Do you use several messaging services or are you changing your e-mail address? Rest assured: you can easily retrieve all messages and contacts from one account to use them in another mailbox!
Webmail is undoubtedly the easiest way to manage email today. Messages remain accessible easily and at any time from any device, computer, tablet or smartphone, spam filters are quite effective and interfaces well thought out enough to allow everyone to manage their correspondence easily. The three webmail giants – Google with Gmail, Microsoft with Outlook.com and Yahoo with Yahoo Mail – are trying to differentiate themselves by adding a few features here and there, additional storage space or by offering better integration with the rest of the world. Web. However, when you have set your sights on one of these players to manage your main email address, the one you use on a daily basis to communicate with loved ones or register with Web services or online stores , it seems very difficult to part with it to give in to the sirens of another messaging provider. However, it is not.
In recent years, the main webmail providers have considerably facilitated the means of transition from one mailbox to another. We understand them. The goal being to attract new customers, everything is done to ensure that the messaging migration goes smoothly and without tearing our hair out. Ended the long and tedious operations requiring to retrieve messages by hand (sometimes thousands) before integrating them into another messaging tool. Today, all you have to do is ask the tool you want to use to repatriate the letters and contacts managed by the service you want to leave. And this operation is valid not only for commercial messaging systems like Gmail, Outlook.com or Yahoo Mail, but also for messaging tools offered by operators like Orange, Free, SFR and Bouygues Télécom.
Entrusting the management of your messages to a single messaging system has certain advantages. First, you no longer have to juggle several webmail applications or services to manage your correspondence. A single app is enough to centralize everything with separate files to be able to find your way around. It is even possible to continue to send messages using the original address so as not to reveal to certain correspondents an email address that they are not supposed to know. Then, messages retrieved from other couriers do not disappear. If you want to quit an e-mail service or if you change operator for example, the messages that you have imported into your new mailbox will not disappear, even if you close your account. A good way to keep track of your past correspondence.
Ready for the big migration? So here’s how to do it with the three main webmail providers: Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail.
Google’s webmail has undoubtedly become one of the most popular email services in recent years, notably thanks to Android which encourages smartphone users to create a Google account and therefore a Gmail address. Google has therefore planned everything so that the import and use of one or more other e-mail addresses goes without a hitch. Depending on your preferences and habits, you can either simply retrieve messages (a formula to use if you plan to close an old email account), or receive and send emails from this address without leaving Gmail. To achieve this, follow the advice in our practical sheet.
Microsoft has significantly reworked its webmail which is now very user-friendly and above all, perfectly integrated into the full range of tools offered by the publisher (OneDrive for storage, Office Online for office documents, etc.). Importing a new mailbox is smooth and takes just a few minutes. Read our practical sheet to set it up.
Now owned by Verizon, Yahoo has certainly lost its panache but remains a very efficient messaging system. We only regret that certain functions, such as automatic message transfer, are reserved for the Pro version (billed at 2.60 euros per month anyway). However, the management of another email address remains possible without spending anything. Follow the advice in our practical sheet to get started.