Notifications from a specific sender

[paul444]

I got the android app I see is now available for fastmail. I see it also supports notifications for new mail. Is there any way to make it only notify me when a specific address emails me? Even if it involves more complicated solutions such as forwarding the email to google or somewhere this would be very handy. I do not want a solution that involves sharing my fastmail password with a third party. I am also concerned about applications that will drain my battery.

[robn]

Originally Posted by paul444

Is there any way to make it only notify me when a specific address emails me?

Not currently. Our plan is to make it possible to select specific folders to notify for. We're also thinking about making it possible to trigger notifications from sieve rules. I've got no ETA for any of this at the moment though.

[n5bb]

I have a trick which will notify you only for messages from certain addresses (any address contained in a particular address book group). It requires you to create a new folder for normal messages, and uses your original Inbox for the messages arriving from the special addresses. Here are the directions - I have tested this completely on the iPad Fastmail app (and I assume this will work for Android devices if that Fastmail app only notifies you for new messages in your Inbox folder):

• Log into the normal Fastmail web interface.
• Go to Address Book
  • At the bottom of the group list at the left, click Create or edit groups
  • At the bottom of the group list, add a new group called notify (which must be different than any existing folder)
  • Click Save Changes
  • Add new contacts with the special From addresses you wish to use for notification (if they don't already exist). Open each contact which is to be used for notification, select Groups at the top, and select the notify group.
  • You can be notified for any address at a domain using a wildcard local-part (asterisk * to the left of the @ symbol). For example, use *@google.com for the email address to be notified by any message from the google.com domain, or *@fastmail.com to be notified by any message from the fastmail.com domain.
  • It's important that the special email addresses and wildcard domain addresses are only entered in unique address book entries. In other words, don't have the same address in multiple address book entries.
  • When finished with these steps, click the notify group (in the list at the left). Click on each address and be sure the email addresses are shown correctly.
• Go to Advanced>Folders
  • Create a new folder for your new incoming messages with are not from the special senders. Messages in this folder will not generate a notification. So you could name it No notify or New or any unique name not used for another folder. Set the sort priority to 0 if you wish to show this new message folder at the top of the folder list. Save your changes.
• Go to Advanced>Rules. Create two File into folders tab rules as follows:
  • First new rule:
    • Message with: Advanced
    • That: N/A
    • The text: header :contains "X-Spam-known-sender" "notify"
    • File into folder: Inbox
    • Order: 0 (must be less than any other File into folders rule order number)
    • Click Add
  • Second new rule:
    • Message with: Always
    • That: N/A
    • The text: N/A
    • File into folder: No notify (or whatever name you chose for the new folder)
    • Order: 20 (must be greater than any other File into folders rule order number)
    • Click Add
  • Click Save Changes
  • Click Apply all changes at the top
• Log out of all Fastmail webmail screens and apps and then log back in to be sure the folder names update properly.

Now new messages whose From address matches any entry in the notify Address Book group will be delivered to the normal Inbox folder, and these will generate notifications in the tablet/phone app.

• New message which don't match any address in the notify Address Book group will be filed in the new folder you created (such as No notify) instead of your Inbox.
• Message filing and other rules should work normally as long as you follow my suggestions above on the rule order.

Bill

[Flyingout]

Another issue to think about. I'm alerted by the app when recognized spam arrives.

I'm sure I could avoid this by allowing Fastmail to move spam to my junk folder automatically, but I chose to allow my desktop client to do the moving instead. The reason for this is that when Mail.app detects spam, those messages are flagged and as a result images are not displayed. Without that, I have to go through extra steps if I want to examine them without alerting the spammer. (Relatively little spam makes it to me and I typically examine it to see which address was targeted.)