Managing several mailboxes for various purposes gets harder as you add more and more. Sometimes you spend hours clicking through them all, trying to find that one message you need. You just wish you’d remember which inbox it was in. Or all of a sudden you realize there was an uber-important message in there and a client has been waiting for your urgent reply for a good five hours already. Oops. 

At a certain point, you realize that it would be nice to have a unified inbox for all those emails. Instead of spending hours every time you need to get this chaos organized, just be the master of incoming messages. In this guide, we will show you the options in Outlook and some other handy alternatives.

Microsoft Outlook Unified Inbox Solution

Microsoft Outlook is among the most popular email clients, yet it doesn’t have a full-fledged “Outlook combined inbox” feature, even though users have been requesting one for years. However, there are a few ways to get around this issue.

1. You can create a search

For that, you need to activate the search field and type a query that will denote the type of messages you want to see. Don’t forget to choose “All Mailboxes” from a dropdown list beside the search box before you hit Enter. As a result, you’ll see all emails that match the query, but you’re going to have to do this search every time you need a unified inbox experience. Here’s a search example:

2. You can create a rule

If you’re a bit more technical with your apps, you can create a filter with the New Rule feature. But first, create a folder under the name “Unified Inbox” or whatever you wish to call it. Then, open the Rules Wizard. That’s where things start becoming more complicated.

You need to apply a rule on the messages you receive, so select that option. Now you need to:

• Specify the criteria, which will be “through the specified account.”
• Select the account in which you created the new folder and choose that folder.
• Add a rule to each account you want to send to the “unified” folder.

3. You can use Visual Basic code to create a macro

For those who are up to a little bit of an adventure, try simple coding through Microsoft Visual Basic. First, you’ll need to enable macros or turn on notifications for digitally signed ones:

Then you need to restart Outlook and open a new project in the VBA editor and the code that will pull mail into a unified inbox. The code for the incoming messages will look like this:

And the code for sent messages will look like this:

As you can see, none of these options are easy or straightforward. It’s like trying to make parallel lines cross. But there is an alternative.

An Easier and More Convenient Option to Get a Unified Mailbox

Even if you have the skills to code easily, you probably don’t want to go through the effort; there’s enough work at hand to rack your brain about creating a unified box too. Well, that’s already been done for you by Mailbird — an email client specially developed for you to avoid situations like the above that doesn’t require any coding skills.

A unified inbox is already there, in your Mailbird app. You just need to connect the email accounts you want to see in your inbox. And it saves you tons of time and effort:

• Easily search what you need through all your accounts.
• Manage accounts together or separately.
• Switch between the accounts in just a click.

And much more! A neatly designed interface makes the whole experience even more pleasant. Mailbird has all the features you love about convenient emails: organized folders, handy filters, attachment reminders, or undo send. By the way, the undo option gives you up to 30 seconds to change your mind and get your wrongly sent email back.

How to Use Multiple Email Accounts in Mailbird

There’s a multitude of benefits to using several email accounts, and Mailbird is a golden tool that makes managing them more convenient thanks to the unified inbox and easy switching between accounts.

Unified Inbox

This feature gets all your emails from various accounts into one simple well-managed inbox. You see the messages by the time they were delivered. You can also see all the accounts on the sidebar to the left. Unified Inbox has the same folders you are used to, such as incoming, sent, trash, etc.

You can also opt to unify only some of your email accounts, say four out of seven. You can remove single accounts from the Unified Inbox easily. Go to your Mailbird menu in the top left corner. Then choose Options -> Accounts and click the account you would like to add or exclude in Unified Inbox Plus. Or you can add them later if you change your mind.

Switching between accounts

When you add several accounts to Mailbird, it’s easy to switch between them if you want to manage them all separately. To add a new account just open Settings and click Options -> Accounts. You will see the Add Account button to the right. Type your login and password, and the system will automatically add all the emails to your Mailbird.

You can also edit your IMAP or POP3 settings. And you can choose an icon for each account. Clicking the icons is the way you switch between the accounts.

As you can see, managing multiple accounts in Mailbird is simple. You don’t have to dig deep into the code or go through a complicated settings procedure. Focus on what is important about your emails, and Mailbird will take care of the routine.

7 More Stunning Mailbird Features That Rock Your Productivity

1. Time-savers

We don’t usually notice the short-term routines in the email checking process. But they devour so many precious minutes that, in the end, you feel like you were digging holes all day long. That’s partially because of the constant need to refocus your attention. These issues can be helped though.

• The speed reader gets you through the message bit by bit so your attention doesn’t wander. 
• The quick reply feature continues that by allowing you to draft a response right there in the same window. You can preview an attachment there as well. 
• Inline reply helps you not miss anything important if an email requires your special attention.

To save you a bit more time and effort, set yourself keyboard shortcuts. And unsubscribe from unwanted emails in just a click using the Unfollow.me integration.

2. Search Capabilities

It’s sometimes hard to remember where exactly the mail or file you need is. If you’re using the Unified Inbox, Mailbird can resolve that for you by performing the search through all your accounts. You can look for a message, a separate attachment, or an avatar.

Mailbird has advanced search capabilities so you can control the search with different filter options. Specify a sender address or email size and you’ll get the needed info in no time.

3. Messenger Integrations

Switching between various accounts doesn’t mean email only. You probably have all of them installed because your friends and colleagues use different ones. Mailbird integrates with Facebook, Whatsapp, Wechat, and Twitter.

With the built-in messenger apps, you can check them right inside the email client while limiting possible distractions. You can check all the channels of communication via one simple beautifully designed interface. Stay focused and productive for as long as you can.

4. Personalization Options

Since you can spend several hours running through your mailbox, it would be nice to have it organized to your personal preferences. That’s easily done in Mailbird. You can choose the language, layout, color, and much more. Our Dark Theme is especially loved by our customers. The Scaling feature adjusts the size of UI for you.

But personalization isn’t only about the design. You can also set the app to be most convenient for you by, for example, hiding the taskbar or turning off the notifications — everything to make your email inbox your own.

5. Powerful Productivity Integrations

That’s where Mailbird turns into a truly indispensable productivity center. Leveling up is when an email client unites with other apps you require daily: project management systems (we support Trello and Asana), file sharing services (Dropbox), lists of tasks (Todoist), video call options (Veeting / Whereby), and others.  

You can work in teams in Google Docs, share information via Evernote, and keep track of everything in FollowUp.cc. And all this is possible within one email client without distractions for  switching between multiple apps.

6. Easy Onboarding

Whether you are using another email client or webmail is the only option you know, switching to Mailbird won’t cause you any trouble. Simply download the client, add your accounts, and start your trial. It’s as simple as that!

7. Live 24/7 Support

It is very important for everyone doing business that email clients work seamlessly. And we put in all our effort to provide exactly this kind of emailing experience. But in case something unexpected happens or you just need some advice, our support team is available 24/7. We receive all the inquiries and reply as promptly as possible. 

To Wrap It Up

Setting up a unified inbox in Outlook is possible in three ways: through Search Folders options, via the Rules feature, and by adding pieces of code for the advanced users. All of them might be quite complicated and still won’t bring you the result you expect. For example, you cannot save the search. Or if you don’t feel like coding, the system doesn’t feel like helping you out.

A neatly organized Unified Inbox in the Mailbird email client resolves the matter way easier. You can add all your accounts or just some of them and switch between the accounts in one click. Adding messengers and productivity apps turns Mailbird into your own fully customized powerful workstation. See for yourself!