Identities (Aliases)

Follow

When you reply to an email, the person who receives it sees your identity, which is your name and your email address. This may not always be what you want.

For example, it’s not uncommon for a single person to be responsible for replying to messages addressed to different departments within a company or organization. You might be in charge of answering emails sent to, for example, "info@example.com" and "sales@example.com." The incoming server would be set up to internally redirect the departments’ emails to your own account. When you reply to the messages, though, you wouldn’t want the replies to come from your account — you’d want them to come from the departments. With Postbox, you can set up a separate identity for each of these addresses so this happens automatically.

You might also want to set up an identity to reply to:

  • messages sent to an email address you don’t want to use.
  • messages received in response to an email campaign or promotion you’re running.

Note: Identities are also called "aliases" by other apps and services.

Note: Not all email providers support identities and aliases.

Creating an Identity

To create an identity:

  1. Got to Postbox (macOS)/Tools (Windows) > Preferences/Options > Accounts, and then select the account to which you want to add a new identity.
  2. Select Identity beneath the account name. (If it's not visible, click the account's disclosure triangle.)
  3. Click Manage Identities… to open the Multiple Identities Support dialog.
  4. Click Add…
  5. In the Settings tab, enter the name you would like recipients to see in the Your name field.
  6. Enter the email address whose mail is being redirected to your account.
  7. You might want to enter an address in the Reply-to Address field for a couple of reasons:
    • If someone is sending you emails at an address you don’t want them to use, you can enter the one you do want them to use here.
    • If you’re using a collaboration platform, you could enter the desired email address within that system.
  8. Set the Outgoing Server popup as desired. If your identities' addresses use the same domain as your own account, you’ll probably want to leave this setting alone.
  9. If you'd like to associate a specific email signature with the identity, select it from the Signature pop up, or press Edit... next to it to modify an existing signature or create a new one.
  10. If you'd like to send a V-Card for the new identity, click Attach my vCard to messages, and then click Edit... next to it to create the vCard. Note: Each identity also has its own Copies & Folders and Composition settings you can edit if you’d like to change them from their default values.
  11. When you’re done, click OK to return to the Multiple Identities Support dialog, and then OK again.

When you reply to a message to one of the addresses you've created an identity for, Postbox selects the corresponding identity. You can select any of your identities in the Compose window using the From popup menu located at the top left of the Compose window, just beneath the toolbar.

Editing and Deleting an Identity

Follow steps 1-3 above, and then click Edit… to change the identity’s settings, or Delete… to remove the identity. 

Related Articles

Was this article helpful?
4 out of 7 found this helpful