What is plus addressing?
Plus addressing is about using unique, receive-only email addresses that are kind of extensions to your basic email address. It helps you keep your inbox tidy and protect it against influx of unwanted messages. You can create new plus addresses by adding a new tag to your BlueKey email address. You can use a plus address as a unique address for a service that you sign up for.
Although this new feature with BlueM@il and Outlook may be difficult to initially understand, it's a pretty straightforward and useful feature once you get the hang of it.
- All DePaul students, faculty, and staff have a BlueM@il email address (username@depaul.edu).
- Plus addressing allows all DePaul email users to add a "+" and a word or tag to their emails (i.e. username+junkmail@depaul.edu or username+newsletters@depaul.edu)
- Adding "+" and a tag doesn't change the behavior of the email. If you sign up for a newsletter with username+newsletter@depaul.edu, all messages will still go to your regular BlueM@il mailbox, just like it's your normal email.
- Then why add the plus with a term/tag? It allows any emails with something like "+newsletters" to be filtered into a folder by creating a rule. For instance, send all emails with the tag "+newsletters" to a Newsletters folder in Outlook.
Say you're visiting a website and you are asked to join a newsletter. Instead of providing your username@depaul.edu email address, add a tag like "username+newsletters@depaul.edu". All messages will still go to your normal inbox, but you now have the option to create a rule where any username+newsletters@depaul.edu goes to a folder called "Newsletters."
Plus Addressing example
If you are signing up for a new newsletter on another website, you can use the email address of username+newsletter@depaul.edu. When messages are sent from that newsletter it will look like this and be delivered to your Inbox:
Make a Rule in Outlook for Emails tagged with Plus Addressing
Since the email from newsletters contains the Plus Addressing tag (not just your normal email address), you to create inbox rules specific for those messages. In the case of the newsletter you can create a rule that takes all messages sent to username+newsletter@depaul.edu and moves them into a folder called Newsletters.
Lots of possibilities
Obviously, there are countless options for the Plus Addressing feature. Filter by any tag or term you would like. Create folders and rules to automatically filter emails with corresponding Plus Addresses.