Email

Electronic mail, also known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks.

History
Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Today's email systems are based on a model. s accept, forward, deliver and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need connect only briefly, typically to a dedicated server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.