If you are using the internet and have some knowledge about computers and networking, then you must know about email. You most probably also have one. 

However, did you ever get curious about who invented email? Or, do you know how many people use email on a daily basis? If you do not, then you have come to the right place. This article dives into the top ten funny and interesting facts about email. 

1. Email was invented in 1971 – or was it? 

Let’s start this fact list with a little bit of history. It is widely considered that the email was first invented by Raymond Samuel Tomlinson in 1971. He sent the first email ‘QWERTYUIOP’ in history to himself on another computer. 

But Many consider email as a computer-based messaging system. If considered like that, then email can trace back its origin to the mid-1960s. Most notably, the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) project of MIT in 1965. 

2. Email actually predates the World Wide Web (WWW)

Internet-based communication through the World Wide Web allows you to share files and documents.

So, many might think that email- which works in sending and receiving electronic documents could only be invented after the World Wide Web. Well, that is not true. We have already established that email was invented in 1971 (or 1965 depending on what you call email). 

The World Wide Web, on the other hand, was invented by Tim-Berners-Lee in 1989. That’s like around or more than 20 years after the first email interaction was held. 

3. 1991 marked the first time an email was sent from space

It was sent by the STS-43 Atlantis crew. Two astronauts Adamson and Lucid wrote an email with AppleLink to Marsha Ivins at Johnson Space Center with a Macintosh portable. 

The email read: 

“Hello, Earth! Greetings from the STS-43 Crew. This is the first AppleLink from space. Having a GREAT time, wish you were here,…send cryo and RCS! Hasta la vista, baby,…we’ll be back!”

4. Gmail is not the world’s largest email client – its Apple Mail

If you are one of the Gmail account owners who think that they are using the most used mail client in the world, then you are wrong. 

Gmail, although used by a large group of people, is not the world’s most used mail client. It is Apple Mail. As of May 2022, Apple has around 57.97% of email users while Gmail lags behind with 28.13%. 

Next are Microsoft Outlook with 4.21% and YahooMail with 3.05%

5. Nearly 85% of all emails received by an individual are spam emails

Next time you open your mailbox, remember that most of the emails are spam. However, nowadays, many email clients like Gmail have a very secure infrastructure that protects you from spam. 

But still spamming has not stopped. Although email spam has gone down, individuals still receive a lot of spam emails every day. So, one can delete 60% of their emails without any consequences as most likely, they are spam. 

6. People spend nearly one month a year just reading emails. 

An average American office worker will spend around 28% of his daily work routine sending, reading, and delivering emails. An 8-hour workday translates to an average of 40.5 hours per week.

Doing more math, it comes to the conclusion that for the working age group of 25-54 years in the US, 23 days with 24 hours each day is spent on email. That’s nearly a month! 

7. Nearly 4 billion individuals use emails. That’s near all the social media users combined

The total number of email users in the world is 3.9 billion and rising. At the same time, the total number of all social media users is 4.6 billion. 

So, those of you who think that the days of emails are over now that social media is here are dead wrong. More than 86% of professionals still prefer to use emails for daily interactions. Though the number of social media is increasing, email is not going to go away any time soon. 

8. You can unsend a sent email

Unsending a sent email is difficult. It is possible though, but only if you use Gmail. 

After sending an email through Gmail, at the bottom of your screen, you will see an undo option. However, this option disappears within seconds so you have to be quick about it. 

You can also change how long the undo option appears. There are options for 5, 10, 20, and 30 seconds. To do so, 

• Open your Gmail interface. 
• Now, click on the gear icon on the top-right. 

• Click on “See all settings.”

• Scroll down to the “Undo Send” option where you will be given a choice to choose the cancellation of the Undo send period. 

• Choose the one that suits you and save your changes. 

9. More than 306 billion emails are sent and received every day

This is a staggering number. The number of sent and received emails is hundreds of times the total number of email users as well as the total number of people on the planet. 

The number of emails sent every second translates to 2.4 billion. This number is difficult to comprehend. By the time you read this paragraph, tens of billions of emails have already been sent and received in the world. 

10. After 24 hours in the inbox, there is only a 1% chance that an email will be opened

An email that arrives in the inbox within an hour has the best chance of being opened. As the time in the inbox increases, the possibility of the email being opened decreases, and by 24 hours it decreases to less than 1%. 

So, the next time you send an email to someone, make sure that you send them during their working hours and make your subject line catchy. Otherwise, there is a good chance your email will remain hidden in someone’s inbox no matter the content.