Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Technology

What is an Email Alias and How to Set it Up on Gmail and Outlook

On average, a person receives around 121 emails every day, with only 10% being useful while the remaining 90% consists of spam. Despite the advanced spam filters offered by modern email services, we still find ourselves dealing with unnecessary emails in our inbox. This often happens because we use our email addresses on various websites, either for service usage or login purposes. Unfortunately, these websites often bombard us with newsletters and promotional emails, even if we initially intended to use our email address for a one-time use.

While disposable email services exist for such scenarios, they usually provide weird email addresses that are often blacklisted by websites. Furthermore, the available good ones are not free. Thankfully, there is another solution: email aliases.

What is Email Alias and Advantages of Using It

Email aliases are alternate email addresses that you can create within your primary email account. These aliases forward incoming emails to your default inbox and allow you to send emails as well. In essence, an email alias can be used to mask your original email address when you don’t want to share it for certain scenarios.

Tham Khảo Thêm:  6 Easy Ways to Factory Reset iPod Touch without Passcode

The advantages of using an email alias are as follows:

  • Maintaining privacy by not revealing your default email address to services that might send you unnecessary marketing and promotional emails.
  • Easily stopping these emails by deleting the email alias you have created.
  • The service is free to use, unlike many disposable email services that require payment for a proper email address.

How to use Email Alias in Gmail

Configuring email aliases in Gmail is a straightforward process. Follow these steps:

  1. Login to your Gmail account and click on the gear icon in the top-right corner, then go to “Settings”.
  2. In the Gmail settings page, navigate to the “Accounts and Import” tab and find the option “Send mail as”. Click on “Add another email address you own”, which will open a new window.
    Gmail Add Alias
  3. In the Name field, enter the name and the new email alias you’d like to use. The format for the new email alias should be <Your Basic Email>+<Any Random Text>@gmail.com. For example, if your email address is [email protected], you can create an alias like [email protected].
    Gmail Add Email
  4. Save the settings, and once done, you will be able to send and receive emails using the new alias.

Please note that the alias is suitable for scenarios where you need to provide the email to self-serviced pages that work automatically. If you are giving the email alias to a person, they would easily be able to decode your primary email address. In situations like these, using an Outlook email alias makes more sense.

Important Tip: Did you know that you can add a period (.) anywhere in your Gmail address, and it will make no difference? For example, [email protected] is the same as [email protected] and [email protected].

How to use Email Alias in Outlook

Using an email alias in Outlook makes more sense because it doesn’t include hints to your primary email address, unlike Gmail. Here’s how to create an email alias in Outlook:

  1. Sign into the Outlook email page and click on the gear icon in the top-right corner, then select “Settings”.
    Outlook Settings
  2. In Email Options, look for “Aliases: manage or choose a primary” and click on it. You will be asked to provide your login credentials again for security reasons.
    Outlook Alias
  3. Once you are on the Account Alias page, click on “Add email address” and enter any email address. Outlook will check if the email address already exists, and if no match is found, it will be assigned to you shortly. You will receive an email confirmation once the alias is active.
    Outlook Add Email Address
    Create Alias in Outlook
Tham Khảo Thêm:  How to Sign Out of Apple ID without a Password

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Can I create multiple email aliases?
    Yes, you can create as many email aliases as you want, and deleting them is also easy.

  2. Are email aliases free to use?
    Yes, email aliases offered by Gmail and Outlook are free to use.

  3. Can I stop receiving emails on an email alias?
    Yes, simply delete the email alias, and you will no longer receive emails on that address.

Conclusion

By setting up email aliases in Gmail and Outlook, you can ensure your privacy, reduce spam, and avoid unnecessary marketing emails. These email aliases act as temporary email addresses, making it easier to manage your online presence. If you have any further questions about email aliases, feel free to drop a comment below, and we will be happy to assist you.