You probably think you know the answer. If you look at the back of a stamp or a history book, it’s Ray Tomlinson. He’s the guy who picked the @ symbol. But if you’ve been on the internet lately, you might have seen a guy named Shiva Ayyadurai claiming he’s the real inventor because he wrote a program called "EMAIL" as a teenager in New Jersey.
It's complicated. Honestly, the question of who invented the email isn't as simple as who built the first lightbulb. It’s more like asking who invented the car. Is it the guy who built the engine? The person who put the wheels on it? Or the one who built the highway system?
Let’s get into the weeds.
The 1971 Breakthrough: Ray Tomlinson and the @ Symbol
Before 1971, you could send messages, but only if you and the other person were using the exact same computer. It was basically a digital sticky note. You’d leave a file on a shared machine, and the next person to log in would see it. That’s it.
Ray Tomlinson changed that.
Working at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), a company deeply involved in the early ARPANET, Tomlinson was messing around with two programs called SNDMSG and CPYNET. He realized he could bridge them. He wanted to send a message from one computer to a completely different one across a network.
But there was a problem. How do you tell the computer that "John" is at "Computer A" and not "Computer B"?
He needed a separator. He looked at his keyboard—a Model 33 Teletype—and saw the @ symbol. It was perfect. It wasn't used in names, and it literally meant "at."
So, in late 1971, he sent the first network email. What did it say? He couldn't remember. He told people it was probably something boring like "QWERTYUIOP" or some other random string of characters.
The genius wasn't in the message; it was in the address. The user@host format he created is exactly what you used this morning to check your inbox. That’s a huge deal.
The Shiva Ayyadurai Controversy: A Different Definition of Email
Fast forward to 1978. A 14-year-old named Shiva Ayyadurai is working at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He creates a system to digitize the physical interoffice mail system. He calls his program "EMAIL."
In 1982, he registers the copyright for the name.
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This is where the fight starts. Ayyadurai argues that what Tomlinson did was just "text messaging." He claims his program was the first to include the "electronic version" of the entire mail system: Inbox, Outbox, Folders, Memo, Attachments, and the To/From/Subject fields.
If you define "email" as the specific user interface we use today—the digital office—then Ayyadurai has a point. But if you define it as the ability to send a message from one person to another over a network, Tomlinson was there years earlier.
Most historians side with Tomlinson. The Smithsonian initially accepted some of Ayyadurai's papers, which he used as "proof" of his invention, but they later clarified that they hadn't actually validated his claim as the sole inventor. It turned into a massive legal and PR battle, involving lawsuits against Gawker and a lot of angry open letters from tech pioneers.
The reality? They were solving different problems.
Why the @ symbol was a stroke of luck
The @ symbol was almost a comma. Or a dash.
Can you imagine if your email was name-gmail.com? It would be a nightmare. Tomlinson chose @ because it was a "non-purpose" character. It was just sitting there on the Teletype keyboard, mostly used for accounting to denote a price per unit.
Because it was so obscure, it didn't conflict with any existing programming commands. It was a clean break.
Tomlinson’s choice didn’t just create a technical standard; it created a cultural icon. The @ symbol is now globally recognized as a symbol for the digital age itself. It’s in the MoMA. It’s on every keyboard on Earth.
The systems that came before the "first" email
We have to give credit to the 1960s.
Back in 1965, a system called MAILBOX was running on the CTSS (Compatible Time-Sharing System) at MIT. It was the first time anyone really "mailed" anything digitally.
Authors like Tom Van Vleck and Noel Morris were the ones who wrote the code for it. It was primitive, sure. You couldn't send it to someone in another building, let alone another city. But the idea of leaving a message for a specific user was born there.
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Then came the AUTODIN system used by the military. It was massive and clunky, but it handled messages.
When people ask who invented the email, they usually want one name. But the truth is, email was an evolution.
- 1965: MIT researchers create MAILBOX for local users.
- 1971: Ray Tomlinson sends the first network-wide message using the @ symbol.
- 1973: A formal specification for email (RFC 561) is created, adding "Subject" and "Date" lines.
- 1978: Shiva Ayyadurai builds a system called "EMAIL" that mimics office paperwork.
- 1988: MS-Mail arrives, making it accessible to the business world.
The overlooked complexity of the "Inbox"
People think an inbox is just a folder. In the early days, it was a mess.
If you wanted to receive mail in the 70s, your computer had to be on and connected. There was no "cloud" to hold your messages while you were at lunch. If your machine was down, the message just vanished or bounced back as a failure.
It took years of refining protocols—like SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)—to make email reliable. Jonathan Postel, often called the "Postman of the Internet," was the guy who managed these standards. Without Postel’s work on the "back end," Tomlinson’s @ symbol wouldn't have worked for more than a handful of people.
Why does the debate still matter?
It matters because it’s about how we credit innovation.
If you're a "Tomlinson" person, you believe invention is about the technical breakthrough—the protocol. If you're an "Ayyadurai" person, you believe invention is about the user experience and the "total system."
The tech community is protective of Tomlinson. He was a humble engineer who didn't try to get rich or famous off his idea. He just wanted to solve a problem for his coworkers. Ayyadurai’s claim is seen by many as a redefinition of history for the sake of a brand.
But honestly? You've probably used both of their "inventions" today. You used Tomlinson's @ symbol to address the message, and you used the folders and "memo" structure that Ayyadurai helped popularize.
What most people get wrong about the first email
There is a common myth that the first email was sent over the "Internet."
It wasn't. The Internet didn't exist yet. It was sent over ARPANET.
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ARPANET was the precursor, a government-funded network connecting a few dozen universities and research labs. Most people would never have seen a computer, let alone an email, in 1971.
Another misconception: that email was an immediate hit.
Actually, many people thought it was a waste of expensive computing power. Why send a digital message when you could just call someone or send a "real" letter? It took a decade for people to realize that email wasn't just a faster letter—it was a new way of thinking.
Practical insights for the curious
If you’re trying to settle a bar bet or write a paper, here is how you should think about it.
Don't look for a single inventor. Look for layers.
- If the question is "Who created the first network email?" The answer is Ray Tomlinson. This is the consensus among the Internet Hall of Fame and most historical bodies.
- If the question is "Who wrote a program called EMAIL that mimicked the office environment?" That’s Shiva Ayyadurai.
- If the question is "Who created the first local messaging system?" Look to the MIT team in 1965.
How to explore the history further
If you want to see the "bones" of the early internet, you can actually read the original RFCs (Request for Comments). These are the documents where the engineers hashed out the rules for the web.
Check out RFC 822. It’s the "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages." It was published in 1982 and it’s the reason your email headers look the way they do today.
You can also visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History website. They have a collection of artifacts from BBN, including the types of machines Tomlinson used.
Instead of just taking one side, recognize that email is a collective human achievement. It started as a tiny experiment by an engineer who thought the @ symbol looked neat, and it turned into the backbone of global communication.
Next Steps for You:
- Check out the "Internet Hall of Fame" website to see Ray Tomlinson's official induction.
- Look up the "BBN" history archives if you want to see how the early network was physically built.
- If you're feeling nerdy, try to find an "RFC" document from the 1970s—it’s fascinating to see how they planned the future with no idea how big it would get.