Why are inline email responses hidden in the thread timeline?
Plain collapses the quoted section of every email reply, everything below the "X wrote:" divider, to keep the thread timeline readable. If a customer typed their response inside that quoted block instead of above it, their text is hidden along with the rest of the quote.
Plain cannot reliably tell new text added inside a quote apart from the original quoted content. To avoid showing duplicated email history on every reply, it collapses the whole quoted block.
How to see the inline content
- Open the email entry in the thread timeline.
- Click the 3-dot menu on the email message.
- Select View original email. The full raw email opens in a new tab, with all inline content visible.
When this happens
Inline responses are common when a customer receives an email with several questions and answers each one directly next to it inside the quoted body, often in a different color. Email clients such as Gmail and Outlook support this style of reply, but the added text is indistinguishable from the original quote.
There is no indicator in Plain that an email reply might contain inline content. Check the original email for replies where you asked several questions, or where the customer's reply above the quote seems incomplete.