Smart Alerts - Incoming Email Alerts

With Incoming Email Alerts, administrators can configure alert messages or banners that will be displayed when users view specific sets of emails. Incoming alerts can be associated with a user, multiple users, or the entire organization, protecting them from phishing or fraudulent emails. All the enabled alerts will be processed in sequence and trigger specified actions for emails with the matching conditions. 

These alerts are designed to enhance security and efficiency in managing incoming emails. For example, you can add alerts for emails from external users who are not a part of your organization. These alerts play a crucial role in safeguarding users from deceptive emails. 

Create New Alert

Follow these steps to create a new Incoming Alert: 

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Mail Settings on the left pane.
2. Navigate to Smart Alerts and select Incoming Alerts.

3. Click Create Now or select the Create button from the top menu, if there are any existing alerts.
    
    

   Note:

   If Organization Rules setting is not enabled, the below note will be displayed while creating an alert. Click Enable now to enable it and proceed with the configuration.
   

4. Provide an Alert Name and an optional Alert Description. If the entered alert name is already in use, "Name already exists" warning is shown.
5. Specify an Expiry date if needed.
6. Select the Condition Type as per your requirement:
   • Apply for matching conditions - Preferred action will be performed only if the incoming emails satisfy the conditions provided by you.
   • No Conditions. Apply to all emails. - When chosen, all the emails you receive will go through the preferred action.
7. Select one or more Conditions, the Operating parameter and the corresponding Action.
8. Click +Add values under Conditions to enter multiple values separated by a delimiter which you can choose from Choose delimiter drop-down. Select Custom from the drop-down, to add your own custom delimiter for the values and select Update.
9. Select the users, to whom you want to apply the alert from the Apply To section:
   • All users - The alert will be applied to all the users in your organization.
   • Selected Users - The alert will be applied to the specific set of users you add.
   • Selected Groups/Shared Mailbox - The alert will be applied only to the users who are members of the specified groups/Shared Mailbox.
   • Excluded Users - The alert will not be applied to the selected list of users.
   • Excluded Groups/Shared Mailbox - The alert will not be applied to the users who are members of the selected groups/Shared Mailbox.
10. Skip to this step if you chose All users.
11. Select the users you want to add to the list and click Submit. You can also remove a user from the list by clicking the Delete icon next to the user.
12. Select the Reset to default button when you have to clear all the selected conditions and provide a different criteria.
13. Review your alert and do one of the following:
    • Create and enable alert- Your alert will not only be created but also be activated automatically to start processing emails with respect to its conditions and actions.
    • Create alert - Your alert will only be created and not activated. That means if you want the alert to be applied to the emails you receive, you will have to manually activate it.
      
14. Click Yes in the Confirm Action! dialog box.

15. Select either Done or Go to created alert or Add more alerts depending on your requirement once the alert is created successfully.

    Note:
    The maximum number of incoming alerts that can be configured for an organization is 500.

Available Condition

Zoho Mail provides multiple conditions based on which you can add alerts to the incoming emails. There can be more than one condition for a single alert depending on your organization's requirement. The various conditions are listed in the tables that follow:

After selecting the Conditions and the Operating parameters, provide the values with respect to the chosen conditions that need to be verified against. Upon providing these proceed to select the Actions that need to be performed for the emails with the chosen conditions.

The emails that match the specified conditions will be processed as per the actions defined in the alert. Select the necessary action and, if required, provide a value as given in the table that follows:

Filter

Once the alerts are created, they are listed under Incoming Alerts home page. You can view and filter the alerts based on their status/action. Follow the below steps to perform the filter operation:

1. Select Filter button on the Incoming Alerts home page.

2. Click the desired status/action from the drop-down. The types of alerts based on the status are:

   • Active Alerts - Lists all the alerts where the status is marked active.
   • Inactive Alerts - Lists all the alerts where the status is marked inactive.
   • Expired Alerts - Lists all the alerts where the set expiry date of the specific alert has been lapsed. However, you can modify the expiry date of an alert by hovering over the status and selecting a different date.
   Note: The expired alerts are also included in the filtered list when Inactive Alerts is selected from the Filter drop-down.
3. Select Action from the Filter drop-down to filter alerts based on the available actions.

Alert processing and priority

Alerts are created to protect users from phishing or fraudulent emails by triggering a warning message that is configured under Incoming Alerts. However, these alerts are handled based on their priority. The types of priority available are:

• Sequential priority
• Apply To priority

Sequential priority

You can add any number of Incoming alerts to different types of incoming emails. In the case of multiple alerts, the order of processing is determined by the sequence in which they are listed. The alert with the highest priority (1), i.e., the one listed first, will take precedence over alerts with lower priorities (2) listed subsequently. Once an email matches the conditions of a particular alert, the actions specified in the alert will be applied to the email. The same email will not be scrutinized against the subsequent alerts in the list.

Apply To priority

When you create an incoming alert, you can choose who the alert applies to or excludes using the Apply To section. Each selection type has its own priority, and the alert is evaluated based on these priorities:

• All Users
  • Selected users (priority 2)
  • Selected groups/Shared Mailbox (priority 4)
• Exclude users or groups
  • Exclude users (priority 1)
  • Exclude groups/Shared Mailbox (priority 3)

When an alert is evaluated, the system checks the selected and excluded entities in the order of their priority. This ensures that higher-priority exclusions or inclusions override lower-priority selections.

Below are detailed examples to illustrate this:

Case 1:  If a user is added under Exclude users, the alert will not be applied to that user, even if the group they belong to is included under Selected groups/Shared Mailbox. This happens because Exclude users has the highest priority and is processed first.

Case 2: If a user’s group is added under Exclude groups/Shared Mailbox, but the individual user is added under Selected users, the alert will apply to that user. This is because Selected users has a higher priority than Exclude groups/Shared Mailbox. 

Case 3: When a user is added under Exclude users, and no other selections are made under the All Users category, the alert will still be applicable to all users by default, except for the users listed under Exclude users. This happens because All Users is considered the default scope for every alert.

Modify Incoming Alert

Follow the below steps to edit an alert:

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Mail Settings on the left pane.
2. Navigate to Smart Alerts and select Incoming Alerts.
3. Select the alert that requires modification from the list and click Edit in the top right corner.
4. Make the necessary changes and click Update.

Additionally, you can search and edit the incoming email alerts based on the associated users. Navigate to the search bar and select the contains or applicable to parameters from the listing as per your requirements. Choose a specific user from the list and press enter. All the incoming alerts containing or associated with that particular user will be displayed. You can then select the alerts from the list and make the required changes.

Enable or Disable an Alert

Follow the below steps to enable or disable an Alert:

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Mail Settings on the left pane.
2. Navigate to Smart Alerts and select Incoming Alerts.
3. Toggle the status button to   ON or   OFF in order to enable or disable an alert.
   

Remove Alerts from the list

In situations where an alert is no longer required or has expired, they can be removed by using the Delete option. Follow these steps to delete an alert:

1. Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console and select Mail Settings on the left pane.
2. Navigate to Smart Alerts and select Incoming Alerts.
3. To remove an Alert:
   • Hover over an existing or expired alert and click the   delete icon.
   • Alternatively, you can select the desired alert, click Delete on the top menu and choose the required option:
     • Delete selected alerts
     • Delete all expired alerts
     • Delete all alerts
4. Click Delete in the confirmation dialog that appears.
   

This will remove the incoming alerts from your list. Please note that once removed, the alerts cannot be retrieved and will be permanently removed from the list.