How to Add or Remove VIP Senders in iOS Mail

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by Heinz Tschabitscher
Updated April 13, 2017

You know an important email when you see it; or, rather, when you see its sender: Key messages typically come from key senders. You know these pivotal senders when you see them, but does your iPhone Mail or iPad Mail?

It does, and it will help you recognize their emails, too—if you first show it your key senders. iOS Mail will treat messages from what it calls VIP senders in a special manner (collecting them in a unique folder, for instance, and handling them separately for alerts in Notification Center).

Adding any contact or sender to the list of VIP senders is easy.

Add VIP Senders (Whose Messages Get Special Treatment) in iOS Mail

To make a sender a VIP in iPhone Mail:

  • Open a message from the sender you want to add to your VIP senders.
  • Tap the sender's name or email address in the email's header area.
  • Now tap Add to VIP.
    • This will add the email address to the list of VIP senders, but will not create a new address book entry for the sender. (Neither will it remove an existing one, of course.)

To add a Contacts entry to VIP senders in iPhone Mail:

  • Open your list of mailboxes in iPhone Mail.
  • Tap the > button next to VIP.
  • Select Add VIP… at the list's end.
  • Tap the desired entry from your contacts.

Messages in your inbox from VIP senders will now also and automatically appear in the VIP mailbox. You can have iOS announce these emails in a special manner (using a specific sound or listing them in Notification Center, for example), too.

Remove VIP Senders in iOS Mail

To strip VIP status off a sender in iPhone Mail:

  • Go to the Mailboxes list in iPhone Mail.
  • Tap > under VIP.
  • Swipe across the sender you want to delete from VIP senders.
    • You can also:
    • Select Edit (to the top right)
    • Tap the - button to its left of each sender you want removed.
  • Tap Delete.
    • If you used Edit, tap Done.

    You can also remove a sender from VIPs when you have one of their messages at hand:

    • Open a message from the email address or sender you want to delete from your VIPs.
    • Tap the sender's name or email address in the header area (under From: if it is visible).
    • Select Remove from VIP.
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