Email overview
Overview of OneSignal Email features, use cases, setup guides, and best practices for marketers and product teams.
OneSignal Email helps you send targeted, personalized, and high-converting emails at scale. Whether you’re launching a campaign, onboarding new users, or delivering transactional messages, OneSignal provides the tools to manage everything from design to deliverability.
This page gives you a complete overview of what’s possible with OneSignal Email and links to detailed guides to help you get started.
What you can do with OneSignal Email
- Send marketing campaigns and transactional messages through the OneSignal Dashboard or API
- Build automated email and multi-channel flows with Journeys
- Design beautiful emails with Drag & Drop or HTML Editor
- Use dynamic content & personalization to tailor content for each user
- Track performance & A/B test with detailed analytics
- Segment your audience for precise targeting
- Integrate with CRMs & tools like HubSpot, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Zapier, and more
Email setup
Before sending emails, follow our quick setup guides:
Email Setup
Get setup quickly with OneSignal Email or use an integration like Mailchimp, SendGrid, or Mailgun.
Senders
Manage multiple sender identities and domains for email deliverability.
Email Template Forwarding
Quickly import your current email templates by sending them to OneSignal via email.
Custom Unsubscribe Pages
OneSignal provides a default unsubscribe page for users, but you can easily create or update your own using our APIs.
Email deliverability
Good deliverability ensures your emails reach the inbox instead of spam. Learn more:
Email Deliverability
Learn best practices for email deliverability and how to improve your email sending.
Auto Warm Up
How to automatically warm your email subdomain within OneSignal.
Google Postmaster Tools
Learn how and why you should set up Google Postmaster Tools.
Suppressions
Manage suppressed emails in OneSignal.
Design your emails
You can create visually compelling emails with:
Drag & Drop Editor
Design emails with a drag-and-drop editor.
HTML Editor
Design emails with an HTML editor.
Templates
Use pre-built templates to get started.
Unsubscribe Links & Headers
Manage email unsubscribe behavior, including unsubscribe links, List-Unsubscribe headers, and more.
Message Personalization
Use dynamic content to personalize emails for each user.
Multi-Language Messaging
Learn how to send emails in multiple languages.
Send email campaigns
You can send email in several ways:
A/B Testing
Test up to 10 email variants.
Journeys
Build automated email and multi-channel flows with Journeys.
API
Send emails programmatically using our REST API.
Dashboard
Continue this guide to learn how to send email campaigns from the OneSignal dashboard.
Sending email from the dashboard
Navigate to the Email tab
Navigate to Messages > Email > New Email
How to send email from the OneSignal dashboard.
Choose a composition method
- Choose a composition method:
- Start from scratch with our Drag & Drop Editor or HTML Editor.
- Use pre-built designs: Templates, Previous messages.
- API parameters:
email_body
accepts HTML or usetemplate_id
Select Drag & Drop Editor, HTML Editor or use an existing Template.
Set a name and label
Optionally set internal metadata for tracking.
- API:
name
Set an audience
Include or exclude Segments:
- Send to default segment: Defaults to all “Subscribed Users” if none set.
- Send to specific segments: Include and exclude segments explicitly. Multiple segments have an “OR” relationship; duplicate subscriptions are automatically removed.
SMS audience segment selection interface
Targeting method | Dashboard | API |
---|---|---|
Segments | ✅ | ✅ |
Filters (API only) | ❌ | ✅ |
Aliases (API only) | ❌ | ✅ |
Schedule and delivery options
- Intelligent Delivery: Optimizes send times based on user activity patterns (opens, clicks from humans, not bots).
- Custom Time per User Timezone: Sends at a set time in each user’s timezone (fallback available).
- API parameter:
delayed_option
&delivery_time_of_day
- API parameter:
Sender
Set your from name, sending domain, from email address & reply-to email address. Multi-domain sending is available! See Senders.
API fields:
email_from_address
email_sender_domain
email_reply_to_address
Select your from name, from address and sending domain.
Subject & preheader text
Set your Subject (required) and preheader text (optional). Not all inboxes display the Preheader text.
- API parameters:
email_subject
andemail_preheader
. - Supports: Emojis 👍 (may be limited by inbox provider), Message Personalization, Multi-language messaging
Edit your subject line, template and settings.
Advanced features
Options available when creating your message. These are the same on both Drag-and-Drop or HTML editors.
Track link clicks
Link tracking is enabled by default. Multi-link tracking is available. See Links and Deep Linking for more details.
- API parameter:
disable_email_click_tracking
Send to unsubscribed users
You can enable Include sending to unsubscribed users for compliance or non-marketing emails. This means any unsubscribed email Subscriptions that fit the segments will be sent the email.
- API parameter:
include_unsubscribed
Delivery schedule
When the email sends:
- Immediately: Sends right now.
- Specific Time: A day and time up to 30 days in advance.
- API parameter:
send_after
- API parameter:
- Auto Warm-Up: Slowly increases volume over a period of time. Best for new senders and new sending domains.
Select and edit Auto Warm Up.
Per-user optimization
- Send to everyone at the same time: Best for urgent messages.
- Intelligent Delivery: Optimizes send times based on user activity patterns.
- API parameter:
delayed_option: last-active
- API parameter:
- Custom Time per User Timezone: Sends at a set time in each user’s timezone (fallback available).
- API parameter:
delayed_option: timezone
&delivery_time_of_day
- API parameter:
Example shows the email will start sending Jan 22nd at 10AM your time, and will be delivered to each user at 10AM in their timezones with a fallback time to UTC-8 (Pacific Time) f the email address doesn't have a timezone set.
Finalize your email
- The “start sending” time is the cutoff point for users to enter/exit the audience segments. Anyone in the audience at this time will be sent the message and it does not depend on the “per user optimization” options.
- Click Review & Send or Save as Draft to edit later.
You are all set to start sending emails! Next steps include:
- Explore Email Design Options & Drag and Drop Editor.
- Learn about Message Personalization.
- Manage Unsubscribe Links & Email Subscriptions or create a Custom Unsubscribe Page.