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Routing email intelligently is just as important as sending and receiving it. UGMail gives you two distinct tools for controlling where inbound messages land: aliases, which let multiple addresses share a single mailbox, and forwarders, which redirect messages to a completely different destination. Both are managed programmatically through the UGMail API.
Aliases and forwarders are managed per-domain. The domain referenced in any alias or forwarder address must already exist as a domain principal in your tenant.

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Aliases

An alias is an additional email address that delivers mail into an existing mailbox. When a message arrives at an alias address, UGMail routes it to the mailbox that owns that alias — the recipient sees the message in their inbox exactly as if it had been sent directly to their primary address.

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Use Cases

Role-based addresses

Map support@example.com, billing@example.com, and hello@example.com to a single inbox without creating separate accounts.

Catch-all addresses

Catch every message sent to any address on your domain and route it to one mailbox for review.

Branded inboxes

Give a user multiple branded identities (e.g., alice@acme.com and alice@support.acme.com) that both land in the same place.

Privacy addresses

Issue throwaway addresses that forward to a real inbox, keeping the primary address private.

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Creating an Alias

Aliases are stored in the emails array of a mailbox principal. To add an alias, update the mailbox’s emails array to include the new address alongside the existing ones. First, retrieve the current mailbox to get its ID and existing emails value:
Then patch the mailbox to add the alias:
From this point on, messages sent to support@example.com or hello@example.com are delivered to the same mailbox as alice@example.com.
The emails array is a full replacement — always include the primary address and all existing aliases when you PATCH, or previous entries will be removed.

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Forwarders

A forwarder is a routing rule that redirects incoming mail from one address to a different destination. Unlike an alias, the destination of a forwarder does not have to be a mailbox on the same domain — it can be any valid email address, including an external one (for example, a Gmail or Outlook address).

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Use Cases

Consolidate inboxes

Pull mail from multiple domain addresses into one external inbox during a migration or transition period.

Temporary redirects

Forward mail for a former employee to their replacement for a set period after they leave.

Support routing

Redirect support@example.com to your helpdesk platform’s inbound email address.

Monitoring

Forward a copy of all mail sent to an address to a logging or archiving mailbox.

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Creating a Forwarder

Create a forwarder by posting a principal of type "forwarder" and specifying the source address and the destination to forward to:
Once the forwarder is active, any message sent to support@example.com is automatically redirected to helpdesk@external-provider.com.
Forwarding email to external addresses can affect your domain’s deliverability and spam reputation if the destination provider applies strict SPF checks. Consider setting up a DKIM signature and configuring DMARC to mitigate forwarding-related delivery issues.

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Aliases vs. Forwarders at a Glance

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Next Steps

Domains

Review domain setup if you haven’t configured DNS yet.

DKIM Signing

Protect forwarded and outbound mail with DKIM authentication.
Last modified on July 17, 2026