Managing emails for unlicensed admin accounts? Juggling a shared mailbox flooded with notifications from services and clients? Today’s solution: Plus addressing!
In the world of IT administration, juggling multiple identities for a single employee can feel like a high-stakes balancing act. Notifications, admin emails, approval requests, and consent forms all demand clear separation from daily accounts. But licensing admin accounts? That can quickly get complicated.
Enter Plus addressing (a.k.a. Subaddressing)—a smart, cost-effective way to simplify email management without the headache of additional licenses.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through how Plus addressing works, how to configure it in Microsoft Entra, and what the experience is like for incoming emails.
Table of Content
What Is Plus Addressing?
Plus addressing allows you to create unique email variations by adding tags to your email address. It’s a fantastic way to sort and organize incoming emails efficiently.
The format is simple:
<email-prefix>+<tag>@<yourdomain>
For example, if your email is Sebastian@contoso.com, you could use:
Sebastian+Newsletter@contoso.com
When an email is sent to a Plus address, Exchange first attempts to resolve the full address (including the tag). If that fails, it falls back to the base email (Sebastian@contoso.com).
However, note that if the admin account is licensed, Plus addressing won’t work in this setup. Instead, consider using transport rules or, better yet, removing the license and mailbox from the admin account, to allow for Plus addressing.
Plus addressing is an easy way to manage services, organize emails with rules, and maintain clean inboxes—without requiring additional licenses!
How to Configure Plus Addressing in Microsoft Entra
Starting in Q2 of 2022, Plus addressing has been enabled in Exchange Online by default, making it easier than ever to get started.
Follow these steps to configure it for an admin account:
Access Microsoft Entra
Log in to Microsoft Entra and navigate to Users. Search for the account you want to configure Plus addressing for.
Edit the User Properties
In the user account menu, select Edit Properties and update the Email property to include the Plus address tag.
Validate the Configuration
After configuring the email property, you’ll now have two nearly identical email addresses on two separate accounts.
To confirm everything is set up correctly:
Send an email directly to the Plus address, OR
Trigger an automated notification (e.g., an app request).
Now, your admin account can use the Plus Addressing email (Sebastian+Admin@contoso.com), while your daily driver email (Sebastian@contoso.com) remains clean and organized. Emails sent to the Plus address will seamlessly route to the correct inbox, keeping admin notifications separate from day-to-day emails.
Additional Notes
This configuration is only necessary if you need multiple identities to share the same email address as the recipient. For email organization by client or service, simply add the appropriate +tag to the email address when setting up notifications—no special setup needed.
The user experience is exactly the same though!
Conclusion
Plus addressing is a hassle-free, effective way to manage multiple identities and keep your inbox organized—all without requiring additional licenses. By leveraging tags in email addresses, you can effortlessly separate admin roles from daily tasks, ensuring important notifications land exactly where they’re needed.
Give Plus addressing a try—it’s a game-changer for email management! And stay tuned for my next blog post as I kick off my Securing Business Premium Series. You won’t want to miss it!
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