Do not build a business process on the promise that Send email with options will always return the responder's email address. Microsoft's current connector documentation says responder identity fields can be null or empty in some response paths.
The old version of this article recommended body('Send_email_with_options')?['responder'] as a guaranteed fix and claimed extensive production testing. Neither claim had evidence. Both have been removed.
What Microsoft documents
The Office 365 Outlook connector reference records several important boundaries:
- actionable-message rendering varies by mail client and HTML settings
- group and shared mailboxes are not supported for actionable messages
- identity values can be empty depending on how the recipient responds
- third-party mail filters can select options automatically, so the confirmation-dialog setting matters
This means the same email can behave differently across clients and security layers.
Inspect the real output first
- Create a test flow with one internal recipient.
- Add Send email with options and simple values such as Approve and Reject.
- Add a Compose action containing the complete output body from the email action.
- Respond using the actionable card in supported Outlook.
- Inspect the run history and note the actual property names and null values.
- Repeat using the HTML response path and any mail clients your users rely on.
Only reference a responder property after you have seen it in your own run output. Use the null-safe operator and a fallback path, for example a manual review queue, rather than silently writing a blank identity to your records.
Do not send one request to a group and guess who answered
If each person's answer matters, create one tracked request per recipient. Store a correlation ID, expected recipient, choice and response time in SharePoint or Dataverse.
Concurrency can make the flow faster, but it can also create ordering and throttling problems. Start sequentially, prove the data model, then change concurrency with measured tests.
When Approvals is the better action
Use Power Automate Approvals when you need a governed approval record, assigned approvers, comments and an approval outcome. Use Send email with options for a lightweight choice where the connector's client and identity limitations are acceptable.
Neither route removes the need to check licensing, data policy and retention requirements in your tenant.
Production checklist
- test every supported email client
- test null responder fields
- enable the confirmation dialog where mail filtering is a risk
- record a correlation ID before sending
- define what happens after no response
- avoid shared and group mailboxes for the actionable-message path
- monitor failed and timed-out runs
If you have a real run output that does not match the designer's dynamic content, bring the redacted shape to Power Automate Builders.