Email Filter

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What Does Email Filter Mean?

An email filter is a type of program that filters and separates email into different folders based on specified criteria. It provides a way to organize email into different categories automatically, such as separate folders or locations for work, personal, subscriptions and other services.

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Techopedia Explains Email Filter

Email filters primarily help in managing and organizing the flow of incoming email messages. They can be classified by criteria such as sender’s email address, subject or message content. Email filters work when an email is received at the email server. The email server or email software forwards and stores each email based on the filter(s) applied. For instance, any email addresses which are marked as work, will automatically be transferred into the “work” folder. Similarly, for non-configured email addresses, the email program uses its default email filtering capabilities that usually send email to the primary inbox, while suspicious emails are sent to the junk or spam folder.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.