I was recently introduced to Gmail aliases and am loving them. With aliases, you can receive email messages at “your.username+any.alias@gmail.com”. So if your email address is “jane.doe@gmail.com” you can receive mail at ”jane.doe+notes@gmail.com” and it will still be delivered to your inbox. Why would you want to do this? Well, you can use the alias to set up filters to automatically direct those messages to trash, apply a label or star, skip the inbox, or forward to another email account entirely.
Here are the aliases I use, together with the labels I have set up:
- “cl” applies the label “craiglist”
- “rec” applies the label “recipe”
- “p” applies the label “pics”
- “bb” applies the label “blackberry”
To create filters to auto-apply your labels:
- Click Settings->Filters
- Scroll down to the very bottom and select “Create a new filter”
- Enter your filter criteria (so in the case of my craigslist filter, I would put “myemail +cl@gmail.com” in the “To” box)
- Click “Next Step”
- Click the checkbox next to “Apply the Label” and select the label you would like to apply from the pulldown (if the label does not exist already, select “new label”)
This is also the step where you can forward, trash, etc. all emails from that address.
- I always check the box next to “Also apply filter to x conversations below” and then select “Create Filter”
Bonus Tip:
This is for people who don’t have phones with email. You can use this method to create a rule that auto-forwards emails to your cell phone via text message (useful for emailing yourself directions, grocery lists, etc):
- Click Settings->Filters.
- Scroll down to the very bottom and select “Create a new filter”.
- Enter your filter criteria: “myemail+m@gmail.com” in the “To” box.
- Click “Next Step”.
- Click the checkbox next to “Forward it to” and enter in your phone’s SMS-to-email address. Below is a list of the most popular carriers and how to figure out your phone’s SMS-to-email address:
- T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
- Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
- ATT: phonenumber@txt.att.net
- Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
- Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
- Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
- Select “Create Filter”.
How do you use aliases?
Maybe you could use spell check for better headline spelling, too.
Maybe you could just not comment, too
Aliases in GMail are a great concept, however using them isn’t quite as simple… MANY services that have you enter an email address will check to make sure that email address is legit – and unfortunatly, having a plus sign in there fails almost every filter.
They can still be useful, but I’d love to setup aliases for several shopping accounts so I can filter all their promos – but it doesn’t work that way.
Good Tips
ps. I wonder if JohnO always sounds like a dick?
nice! I use them quite a bit, including the sms tip.
- I use them to set most of my GTD labels when I send myself tasks.
- Jott down an idea… email+idea@gmail.com and set up a contact “Idea”
and more http://www.martinruiz.com/post/64355793/stop-checking-email-all-the-time
I’ll second what Elliot is saying. I love aliases for personal stuff, but when I try using them for stuff like mailing lists, social networking sign ups, etc. Most of them block it. A real shame for such a useful trick. Too bad the aliases aren’t simply a ., then it would work. Still useful for plenty of stuff tho.
I, personally, am sick of receiving other people’s email when they try to use this. If it doesn’t work on both ends, it’s invalid. I receive a ton of email lists AND important emails via my Gmail account addressed to other people
[...] You’d think that my full-time transition to Gmail in 2007 would have me using every trick in the book to manage my mail. Nope. Getting caught up in the grind with gadgets coming and going, I haven’t found the time to exploit all of Gmail’s little tips and tricks. That changes today for two reasons: I’m going to make the time and I have a good launching pad with this timely post from Web Worker Daily. [...]
I don’t actually see the point in this, although I know a lot of people use it. Where’s the advantage in this functionality compared to just setting up filters for email coming from certain locations or with certain keywords?
I just have them all coming into the same email address, and filter for keywords/addresses. Simple!
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Tinkering with labels a little more (I have not modified my labels in over a year) I noticed I have some unread e-mails with labels, and wanted to see just the unread with that label.
There is a search option “is:” that can do this, say my label is “work” I can search for:
label:work is:unread
and it will find all the e-mails labelled work which are unread.
I was so happy to find this, I thought I’d share.