Text Expander for Email: Gmail, Outlook & Every App

If you send dozens of emails a day, a text expander for email can save you hours. Type a short shortcut and get a full signature, a standard reply, or a meeting request—in Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, or any other app. Here’s how it works and what to use.

Why Use a Text Expander in Email?

Email is full of repetition:

• Signatures
• “Thanks for your email, I’ll get back to you by…”
• Meeting request wording
• Follow-ups and reminders
• Support or sales replies

Typing the same phrases again and again is slow and error-prone. A text expander lets you type a few characters (e.g. sig, thanks, meeting) and replace them with the full text. It works in any field where you type—subject, body, reply, forward—in any email client.

Browser Extensions vs Desktop Text Expander for Email

You’ll see two main options:

• Browser extensions – Usually limited to the browser. They work in Gmail or Outlook on the web, but not in desktop Outlook, Slack, or other apps. If you only use Gmail in Chrome, they can be enough.
• Desktop text expander – Runs on your PC or Mac and works in every app: Gmail in the browser, Outlook desktop, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and also in Slack, Notion, Word, etc. One set of shortcuts everywhere.

If you want the same templates in email and in chat, docs, and other tools, a desktop text expander is the better fit. Lightning Assist is a desktop text expander that works in Gmail, Outlook, and any other app.

How It Works in Gmail and Outlook

1. Install a desktop text expander (e.g. download Lightning Assist for Windows, Mac, or Linux).
2. Create resources – e.g. key sig for your signature, thanks for a short thank-you reply, meeting for a meeting request.
3. Set a trigger – e.g. press Tab or a hotkey after typing the key.
4. Use it in email – In Gmail (web or app), Outlook, or any client, type the key and press the trigger. The full text is inserted where your cursor is.

No copy-paste, no switching windows. Same shortcuts in every app.

Email Templates Worth Automating First

Signature

One resource (e.g. sig) with your full signature. Use it in any email client, even when the client’s built-in signature doesn’t apply (e.g. in some web forms or when replying in a different context).

Short acknowledgments

• “Thanks, I’ll look into this and get back to you by [#Date#].” (you’re prompted for the date when you run the resource)
• “Received, thanks for sending this over.”

Create one resource per phrase. In Lightning Assist, use [#Date#], [#Name#], or any [#VariableName#]; when you execute the resource, a prompt appears for each placeholder.

Meeting requests

A standard sentence or two for scheduling: “Would you have 15 minutes this week for a quick call? Here are some times that work for me: …” Adjust the details each time; the boilerplate is expanded.

Follow-ups

“Just following up on my message from [#Date#]. Would you have a chance to take a look?” One shortcut, fill in the date when needed.

Support or sales replies

If you have 5–10 common answers (e.g. pricing, availability, next steps), turn each into a resource. Type the key, expand, then tweak if needed.

Variables and Personalization

In Lightning Assist you use replacement variables in the format [#VariableName#]: when you execute the resource, a prompt appears for each placeholder so you can fill in the value. Use only letters, numbers, hyphen, underscore, or dot in the name (e.g. [#Date#], [#ClientName#]).

Example resource (key: thanks):

Thanks for your email. I'll get back to you by [#Date#].

When you trigger this resource, you’re prompted to enter the date (or any other variable you add). For today’s date to be filled automatically (no prompt), use the built-in Today’s Date placeholder from the editor’s Insert menu.

Other useful variables: [#Name#] (recipient), [#Company#] (company name). Lightning Assist resources support these dynamic replacements so one template works for many emails.

Combine with AI for One-Off Tweaks

If your text expander is part of a tool that has AI commands, you can:

• Expand a template, then select the text and run “make it more formal” or “shorten.”
• Adapt the same base message for different recipients or situations without retyping.

That’s especially useful for email: same starting point, quick adaptation. Lightning Assist AI commands work in any app where you can select text, including Gmail and Outlook.

Summary

A text expander for email lets you type short shortcuts and get full signatures, replies, and templates in Gmail, Outlook, and any other client. For the same shortcuts everywhere (email, chat, docs), use a desktop text expander. Start with a few resources (signature, thanks, meeting request, follow-up), add variables where useful, and optionally use AI to tweak the expanded text. To try it in your inbox, download Lightning Assist and create your first email resources.