Blackberry Email Personalities
Before I got the Crackberry, I did some extensive testing of smartphones particularly the iPhone and Blackberry. Unfortunately, I didn’t happen to catch that you couldn’t easily set your “From” email address header. This has become a problem because for work I send emails from various email aliases and mailing list names, not just my regular username@workdomain.com.
I searched around for alternative Blackberry IMAP email apps, but couldn’t find a good/decent one. After some experimentation, I’ve discovered a workaround with the Blackberry default email app… somewhat. Unfortunately, it requires another account that has POP or IMAP capabilities since Blackberry Internet Service actually error checks to see if you have already previously set up the email account and will actually check for valid login information (so you can’t just configure your Blackberry email and trick it with the alias or mailing list as your login):
- Set up another email address via Blackberry Internet Service (AT&T) and set the “Reply to” to your email alias or mailing list of choice which will change the “From” field. Set “Auto BCC” as your username@workdomain.com so you receive a copy you can file in your Sent messages folder.
- When replying to a message, use the Forward feature which will allow you to change the “Send Using” option to one of your other email accounts set up on the device; just using the Reply option will not let you change the email account.
- Modify the Subject line and replace “Fw” with “Re” to follow email convention. (optional)
Eudora has had the Personalities feature for quite sometime, Thunderbird calls it Accounts, but Mail.app still doesn’t allow you to configure identity settings. From what I’ve heard from colleagues who have iPhones, that’s also true on the iPhone email app. The iPhone also won’t let you choose the email account for replies (though it may let you change the email account for forwards).
Now I just wish it were easier to change the settings for the second email account on the Blackberry than via the web on the device. Or Blackberry could just implement the Personality/Accounts/Identity feature which would solve the problem completely.
Hrm…. I don’t have them anymore, but I’m pretty sure Mail.app lets you manage multiple identities, if you have them set up as multiple pop/imap accounts.
That seems complex. My Sprint (Crappy service but Unbeatable service price) contract is up this Spring and I’ve been eyeing the Blackberry line. It seems that all the drug reps/implant vendors have it. I think I like the Curve better than the 88xx series but Sprint’s option is the 8830. Mainly the 88xx keypad doesn’t look as functional (easily to type on) as the curve’s. But then again, I’ve not played with them all that much.
And your post makes me feel like there’s been some oversight on some basic functionality for e-mail.
@Jordan It’s currently a workaround to achieve multiple identities in Mail.app. Unfortunately, sent mail for the aliases/mailing lists isn’t stored on the server since the account doesn’t really exist; I’ve had to move the sent messages into the main sent mail folder on the server.
Many thanks for sharing this. It worked a treat!