How To Make Sure Our Emails Make It To Your Inbox
Have you ever waited for an email, and then found out it got sorted into the wrong box? Email providers are continually updating and modifying their systems to improve their ability to filter through emails, to bring you the emails you want, but they also need your help. That's what an allow list provides.
An allow list is simply a way to tell your email provider you know this sender and want to receive their emails. This keeps the emails you want to see out of the junk folder.
How do you put an email address on an allow list?
Allow listing is a quick, one-time-only task to ensure the sender of an email gets added to the recipient’s address book or safe senders list.
Usually, all you need to do is open an email message and verify the sender can be trusted.
Here are simple instructions on how to ensure that future emails get delivered straight to your inbox, in some of the most popular email providers:
Gmail (Webmail and mobile)
Apple Mail (OS X and iOS devices)
Outlook 20XX
Outlook.com
Yahoo! Mail
Android (Default client)
Windows Live Desktop
AOL Mail
Gmail Allow List (Webmail and mobile)
Getting all future emails from a sender to appear in the “Primary” tab (instead of “Promotions”, or elsewhere) is a quick, two-step process.
First of all, drag-and-drop the email message from beneath the tab it’s currently filed under, to the “Primary” tab:
Once done, a message alert will appear with, “This conversation has been moved to Primary. Do this for all future messages from [email protected]?” Select “Yes:”
Gmail on mobile devices doesn’t provide a way to prioritize messages. However, touching “Show images” then “Always show images from Sender” will ensure that images always display in the inbox:
Gmail for iOS primary email example
Apple Mail Allow List (OS X and iOS devices)
Both Apple Mail on OSX and Mail on iOS devices have a similar process for adding senders to Contacts. By selecting the From, or Reply-to on an email message, you can choose to “Add to Contacts” or “Add to VIPs.”
The advantage of “Add to VIPs” is that future emails from this sender will be added to a special VIP mailbox in iOS Mail.
Outlook 20XX Allow List
When opening an email from a sender, an alert at the header of the message, “Click here to download pictures…” should display. Click this and select, “Add Sender to Safe Senders list:”
Outlook.com Allow List
After opening an email message, an alert message should display with, “Parts of this message have been blocked for your safety.” Beneath this, click the link with, “I trust [email protected]. Always show content:”
Yahoo! Mail Allow List
When opening an email message, a “+” symbol should display next to From: and the sender’s name. Select this and an “Add to contacts” pop-up should appear. Select “Save:”
Android Allow List (Default client)
On Android devices, open the email message and touch the picture of the sender that displays before the message. Tap “Add to Contacts.”
Windows Live Desktop Allow List
After opening an email message in Windows Live Desktop, an alert in the preview pane with, “Some images in this message are not shown.” will display. Select the link, “Add to Safe Senders list.”
AOL Mail Allow List
In the preview pane for an opened email message in AOL Mail, select the sender’s From name under the email’s subject line and select “Add Contact” from the drop-down menu:
