How to Get Unique Alerts for VIP Emails Received on Your Mac - MacRumors
Skip to Content

How to Get Unique Alerts for VIP Emails Received on Your Mac

by

Mac OS X 10In the last installment of our regular how-to series, we showed how you can set up an iOS device to get unique alerts when emails are received from your VIP contacts. In this article, we're going to show you how to do the same thing on your Mac.

In the native Mail application in macOS, the standard way of ensuring you receive new message notifications from VIPs is to go into Mail's Preferences and select VIPs in the New message notifications dropdown list.

Setting up VIP alerts this way is all well and good, but it prevents you from receiving notifications for all other messages coming into your inbox.

unique alerts VIP emails on Mac
A better solution would be to set up a rule in Mail that plays a specific sound or bounces the Dock icon when a message is received and the sender is in your VIP list. Here's how to do it.

How to Get a Unique Alert for VIP Emails

  1. Launch the Mail app on your Mac.
  2. Select Preferences... from the Mail menu bar.
  3. Select the Rules tab.
    Mac VIP email rule 1

  4. Click Add Rule.
  5. Give your rule a name in the Description field.
  6. For If, select Any.
  7. For the first condition, select Sender is VIP from the first dropdown list.
    Mac VIP email rule 2

  8. Under Perform the following actions: select Play Sound from the first dropdown list. (Another option available here is Bounce Icon in Dock.)
  9. Under Perform the following actions: choose a sound to play from the second dropdown list.
    unique alerts VIP emails on your Mac

  10. Click OK.
  11. Click Apply.

With the rule set up, you'll now get a unique alert for every VIP mail you receive that you'll be able to distinguish from regular new message notifications as they come through.

Top Rated Comments

cerote Avatar
97 months ago
Wish I could use Mail again on my work phone because it had better alerts. I still am having issue finding how to give VIP alerts style in Outlook for iOS.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
harriska2 Avatar
97 months ago
Thanks for this tip. I’m a newbie coming from windows and wondered if there were rules in mail just yesterday.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

M5 Vision Pro Thumb 2

Apple Has Given Up on the Vision Pro After M5 Refresh Flop

Wednesday April 29, 2026 11:31 am PDT by
Apple has all but given up on the Vision Pro after the M5 model failed to revitalize interest in the device, MacRumors has learned. Apple updated the Vision Pro with a faster M5 chip and a more comfortable band in October 2025, but there were no other hardware changes, and consumers still weren't interested. The Vision Pro has been criticized for its high price tag and its uncomfortable...
app store monthly sub commitment

Apple Introduces App Store Monthly Subscriptions With 12-Month Commitment

Monday April 27, 2026 12:52 pm PDT by
Apple today announced the launch of a new subscription option for App Store developers: monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment. The new option allows developers to offer subscribers discounted pricing typically associated with an annual subscription but paid on a monthly basis to keep payments more affordable. This new payment option allows you to offer subscribers more affordable...
Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro to Launch in September With These 10 New Features

Tuesday April 28, 2026 9:35 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not launching until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component will be moved under the...