Who is credited with inventing email?

Ray Tomlinson is credited with inventing modern network email.

In 1971, while working with ARPANET, Tomlinson adapted existing programs so messages could travel between users on different networked computers. Earlier electronic mail systems generally allowed messages only between accounts on the same machine. His work created the basic model of sending mail from one host to another.

Tomlinson also chose the @ symbol to separate a recipient’s username from the destination computer, producing the familiar user@host format. He selected it partly because the symbol was uncommon in usernames and clearly suggested a location or destination. That convention remains central to email addresses today.

Tomlinson is sometimes described as the inventor of email without qualification, although electronic messaging had earlier forms and several programmers contributed to its development. The precise historical claim is that he created the first widely recognized networked email system on ARPANET. Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf helped develop internet networking, while Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web.