This way you ensure that the Mail app only shows important notifications

Some third-party email apps already make a selection of important messages themselves. For example, the Spark app has a Smart Inbox, which automatically sorts incoming email so that you only see the important new messages. In the standard Mail app on the iPhone and iPad, you can also ensure that you only see important messages and that notifications only arrive from people who are important to you. You do this with the VIP contacts feature in the Mail app.

• Why?
• Set up
• Important email notifications

Only notifications for important mail

Every time you receive a new email, a badge will appear on the Mail app icon. You will then see how many unread messages there are left. That is very useful, because you immediately know whether there is still mail. But sometimes it can also be a bit too much. If you have a lot of new messages, a badge with a number means little. You can set the badge to only show important email messages. To do this, you need to set which people are important to you. In this tip we explain how this works.

To start, you need to identify which people are important to you. This could be your boss or a colleague, but it could also be email from important authorities such as the government. You put these email addresses on a so-called VIP list. You then indicate that you only want to receive notifications from these VIPs. Below we explain it step by step.

Set up important people in the Mail app

You start by setting up important people in the Mail app. This is your so-called VIP list. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. If the mailboxes are not visible, tap Mailboxes in the top left.
3. Scroll down to the VIP entry and tap the blue i.
4. You will now see the list of already added VIPs.
5. Tap Add VIP to add a new person.

If you want to add someone to your VIP inbox who is not in your address book, you will first have to add this person manually.

Only notifications for important mail

You can then indicate for which email messages you want to receive a notification. You do this as follows:

1. Go to Settings > Mail > Notifications.
2. Tap Customize notifications at the bottom.
3. Select one of your Mail accounts and disable Badges. Do this for your other accounts as well.
4. Then tap VIP and make sure Badges is turned on.
5. If necessary, choose an extra striking notification sound.

In this tip we used the feature to set up VIP contacts in Mail. You can do even more with this, for example only see messages from important people in the VIP mailbox.

Also read these tips for the Mail app:

• This is how you can silence email conversations on iPhone and iPad
• Send email attachments in Mail on iPhone and iPad
• Quickly clear or archive email on your iPhone and iPad