Note: The term "sending identities" is no longer used in Fastmail's interface. Where we previously offered "aliases" (for receiving mail) and "sending identities" (for sending mail), we now simply offer "email addresses" that are able to both send and receive. Per user feedback, we made these changes to simplify the user experience. For more information on setting up an email address, please see our My email addresses help page.
To help ease the transition from identities to email addresses, we've updated the instructions on this page to match our current interface.
What is an identity?
"Identity" is a commonly used term for an additional email address that is used for sending mail. Identities are helpful if you want to send mail from different email addresses or names without creating multiple users. For example, you could have a nickname@mydomain.com address for sending personal emails, and a fullname@mydomain.com address for sending professional emails.
Identities also let you control how you appear if you want to send mail through Fastmail using external email accounts.
In our current interface, email addresses are used instead of identities.
Managing identities
If you wish to send mail using a new address, you can create an email address by going to the Settings → My email addresses screen. For more information, please see the Creating an email address section of our My email addresses help page.
If you are an admin looking to create an email address for another user in your account, this can be done by going to Settings → Team & Sharing.
By default, the email address used to send messages from your account is your username. You can change your default email address by following these steps:
- Open the Settings → Signatures & Compose screen.
- Click the Compose options tab.
- In the Compose section, find the Default address option and select the desired default address from the dropdown menu.
You can also set the default email address for individual folders, which will override that account's default address.
If you have a custom domain set up in your account, you can set up a catch-all address at Settings → My email addresses, which allows you to send mail from any address at your domain. Please see our Catch-all/Wildcard addresses help page for more information.
Identity options
Sending options for an email address, including the sending name and signature, can be changed by going to Settings → My email addresses and clicking the Edit button for that address.
From the same Edit page, we also offer a variety of more advanced sending options. For more details, please see the Editing my email addresses section of our My email addresses help page.
Identity verification
If you have previously manually created a sending identity that sends through Fastmail's servers, you may see the following error message:
To send as address@domain.tld you must first verify that you own this address.
You may also see the Verify button next to an email address at Settings → My email addresses.
If you are prompted to verify your address, this means that you will need to prove that you can successfully receive mail at that email address before you can use it to send mail. More information of verifying your address can be found at the Verifying an email address section of our My email addresses help page.