Split Inbox & Email Rules

FanDesk automatically categorizes your emails into smart tabs for easier management, and lets you create automation rules to handle emails the moment they arrive.

Split Inbox Categories

Important

Person-to-person emails that deserve prompt attention:

• Direct messages from colleagues and contacts
• Emails marked as Important in Gmail
• Person-to-person emails from unknown senders that appear human-written

Team

Emails from within your organization:

• Emails from the same domain as your company email
• Internal communications and announcements
• Colleague messages that don't fit another category

Updates

Automated notifications and transactional emails:

• Password resets and account alerts
• Shipping confirmations and receipts
• System notifications from services you use
• Emails from noreply@ addresses

Newsletters

Subscribed content and marketing:

• Marketing emails and promotional content
• Newsletter digests you opted into
• Emails with an unsubscribe link

Other

Everything that doesn't fit the above:

• Social network notifications
• Forum digests and group emails
• Catch-all for miscellaneous automated mail

How Classification Works

FanDesk uses a multi-stage classification pipeline on every new email:

Gmail's own category labels are respected when present. FanDesk's logic fills in the gaps for emails Gmail doesn't categorize.

Using Categories

Switching Between Categories

Click the category tabs at the top of your inbox (Important, Team, Updates, Newsletters, Other) to filter your view to that category only.

Recategorizing an Email

If an email landed in the wrong category:

1. Open the email
2. Click the category label (shown near the sender)
3. Select the correct category from the dropdown
4. The email moves to the correct tab immediately

Category Priorities

Email Rules Automation

Email rules let you automate what happens to emails the moment they arrive — no manual sorting needed. Rules run on every new email that matches the conditions you define.

What Rules Can Do

You can combine multiple actions in a single rule. For example: emails from your CEO automatically get starred AND categorized as Important.

Rule Conditions

Match emails by any combination of:

Multiple conditions in one rule use AND logic — all conditions must match for the rule to trigger.

Creating a Rule

From a Specific Email

The fastest way to create a rule is from an email that was miscategorized:

1. Open the email
2. Click Create Rule (appears near the category label)
3. Choose the scope:
   • This sender — Rule applies to emails from this exact address
   • This domain — Rule applies to all emails from this domain
4. Select the actions to apply
5. Click Save Rule

From the Rules Manager

1. Go to Settings > Email Rules (or Mail > Rules)
2. Click + New Rule
3. Add one or more conditions
4. Add one or more actions
5. Click Save

The rule immediately applies to future emails. Rules do not retroactively process emails already in your inbox.

Editing and Deleting Rules

1. Go to Settings > Email Rules
2. See all your rules listed with their conditions and actions
3. Click a rule to edit it, or click the trash icon to delete it

AI Rule Suggestions

FanDesk can suggest rules based on your email patterns:

1. Go to Mail > Rules
2. Click Suggest Rules
3. AI analyzes your inbox and recommends automations based on common senders and your past behavior
4. Review and accept suggestions with one click

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Next: Learn about AI-powered email features in AI Email Features.