from your own address. You did not open an inbox, and you did not walk back to the trailer.
Where each step happens
- On site: the text arrives in iMessage on iPhone, or RCS or SMS on Android. No app to install.
- Answering: text back what to say. alfred_ shows you the email before it goes, and “send” or “yes” sends it. “Make it shorter” or “add that we need it by Wednesday” changes it first. The short replies are in Confirming by text.
- In the office: every rule is in Settings, Rules, and the full email is in your inbox as usual.
What it leaves out on purpose
- Everything that does not match. Supplier promos, plan-room notices and meeting threads stay in your inbox. Use a second rule if a second kind of email matters.
- Quiet hours. If you set them, a text that would land inside them waits and arrives with the others when they end.
- Old mail. A rule acts on email that arrives after you make it. To find an answer that already came in, ask: “did the architect answer RFI 14?”
The honest caveat
alfred_ reads the inboxes you connect, up to six Gmail, Outlook and IMAP accounts, and nothing else. An RFI answered only inside your project software, with no email to you, is not something it sees. A rule matches the sender and subject you describe, so a vague rule (“text me about anything important”) texts you more than a specific one. And it doesn’t answer the architect by itself: the reply goes when you say send. alfred_ is a paid product; plans are on the pricing page.
