How to Setup VIP Mail in iOS 6

VIP mail is a new iOS 6 feature that provides custom alerts and a special inbox for emails from contacts you pick. This feature is similar to Gmail priority inbox, but for the built-in mail application.

A good use of VIP Mail would be for receiving custom notifications when an employer, family member or professor sends an email. By adding these contacts into VIP the messages they send are filtered into their own inbox for easy access.

With a few easy steps VIP Mail can be setup.

How to Setup VIP Inbox.

Select Mail.

Tap VIP.

Select Add VIP.

Choose a contact that you would like to be a VIP.

The contact that you selected should appear like the image above. To add more contacts to the VIP list tap Add VIP again, until all of the contacts are added.

Next Tap VIP Alerts.

In this next window the notification settings for VIP can be changed to the user’s preference. Just like other notifications, the user decides how they are alerted and also the sound associated with the notification.

To have the largest effect, change the sound of the mail from the default ding that rings when any email account receives a message. Also, allowing the messages to appear in notification center with a preview may be preferred with VIP, rather than using this method for all messages.

A great feature of using VIP inbox is that it syncs with iCloud. No matter what device a user currently has in hand, their inbox on it will be up to date and synced.

One downside of using VIP is that once it is enabled there is no way to turn it completely off. The contacts can be removed by selecting edit, tapping the red circle next to the specific contact and then selecting delete, but it is technically still in use.

Overall VIP helps those with a large inbox to not miss the important messages.