I’m always looking for ways to improve my email security, limit the amount of spam reaching my inbox, and generally keep my emails organized. Plus email addressing helps me achieve all three of these goals.
What is plus email addressing?
Plus email addressing—also known as sub-addressing—is a feature that lets you create multiple variations of your primary email address by adding a plus (+) and a tag before the @ sign. For example, if your standard email address is tony@domain.com, a plus email address might be tony+brand@domain.com.
When an email is sent to a plus email address you have created, the mail server ignores the “+” and the tag that follows during the delivery process, meaning, by default, the message still lands in your inbox. However, the entire sub-address still appears in the “to” area of the email header.
Most major email providers, including Outlook, Gmail, Proton Mail, and iCloud Mail, let you use unlimited plus aliases, even if you’ve set up a custom domain. Usefully, this behavior is usually set up automatically, so you don’t need to trawl through various settings to get started.
Why plus email addressing is the way to go
Some email clients can generate randomized aliases on your behalf, and any message that’s sent to these addresses is forwarded to your primary inbox, all without the sender ever knowing your real email address. However, I prefer using plus email addressing. Here’s why.
Plus email addressing allows me to set up a reliable system for sorting my emails. For example, whenever I’m entering my email address on a sign-up page, I use the brand name as my plus alias. Then, I create a rule in the new Outlook that automatically moves all emails sent to this address to a relevant folder—or my junk folder if I know I’m not going to read them.
Of course, there are other ways to manage your inbox, like setting up sender rules, but I’ve found plus email addressing to be the most reliable method for catching out companies that rebrand or—more nefariously—sneakily tweak their domain. It also saves me from having to create independent email addresses for sign-ups.
Plus email addressing is also a great way to find out who has mishandled your email address. If you use your primary, non-sub address for everything, there’s little to no way to find out which company sold your address to the spammers. However, if you get a random junk email to your +amazon alias, you know where to turn to sort things out! Likewise, if a certain plus email address shows up on a compromised password list, you immediately know who the culprit is. Above all, you can quickly redirect any future emails sent to this sub-address to your junk folder.
Final points to note
I use plus email addressing religiously, and you should too. However, before you do, there are a few points to note.
First, sub-addresses are generally used for receiving emails, not sending them. This is because a plus address is a server-side tagging convention rather than a recognized alias. That said, some providers offer workarounds through their settings to allow sending from sub-addresses.
Second, if you start using plus email addressing routinely, you can quickly become confused by the many unique IDs you’ve created. You can overcome this hurdle by using a password management service, like 1Password, which autofills your login information into websites and helps you come up with more secure passwords.
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Finally, while many website forms accept plus email addresses, not all do. Indeed, some websites use overly simple validation scripts that don’t align with modern standards, or deliberately reject the plus sign to prevent people from creating multiple accounts. Also, if a website ends its support for sub-addresses, you may lose access to your account on that site.
Plus email addressing isn’t a secret, and experienced spammers could easily strip away plus aliases from addresses, either manually or using an automated program. So, even though sub-addressing can go a long way to helping you take control of your email address, it’s not a watertight security measure. Always use other safety nets, like avoiding commonly used passwords or setting up two-factor authentication, and make sure the plus alias is in no way related to the password you create when signing up for an account on a website.
