What is Plus Addressing?
Similar to standard email filtering, Plus Addressing is a tool that sorts your emails into IMAP folders within your mailbox. If an email is received with a ‘+’ in the mailbox name, the server will deliver the mail to a folder within the mailbox, rather than the inbox. The mailbox is the portion before the ‘+’, and the folder will be whatever is denoted after the ‘+’.
For example, if the receiving email address is bob+amazon@example.com, the server will deliver that message to the ‘amazon’ folder in the bob@example.com mailbox.
[mailbox]+[folder]@[domain.tld] [bob ]+[amazon]@[example.com]
Where would I use Plus Addressing?
Plus Addressing can be used in many situations. For example, let’s take a look at Bob's daily email routine. Bob’s email address is bob@example.com. Every day, mail is sent to this mailbox and is placed in his inbox, filling it with mail from several sources.
There are a few notices from Amazon, a couple more from his bank, a newsletter from thebobbrigade.com, maybe a few Dad jokes from his uncle Johnny. Bob then has to sort through all his emails to find what he is looking for.
Bob could use Plus Addressing to help sort his emails. First, he could update his Amazon email address to bob+amazon@example.com. Then, any mail Amazon sends to that email will go to the ‘amazon’ folder in Bob’s mailbox, instead of the inbox.
Maybe he then logs into his bank website and changes his bank email to bob+bank@example.com. Now all of his banking notices and information are sorted into one folder named ‘bank’ and are not cluttering the inbox.
Seeing how convenient this is, he contacts the newsletter provider and updates his email to bob+news@example.com. Now the newsletters are all delivered to the news folder and not his inbox.
bob+amazon@example.com -> 'amazon' folder bob+bank@example.com -> 'bank' folder bob+news@example.com -> 'news' folder
Now, let’s say Bob is thinking about signing up for a newsletter, but is worried his inbox will be flooded with even more emails. No problem. Bob signs up for this new newsletter using bob+news@example.com as well. Now all of his newsletters are sorted out of his inbox automatically, and he can check them out when he has time.
Another helpful use of Plus Addressing is when Bob wants to use a temporary email address. For example, many public Wi-Fi hotspots require you to provide an email address. Bob can use the email bob+wifi@example.com so that any junk mail sent to him will be filtered out. He can then set a filter to delete any mail set to that folder.
There are several other instances where Plus Addressing can be very helpful, especially in today’s world, where most people have multiple online services, social media accounts, streaming services, and online stores they frequent. Setting your email for these services with a plus address will help you stay organized and save time when searching for a particular email.
Another additional benefit of keeping all your accounts sorted using Plus Addressing, and taking into account the decline of privacy in the current online world, is that it is very easy to see what services are selling your online data. If Bob signed up for a newsletter using bob+sketchysite@example.com and all of a sudden notices a flood of spam in his ‘sketchysite’ folder, he can be fairly certain the site sold his email address.
How do I enable Plus Addressing?
The best part of Plus Addressing is that you don’t have to enable it. It’s already enabled on all cPanel-based email addresses by default. You don’t even need to create the folders in your mailbox beforehand. The first time the server receives an email with a plus address, it will create the folder for you.
While not all online services support Plus Addressing (typically, these services will not recognize an email with a ‘+’ as a valid email address), they are the exception, not the rule.
Small email companies like Google (G Suite) and Hotmail (outlook.com) have supported Plus Addressing for years. Even small, upstart software like Office 365 is getting in on Plus Addressing.
Next time you sign up for a new service, give it a try. You will find that some services may not accept emails with a ‘+’ in them, but most accounts will work fine. It will not take long before you wonder how you managed without email.