How to use multiple email aliases on your iPhone
For the longest time, email coming from my iPhone was stuck using my regular Gmail address.
Now, I’ve discovered how to use email aliases that I’ve previously set up using Gmail.
When setting up your mail account on the phone, use the “Other” account option. I suggest selecting the IMAP toggle. Then enter the email address you want to use and fill out all the other information using your Gmail info.
To add an additional alias, create another account of type “Other.”
- Select POP mail, and enter the address you would like to use as the alias.
- Under the incoming mail option, put in a single character for each field. (These can be optionally removed later.)
- For outgoing mail, enter your Gmail info.
What this does is set up one account that can sync with your Gmail, and multiple additional accounts that can only send through your Gmail SMTP account.
When you send mail, you should now see an additional “From:” field, where you can choose your alias.
Carlos 12:02 am on April 18, 2009 Permalink
Thanks for the step by step directions. It was easy to understand. Keep posting more interesting subjects. Just found your site so cant wait for your next one.
Wang 7:48 am on April 23, 2009 Permalink
Hi. This is just awesome and is what I’ve been looking for all along.
However. I want to ask whether there is a difference using pop or IMAP for the additional alias?
Thanks! =)
Kevin Chiu 5:11 am on April 24, 2009 Permalink
@Wang
It doesn’t matter – since you’re putting in bogus info, no connection will be made to the incoming mail server anyways.
Mike 3:02 pm on April 25, 2009 Permalink
Will it show an error from the alias account every time you check your email?
Kevin Chiu 1:58 pm on April 26, 2009 Permalink
Nope, no errors should appear. On my phone it’s completely seamless.
David Christie 12:17 pm on May 11, 2009 Permalink
Kevin–
Thanks so much for your help. I just got an iphone and followed your directions to a “T”,
However when I send a reply to my test email (from my alias) it says senders address is
invalid. Any ideas?
Kevin Chiu 5:46 am on May 13, 2009 Permalink
@David
Is the alias you’re trying to use also registered in Gmail?
jay 3:16 pm on May 14, 2009 Permalink
I tried this but it didn’t work. When I try to send an email from my iphone using the new alias that I set up using your technique it doesn’t send, rather it gets stuck in the outbox.
Please help! I desperately need this function.
Kevin Chiu 3:33 pm on May 14, 2009 Permalink
@jay
Your SMTP details in your phone setup actually have to match your Google account. You need to provide your full Google address and password. Example:
smtp.gmail.com
blah@gmail.com
blahpasswordBlah
Use SSL: on
Authentication: Password
Server Port 587
grice 3:41 pm on May 14, 2009 Permalink
i also have the same issue as jay… please help!
grice 3:44 pm on May 14, 2009 Permalink
n/m got it just as you replied! make sure you use “@gmail.com” in the username thanks brah!
DaN 7:33 pm on June 19, 2009 Permalink
I’m having the same problem as above…. any more input…?
John 11:35 am on June 26, 2009 Permalink
Just wanted to say thanks and that it’s a great work around!! Took me a few tries but not working great. I have multiple aliases though and can only see it working with one alias per gmail account. Am I correct with this or overlooking something?
Kevin Chiu 8:29 pm on June 26, 2009 Permalink
@DaN
Are you using your real gmail info for the SMTP server?
@John
You’re welcome! Hmm, I have it working on multiple aliases on one gmail account, as you can see in the picture in the post. Did you set up the other aliases as described?
mike 3:16 pm on July 8, 2009 Permalink
Do you know if this works on Iphone 3gs? The only think g holding me bakc from getting an phone is because I am not sure if I could set an alias email to respond to work emails.
Kevin Chiu 6:33 pm on July 8, 2009 Permalink
@mike
I’m guessing it does. It still works on the 3G with the latest OS, and the 3GS is supposed to be using the same OS.
Dean 6:29 pm on July 14, 2009 Permalink
It works on iPhone 3GS. Sending mail as an alias is a very important feature to me. I was about to return my phone if I could not get this to work.
David Christie 11:37 am on July 23, 2009 Permalink
Kevin–Sorry to bother you again–but I am 99% there. I have a total of 3 alliases. I have it set up for two of them, and the replys work perfectly–however the third address always gets an error that says SMTP is not valid–and the message stays in the outbox and wont send–Any ideas? I have tried both the SMTP AND POP settings and to no avail ANy ideas?
Kevin Chiu 1:45 pm on July 23, 2009 Permalink
@David Christie
A couple things to check:
1. Is the alias already working in Gmail?
2. Are the server settings identical to your second alias?
Clare 5:10 pm on July 26, 2009 Permalink
Set this up on my new iphone 3gs today. Thank you! Really
needed this function for my business.
David Christie 6:17 pm on July 30, 2009 Permalink
Kevin–
Thanks so much for all your help. The alias is already working in gmail AND the server SMTP settings are identical to the first one. I can receive on the iphone but cannot send.
Any other ideas?
Setting up personal or business email aliases on the iPhone | Online Business 10:59 pm on August 10, 2009 Permalink
[...] post is similar to Kevin Chui’s blog post but I couldn’t get his to work so I found my own [...]
Kevin Chiu 3:38 am on August 27, 2009 Permalink
@David
Try not putting in any information for the Incoming server fields. I just updated the instructions to follow this tip. I think the phone might still try to connect to the bogus server.
Don Ashley 11:49 pm on September 10, 2009 Permalink
Kevin,
I guess I should check the Media Lab site. But, I found your page while search for solution to problem with alias email on Iphone 3gs. Is Walter and Nicholas still there? How bout Joe Jacobson? I know, I’m probably showing my age.
I was one of the corporate sponsor representatives during the mid-nineties.
Now into Human Research with a 14 hospital Institutional Review Board as Chief Programmer.
Have a great day!
Kevin Chiu 11:55 pm on September 10, 2009 Permalink
Hi Don,
I think Nicholas Negroponte left and started OLPC. Not sure about the others.
Which company were you representing? It’s an honor to have a former sponsor rep reading my humble blog!
Don Ashley 10:35 pm on September 11, 2009 Permalink
Hi Kevin,
I guess Joe is with eINK. Walter Bender, not sure. I was one of JCPenney’s reps in the News in the Future Consortium. I really enjoy my Friday video conferences with Walter when he was Chief Scientist. I was involved between 94 and 99. Nothing gave me more pleasure than coming up to the lab walking through checking out all the new tecnology, writing up reports to take back to Plano, Texas to marry some tech with further funding to develop some retail applications for JCP. Early eINK signs that you could roll up and stick under your arm then unroll and stick on the front window of a JCP or CVS store, then program a message through a wireless beeper type device was cool back in the 90′s.
Robby 12:00 pm on September 22, 2009 Permalink
When I don’t fill in the “incoming mail” fields, it doesn’t let me save the account. Am I doing something wrong?
Kevin 1:16 pm on September 22, 2009 Permalink
@Robby
I think you can enter something and then delete it later.
DaveSF 11:50 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink
I agree with Robby. I used all the steps described, but when i don’t fill in the “incoming mail” fields, it does not allow me to save the account. Thoughts/Ideas?
Kevin Chiu 12:14 pm on September 24, 2009 Permalink
@DaveSF @Robby
I’ve updated the instructions to avoid this problem.
Kelli Garner 1:59 pm on October 1, 2009 Permalink
Really nice posts. I will be checking back here regularly.
Ken Deemer 7:25 pm on December 11, 2009 Permalink
Hey, thanks for the tip. Is there any way to have the outgoing emails default to one address or do I have to chose the one I want every time? In other words, could I set up my gmail account on the iPhone with the desired alias (already registyered in gmail)?
Thanks
Kevin Chiu 12:03 am on December 12, 2009 Permalink
Ken,
You don’t even need to register your original account’s email in the outgoing field. You can put any alias as long as your login is correct. I actually don’t have an iPhone right now, but I think that’s how it works.
Taka 5:55 pm on January 26, 2010 Permalink
I am using Iphone 3GS and following your instructions it works excellent using wifi, but when I turn off wifi and use 3G, error message appear asking for incoming mail server password for the email aliases. Please help!
Taka 5:52 am on January 27, 2010 Permalink
Kevin
I solved the problem. I was missing “Cellular Data Network” information from China Mobile.
Now it works. Thanks.
olive 3:27 am on March 15, 2010 Permalink
Seeams to work fine but when sending an email i is still the user id that appear instead of the alias , I am doing someting wrong ?
blackgirlgrown 10:33 am on May 13, 2010 Permalink
This was incredibly helpful! Thanks so much for putting out easy to understand instructions.
rdt 1:35 pm on June 29, 2010 Permalink
this doesn’t seem to hold for the ipad…any suggestions?
rdt 1:36 pm on June 29, 2010 Permalink
never mind. it does. (-;
horatio8 12:23 pm on July 5, 2010 Permalink
I think this is an easier way to accomplish the same thing. You can set up numerous alias for an account without setting up any dummy accounts. I’m using an iPad.
http://www.cjo20.net/blog/?p=24
Aaron 5:17 am on September 17, 2010 Permalink
your a freakin legend man!
jason 7:57 pm on November 2, 2010 Permalink
Hi, I’ve tried all of the above steps but cannot get this to work. I am trying to send my company email using Gmail SMTP settings, but I want the email i’m sending out to seem as though it is coming from my company address. despite setting up my company account and using Gmail’s SMTP settings, the email is always sent as a gmail alias. Please help!
Kevin Chiu 8:55 am on December 4, 2010 Permalink
@jason
Did you register your company address with gmail?
Ed 2:48 pm on February 8, 2011 Permalink
@Kevin–Thanks for this info. It is great. I get errors when checking mail, tried deleting the one character “d” I used, but iPhone OS 4 says it is “Required” any suggestions?
Kevin Chiu 1:48 am on February 9, 2011 Permalink
@Ed
Did you try deleting it after completing the setup?
Chay 9:49 pm on February 17, 2011 Permalink
This worked great. Thank you for the well written instructions. One caveat…on the iPhone 4 I couldn’t delete the single characters I put in the incoming mail option, but it doesn’t show any errors or issues so no big deal.
Ed 11:13 am on February 20, 2011 Permalink
@ Kevin it won’t let me delete the character. There is a grey “Required.” Unlike Chey it does give me an error each time I click mail. Suggestions?
Thanks!
Kevin Chiu 7:39 pm on February 20, 2011 Permalink
@Ed
Hmm, maybe try putting the actual server there?
Mark 6:03 pm on February 25, 2011 Permalink
Used this method on my new iphone 4 and it works (thanks!) but get errors everytime I open mail that the mail server h (the alias mail server) “Cannot Get Mail.” Of course it’s not because its not a valid server. As noted before from other iphone 4 users, you can remove the one letter later.
Any suggestions from anyone as to how to stop the errors? It’s better than not having the alias’ but kind of annoying.
Rowan 1:02 am on March 6, 2011 Permalink
I’m having the same problem. I get errors with the ‘dummy’ incoming server.