iPhone Email Filter: How To Set It Up And Use

If your inbox has become cluttered and overwhelming on iPhone, restore order by creating email filters or by setting up a third-party email filtering service. Our guide will show you how to filter email on iPhone.

How To Set Up An iPhone Email Filter

If your inbox has become cluttered and disorganized on iPhone, it can be difficult to identify your most important messages and stay on top of things. One way to restore order is to implement an email filter that separates out certain emails so they don't get lost in all the chaos.

You can do this inside your email app of choice, or by using an iPhone email filtering service such as Clean Email, which helps you manage an overloaded inbox filled with unread emails while respecting your privacy and keeping your data safe.

In this guide, we'll show you how to set up an email filter for iPhone so that you don't miss important messages in the future, get overwhelmed by all the spam, or go over the storage allowance set by your mail provider.

How to Filter Out Emails in Gmail on iPhone

Unfortunately, it's not possible to set up an email filter inside the native Gmail app on iPhone or iPad. However, you can set up email filter rules on the Gmail website that will transfer across to your mobile devices — and anywhere else that you use Gmail. Here's how:

  1. Visit Gmail.com in your web browser and sign into your account
  2. Click the Settings cog in the top-right corner, then click See All Settings
  3. See all settings in Gmail
  4. Click on Filters and blocked addresses
  5. Select Create a new filter to begin.
  6. Create rules in Gmail

By creating a filter in Gmail, you can automatically label, move, forward, mark as read, or delete messages that are sent to or received by a certain contact. You can also filter out emails that include certain subjects or words, and those that include attachments.

So, if you want to ensure that you never miss a message from your boss, you can create a filter that applies a star or label to those messages so that they're easier to find. If you never want to see another message from a certain person, you can set those to delete as soon as they arrive.

How to Filter Out Emails in Outlook on iPhone

Outlook on iPhone and iPad comes with a great feature called the Focused Inbox, which automatically filters your emails for you. It recognizes which messages are most important to you over time, then displays these separately — away from all the newsletters and other spam.

However, if you want to take full control, you can create email filters of your own. Just like with Gmail, these filters cannot be created inside the iPhone app itself, but you can create them in your browser and they will be respected on mobile devices. Here's how:

  1. Visit Outlook.com in your browser and sign into your account
  2. Click the Settings cog in the top-right corner
  3. Scroll down and click View all Outlook settings
  4. Under the Mail section, select Rules
  5. Fill in the rule's criteria and click Save.
  6. How to filter out emails in Outlook on iPhoneHow to filter out emails in Outlook on iPhone

You can now create a new rule by giving it a name, adding a condition and an action, and then saving it. Outlook's options are much the same as Gmail's, allowing you to filter messages sent to or received by certain contacts, and those containing certain words (check out our guide on how to filter emails in Outlook on other devices). They can then be moved or copied to a certain folder, pinned to the top of your inbox, marked as junk, and more.

How to Filter Yahoo Email on iPhone

Just like the others, Yahoo does not offer email filter settings on iPhone, but you can create them on the web by following these steps:

  1. Visit Yahoo.com in your browser and sign into your account
  2. Click the Settings cog in the top-right corner, then click More settings
  3. Click Filters in the side bar
  4. Select Add new filters.
  5. Click Add new filters in YahooClick Add new filters in Yahoo

Give your filter a name, then specify your rules. Again, the options are similar; you can separate messages sent to or received from certain contacts, and those containing certain words. However, Yahoo doesn't give you quite as much flexibility as the others (follow our guide on how to filter emails in Yahoo to learn more about the options of this mail service provider). Your only option for these filtered emails is to send them to a certain folder.

iPhone Email Filtering Services

If you find that your email provider's filtering options aren't enough, or perhaps a little too complicated to manage, you might choose to use a third-party email filtering service to filter emails on iPhone. There are many to choose from, and most offer a similar set of features.

Choosing the right one depends on your filtering needs, and your primary reasons for wanting to organize your inbox. You will need to ensure the service you choose has the customizability you're looking for, that it keeps your data safe, and that it includes any extras you're looking for.

For instance, some iPhone email filter services, such as Clean Email, nail down the basics and include things like additional security checks that better identify phishing attacks and other malicious messages to ensure that they don't end up in your inbox.

How To Filter Email On iPhone With Clean Email App

Clean Email aims to deliver everything you could want in an email filtering service, and it does a great job of filtering emails on iPhone. It offers a number of powerful features that will not only help you get a handle on an overloaded mailbox, but also keep it clean going forward so that it doesn't get overwhelming again in the future.

Clean up your inbox with Clean Email on iPhoneClean up your inbox with Clean Email on iPhone

Using its brilliant Auto Clean feature, the app can automate many of your routine cleaning tasks, like sending newsletters and similar content to a Read Later folder where they stay out of your way until you have time to look at them.

Auto Clean emails with Clean Email on iPhoneAuto Clean emails with Clean Email on iPhone

With Smart Folders, Clean Email uses predefined filters to group similar email types together where they're easier to digest separately.

To find Smart Folders filters in Clean Email:

  1. Launch the app and connect your mail account.
  2. Smart Folders are present on the left sidebar of the main dashboard.
  3. Choose any Smart Folder and apply any action from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
Group emails with Smart Folders in Clean EmailGroup emails with Smart Folders in Clean Email

Another option to filter emails on iPhone using the app:

  1. Launch the app and connect your mail account.
  2. Type something into the search bar on the top of the main dashboard.
  3. Choose Large Mail, Old Mail, or other filters by clicking the funnel button.
  4. Filter emails in Clean Email on iPhoneFilter emails in Clean Email on iPhone

The app also offers a wealth of filters and sorting options that you don't typically get from your mail provider as standard, and it makes it incredibly easy to unsubscribe from newsletters you no longer want, and block senders that you no longer want to hear from.

Unsubscribe from emails in Clean Email on iPhoneUnsubscribe from emails in Clean Email on iPhone

What's more, it is focused on protecting your privacy and security. Its Privacy Monitor feature regularly checks your email against known data breaches and security incidents, so if your personal information is stolen, you'll know about it right away. And it vows to keep your data safe and never analyze it, share it, or sell it to third-party organizations.

Privacy Monitor from Clean EmailPrivacy Monitor from Clean Email

The app works with all IMAP-based mail providers and is verified by Google. It also plays nicely with all your favorite mail apps on iPhone, including Mail, Gmail, Spark, and Newton.

Wondering to learn more email management tips and tricks? Check out our guides on how to filter emails in Apple mail and how Android spam email filtering works.


iPhone Email Filter - FAQs

Can you set rules in iOS mail?

No, it's not possible to set rules in the iOS Mail app itself. However, if you want to filter iPhone emails to folders, you can do so by creating rules through your mail provider or by using a third-party email filtering service.

How do I set up email filters on my iPhone?

To create iPhone email filter rules, you need to set them up through your mail provider — such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo — in a web browser.

How do I filter spam emails on iPhone?

You can filter spam emails on iPhone by creating a rule that automatically identifies those messages and then deletes them or moves them to a separate folder. Use our guide to find out how to create filters for Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. You can also use an iPhone email spam filter app like Clean Email to manage incoming messages automatically.

Why are my email filters on my iPhone?

Your email filters are not available on your iPhone itself; they are created and managed directly through your service provider, or through a third-party email filtering service. Our guide explains how to create and use email filters.

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