Better Manage Your Gmail Inbox With Aliases

Want a clutter-free Gmail inbox? Try using aliases – alternate email addresses linked to your main account that can help you better organize emails. Instead of using your primary email for every sign-up, create an alias and keep things tidy. In this post, we’ll show you how to set up Gmail Aliases for a more organized inbox.

Good to know: having issues with Gmail not working as expected? Try these fixes to get back into the game.

Why Use Aliases in Gmail

Gmail aliases come in two flavors – temporary and permanent. Sometimes, you just don’t want to give your primary email address away – but creating a whole new one for situations like this? Too much work. That’s why temporary Gmail aliases are so useful! They’re tied to your main email, so everything sent to your alias will arrive in your inbox.

You can then create filters to automatically move emails sent to a Gmail alias into a designated folder or label. This way everything stays organized. Another perk? Temporary Gmail aliases help keep your inbox free from daily marketing emails.

As for permanent aliases, they come in handy when you want to be able to send emails from different addresses from the same inbox.

Here are a few situations when you might want to put aliases to good use:

• Job Hunting – if you’re searching for a new job, you could create a temporary alias and use it on your resume and applications. This way when you get a reply, it will be aggregated into a Job Hunt folder
• Selling Online – share a temporary alias for your contact information in an ad on Craigslist or similar sites
• Collaborating on Projects – this enables you to have all the emails for different projects go into different folders.
• Keeping Things Separate – you can keep separate work emails from your personal inbox but still send messages from the other account, easily with permanent aliases.

Tip: check our Outlook vs Gmail comparison to decide which email client is best for you.

Create a Temporary Alias in Gmail (Free Account)

To start using the temporary Gmail aliases, simply modify your existing Gmail address when you sign up for a new service by adding either “.” or “+” signs. Gmail ignores these characters and treats each of these variations as being the same address.

You can also include a “+” sign in your primary email address and add custom text after it. It’s also possible to use the “.” character in combination with “+” to further define your aliases (see below for examples.)

Note: if you get an error when trying to sign up with an alias using the “+” sign, try switching to “.” instead. Some websites might not allow email addresses that feature the “+” character.

When you’ve decided on an alias, go to Gmail on your PC. It’s not possible to create temporary filters from the mobile Gmail app.

Click on the Show search options icon in the search bar at the top.

Enter your temporary alias email address in the To: field. Click the Create filter button.

On the next screen, select Apply the label and click the category name. I opted, for instance, to direct these emails to the Signups label folder. You could also select the option to simply Delete these emails so that you don’t have to be bothered by them again. Tap Create filter.

Now you can go ahead and use this email when you sign up for a new app or service.

Any emails from these services will automatically land in your main inbox, but if you don’t want to see them there, hover your mouse over the label you’ve saved them and click the three dots. Select Hide under In message list.

If they keep arriving in your inbox, open the email and remove the Inbox label from there. The email will disappear immediately.

FYI: this is how you create multiple signatures in Gmail.

Create a Permanent Alias in Gmail (Free Account)

You can also create a permanent alias in Gmail that connects another email address (Google, Outlook, Yahoo) you already own to your Gmail inbox. The advantage of using a permanent alias is that unlike with temporary aliases, you can send emails from the alias right from your primary email.

To create a permanent alias, navigate to Gmail in your browser. Press on the gear icon on the right side of the display.

Select See all settings.

On the next screen, switch to the Accounts and import tab. Next to Send email as, click on Add another email address.

Add the other email address that you own. Make sure the option for Treat as an alias is checked underneath. Press the Next Step button.

Click the Send Verification button on the next screen.

Now go to your other email address and look for the verification email. Open it up and click on the embedded link. Press Confirm on the new page that opens up in your browser.

Return to your main inbox and refresh. The additional email should appear now under Send email as. Check the When replying to a message options and choose whether you want to reply from the same address the message was sent to or the default address.

Now, when you want to email someone, you can click on the email address to switch to your alias. While you can’t add a permanent alias from the Gmail mobile app, you can send emails from an alias once you’ve added it via Gmail on the web.

Note that you won’t be able to see the messages you’ve received in the alias email. You can only send messages from this alias via your main email. This ensures you can keep your primary email clean and orderly.

You can add as many permanent aliases as you want to your Gmail account, by following the instructions above each time you want to add a new alias. If you wish to delete one, go to Accounts and Import again and look for the Delete button on the right of your alias email address. Press to remove it.

Create a Google Workspace Gmail Alias

If you have a Gmail that’s part of a Google Workspace, you can create aliases as an administrator. With this, you can create multiple email aliases that share the same domain. For instance:

Sign in to the Google Admin console with your admin account. Click Directory -> Users in the leftside menu.

On the left, click the email you want to add aliases for. Select Add Alternate Emails under the username.

Click Alternate email and type in your alias – the part before the @ sign.

Once you set this up, all the emails you will receive on this alias email address will show up in your primary inbox.

Now if you want to check ALL your Google inboxes in one place, you can do that. Our guide will show you how to manage multiple Gmail accounts on the same device. On the other hand, if you ever lost an email on Gmail, check these tips that will help you retrieve it.

Image credit: DepositPhotos All screenshots by Alexandra Arici