Skip to Content

How to Receive Unique Alerts for VIP Emails on iPhone and iPad

by

ios 11 mail icon pn e1543485132148If you use the VIP feature in the iOS Mail app then you'll already know how they can help you keep track of important messages from your key contacts amid the daily torrent of incoming emails.

Keeping on top of VIP emails can be made even easier by ensuring you receive a specific sound or vibration alert whenever one comes through on your iPhone or iPad. That way you'll know if a new message justifies your immediate attention before you've even looked at your iOS device. Here's how to set them up.

  1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap Mail in the list.
    how to assign a sound alert to VIP emails01

  3. Tap Notifications.
  4. Tap VIP.
  5. Tap Sounds.
    how to assign a sound alert to VIP emails02

  6. Choose a unique sound from the list or tap Vibration to select a special vibration. The default sound alert is Ding (Classic), so be sure to choose something different.

With that done, the next time you receive an email from one of your VIPs, you'll get the unique notification alert and immediately know it's an important message.

Top Rated Comments

chino-rican Avatar
95 months ago
This assumes the following is activated: Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Fetch New Data > Push > ON; Change the desired email account to Fetch.

Otherwise, you will only get the alert if you open the Mail app and download new emails.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
johnnyturbouk Avatar
95 months ago
This is all very well but I tend to have my phone on silent a lot, as I work with patients. What would be an elegant and really useful feature would be if apple adopted a filter system like sanebox. Using smart machine learning to recognise the difference btwn random crap from group-on and amazon reporting offers, to say receipts. I currently have my gmail as my professional email account, me.com for family and yahoo for signing up with companies that I know willl then spam my email.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

MacBook Neo Feature Pastel 1

First MacBook Neo Benchmarks Are In: Here's How It Compares to the M1 MacBook Air

Thursday March 5, 2026 4:07 pm PST by
Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The MacBook Neo uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core. The MacBook Neo earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286. Here's how the...
imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils Seven New Products

Friday March 6, 2026 11:48 am PST by
Apple this week unveiled seven products, including an iPhone 17e, an iPad Air with the M4 chip, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, a new Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and an all-new MacBook Neo that starts at just $599. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Sunday March 8, 2026 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...