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Proactive Coach

The Proactive Coach gives you live feedback as you write — spam risks, accessibility issues, reading level, and more. It's there to help you catch problems before they reach your audience, not to block you from sending.

Where it appears

On wide screens the Coach panel docks to the right of your message. On narrower screens it collapses into a small badge near the bottom of the page — tap it to open the full panel as an overlay. Either way, it shows the same information.

The panel can be collapsed on wide screens too. Click the chevron in the panel header to hide or show it.

Summary indicator

At the top of the panel, a colored dot and short label tell you the overall state of your message:

  • Green — Looks good — No issues detected.
  • Blue — Tips — Suggestions to consider, nothing urgent.
  • Amber — Issues — Worth reviewing before you send.
  • Red — Critical issues — Something likely to cause problems. Fix these before sending.

Inbox preview

Shows how your subject, preheader, and from-name will appear in a mobile inbox like Gmail. A too-long subject, missing preheader, or generic from-name will be flagged here.

Deliverability

Checks whether your message is likely to land in the inbox or the spam folder:

  • Spam-trigger words (free, act now, limited time, etc.)
  • Link shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl) that raise spam scores
  • Text-to-image ratio — emails that are mostly images often get flagged
  • Malformed link text (the word "click" by itself, or URLs shown as plain text)
  • Hyperlinks that don't match what they actually link to

Accessibility

Helps you write messages that work for everyone, including people using screen readers:

  • Images missing alt text
  • Vague link text like "click here" or "read more"
  • Empty links that would confuse a screen reader
  • Heading levels skipping (jumping from H1 to H4)
  • Text smaller than 14px in body content
  • Low color contrast between text and background
Images without alt text also show a subtle amber dashed outline in the editor, even when markers are off. That outline disappears once you add a description or mark the image as decorative.

Reading

Gives you a feel for how your message reads:

  • Word count — Total words in your message
  • Reading time — Estimated time to read at an average pace
  • Flesch grade level — How complex the language is. Grade 8–10 is comfortable for most audiences.
  • Tone — Whether the language reads as casual, neutral, or formal

In-editor markers

The eye icon in the panel header toggles inline markers inside the editor itself. When on, spam-trigger words get a red underline and missing-alt images get a persistent amber outline. Click the eye to turn them off if they're distracting.

The missing-alt outline on images stays on even when markers are off — it's a gentle nudge that doesn't go away until you fix it.

Clicking an issue

Each issue in the panel lets you click to jump to the relevant part of your message. For images without alt text, it highlights the image briefly. For spam words, it scrolls to the first occurrence.

Is every flag serious?

No. The Coach is conservative on purpose — it flags things worth looking at, but you know your audience and your context better than any tool can. Use it as a checklist, not a rulebook.

Last updated: April 20, 2026