This easy email tip will help de-clutter your inbox — without complicated rules or multiple accounts

I’ve had the same email address for more than two decades. I use it for almost everything I do. That’s convenient, but it also means my inbox is flooded with ads, newsletters, social media updates, and other ephemera. If left unchecked, that stream of trivial messages can overwhelm the useful and important stuff in there.

The two biggest worlds email provider recognize this is a problem. Gmail and Outlook do some automated mail categorization using algorithms. However, their solutions are imperfect and require constant manual intervention to train the algorithms and find important things that have been accidentally downgraded.

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For years, I used sender-based rules and filters to move less important messages out of my inbox and into custom folders. However, setting up and managing those rules was a tedious and time-consuming process. Every time a newsletter or merchant changed their sending address or used a different subdomain, I had to modify that rule. I finally threw up my hands and said, “Enough!”

Instead, I found a simple way to automatically move less important messages out of my inbox and into a separate folder, where I can check them when I have the time and inclination to do so. And it all happens without requiring me to create and manage another email account.

It all works thanks to alias, a feature built into most modern email solutions.

The Magic of Email Aliases

An alias is an alternate email address associated with your primary account. Messages sent to the alias will be delivered to your inbox, along with messages sent to your primary address. But because they Are not Using your regular email address, you can set up your email app to perform custom actions using those aliases.

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For example, let’s say my primary email address is [email protected]. Can I create an alias? [email protected] and use that address when I sign up for newsletters. I can then create a unique rule to look for any messages sent to that alias and move them out of my inbox and into my Newsletters folder. Those messages are still easily accessible, but they never get in the way of messages from people and businesses that matter to me.

You can set up similar aliases with appropriate subfolders for anything you want: recipes, sports headlines, social media alerts, and even messages from groups you’re a member of. Just remember to use the correct alias when signing up for a new service.

Aliases are also useful as disposable addresses when you need to provide an email address to a sender you don’t trust. If you start getting a bunch of spam sent to that address, simply delete the alias, essentially returning the spam back to the sender with a “no such address” message.

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Don’t confuse an alias with a forwarding account, which allows you to send and receive email from one account using the address associated with a separate account. Aliases are only useful in conjunction with a primary address and cannot be used on their own.

The following instructions apply to personal accounts that you manage yourself. If you have a commercial email account (for example, through Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace), you can have aliases for your account using your organization’s custom domain name, but you’ll need your administrator’s help to set those aliases up.

How to create an alias using Gmail

Despite being the world’s most popular email service, Gmail’s implementation of aliases is surprisingly limited. To create an alias, you start with your main address, modify it by adding a plus sign to the end, and then add some additional text. If your address is [email protected]you can use [email protected], [email protected]et cetera.

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The problem with this type of alias is that it cannot prevent unscrupulous senders from seeing your main address, so be cautious when using it with untrustworthy contacts.

How to create an alias using Outlook.com

Each free Microsoft account lets you create up to 10 aliases, using a different address of your choice at Outlook.com. (Address must follow Microsoft naming conventions and cannot be used as a primary or alias address.)

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To get started, go to https://account.microsoft.comSign in with your Microsoft account and click the “Your Info” tab. Under the “Account Info” heading, click “Edit Account Info,” which will take you to a page that lists all the aliases you’ve created. Click “Add Email” and enter the address you want to use. Then click “Add Alias” to create a new address. (If the alias you entered isn’t available, you’ll see an error message here and you’ll have to try a different one.)

You can add new aliases at any time (up to 10 aliases) or delete existing aliases from the Account Aliases page described earlier.

How to create an alias using your Apple ID

If you own an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, you can use that device to create up to three email aliases that send to an address associated with your Apple ID. This feature is called Hide My Emailand use the iCloud domain as a forwarding mechanism.

One thing to note is that each alias uses an auto-generated name that may not be easy to remember, such as [email protected]. You can label that address to remind you of its purpose, but you can’t choose your own addresses.

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To create an iCloud alias on your iOS device, open Settings, tap your account name, then tap iCloud > Hide My Email. (On a MacBook, use the Apple menu to open System Preferences, where you’ll find the Hide My Email option.) Tap Create New Address and follow the prompts to add labels and optional notes. Use the Forward To button to choose where you want to receive emails sent to that alias.

Other alias options

As I mentioned earlier, most modern email providers support aliases. If you have a free Proton Mail account, you can create up to 10 aliases for that account, while Proton Unlimited accounts support unlimited aliases. If your email is hosted on Fastmail or Yahoo Mail, you will need a premium account to create aliases. In all of those cases, you have the option to create an alias using a custom domain name.

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You can also use a privacy add-on that includes email masking. NordPass Premium and Family version, for example, allows unlimited aliases. You can get up to three email aliases using the free version of Iron Shirt (formerly known as MaskMe); the premium version supports 50 or more custom aliases. And in the comments, one reader pointed out the handy (and free) DuckDuckGo Email Protection features; install the browser extension, set up an address at duck.com, and you can set up a private alias to forward to your regular inbox and bypass common email trackers.