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Send from Alias in Office 365

Microsoft listened and added support to send from alias address in Office 365/Microsoft 365. However, the Send as Alias feature will only work for Exchange Online mailboxes and does not work for Exchange on-premises mailboxes. This article will show how to enable Send from Alias feature in the Microsoft 365 tenant. Also, how to send email as alias in Outlook and Outlook on the web.

Introduction

Many users ask how to send from an alias address. That’s most of the time the first question they ask after the service desk tells them that they did create an alias address for them. Unfortunately, the answer from the service desk to the users is that the purpose of the alias address is to receive and not to send from.

Note: An Alias is also known as a proxy address or secondary SMTP address.

Microsoft did listen to the feedback, and they did implement that feature in Office 365/Microsoft 365. The users can send as alias, after enabling the send as alias feature in the Microsoft 365 tenant.

This means that you don’t have to create new mailboxes and map them to the user mailbox so they can send from that mailbox. Another benefit is that an alias address doesn’t count for a license, which helps to reduce costs.

Note: The send from alias address feature in Microsoft 365 is turned off by default, and you have to enable that manually.

Check Aliases in Office 365

Ensure that you have aliases added to a mailbox by following the below steps:

  1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 admin center.
  2. Click on Users > Active users.
  3. Select the user to check their aliases.

In our example, the primary email is Jack.Taylor@exoip.com, and the alias we will send from is vacation@exoip.com.

Microsoft 365 admin center aliases

Do you like to export all SMTP aliases? Read the article List all SMTP addresses with PowerShell.

How to enable Send as Alias in Office 365

To enable send from alias address in Office 365, go through these three steps.

1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell

Start PowerShell as administrator and Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

PS C:\> Connect-ExchangeOnline

2. Enable Send from Alias in Microsoft 365 tenant

Run the Set-OrganizationConfig cmdlet, including the -SendFromAliasEnabled parameter to enable Send as Alias in the Microsoft 365 tenant.

PS C:\> Set-OrganizationConfig -SendFromAliasEnabled $True

Note: Suppose you want to turn off Send from Alias feature in Office 365, change the value $True to $False.

3. Verify Send from Alias status

Check that the feature Send from Alias is enabled in the Microsoft 365 organization.

PS C:\> Get-OrganizationConfig | ft Name, SendFromAliasEnabled

Name                     SendFromAliasEnabled
----                     --------------------
exoip365.onmicrosoft.com                 True

It can take 5 minutes to 1 hour before the change takes effect in the organization. So don’t immediately start to send emails using an alias address.

Turn on send from alias in Exchange admin center

To enable send from alias address in Exchange admin center, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Exchange admin center.
  2. Click on Settings > Mail flow.
  3. Check Turn on sending from aliases.
  4. Click on Save.
Send from Alias Exchange admin center

Send from Alias in Outlook

To send from alias address in Outlook, go through the below steps.

  1. Start Outlook application.
  2. Click on New Email.
Create new email in Outlook
  1. Click on Options > From.

This will show the From field in Outlook.

Send from Alias in Office 365 from field
  1. Click on From > Other Email Address….
Send from Alias in Office 365 from other email address
  1. Fill in the Alias address.
  2. Click OK.
Send from Alias in Office 365 send from other email address
  1. The From field will change to the alias address.
  2. Write a subject, message and send the email.
Send from Alias in Office 365 from field alias address
  1. The email arrives and shows that the alias vacation@exoip.com sent the email.

In our example, the primary email is Jack.Taylor@exoip.com, and the mail is sent from the alias vacation@exoip.com.

Email arrives from alias address
  1. Clicking on the reply button shows the alias address vacation@exoip.com.

Send from Alias in Outlook on the web

To send from alias in Outlook on the web, go through the below steps.

  1. Sign in to Outlook on the web.
  2. Click on New message > … > Show From.

This will show the From field in Outlook web.

Send from Alias in Office 365 show from
  1. Click on From > Other Email Address…
  1. Fill in the Alias address.
  2. Write a subject, message and send the email.
Send from Alias in Office 365 from field alias address
  1. The email arrives and shows that the alias vacation@exoip.com sent the email.

In our example, the primary email is Jack.Taylor@exoip.com, and the mail is sent from the alias vacation@exoip.com.

Email arrives from alias address
  1. Clicking on the reply button shows the alias address vacation@exoip.com.

Send from Alias in Outlook mobile app

To send from alias address in Outlook mobile app, go through the steps in the article Send as Alias from Microsoft Outlook mobile app (iOS and Android).

Send from alias Outlook mobile app

That’s it!

Read more: Add tag to external emails in Microsoft 365 for extra security »

Conclusion

You learned how to enable send from alias in Office 365. By default, the Send from Alias feature is not enabled. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell or sign in to Exchange admin center and turn on the feature Send from Alias. After that, inform the users that they can send from alias.

Did you enjoy this article? You may also like Remove alias from Microsoft 365 Group. Don’t forget to follow us and share this article.

ALI TAJRAN

ALI TAJRAN

ALI TAJRAN is a passionate IT Architect, IT Consultant, and Microsoft Certified Trainer. He started Information Technology at a very young age, and his goal is to teach and inspire others. Read more »

This Post Has 25 Comments

  1. This is great, thank you. This works when composing new emails sending from alias in Outlook desktop and Outlook web, but replying to the alias message in desktop application requires you to select the alias address in the From dropdown. Yet, not necessary in Outlook web as the from address is already populated with the alias address. Is there a setting to override this in the desktop app, or is it by design? If so, hopefully a fix in the works.

  2. Hi,
    It works sending from Alias in Outlook on the web.
    But sending from Alias in Outlook (desktop) still use the principal SMTP of the account.
    Any idea ?

  3. In my organization I have enabled “send from alias” since the first installation but it never worked on Outlook for Windows, the recipient always receives the email from the primary address. While it works on Outlook web and mobile.
    I also tried different outlook versions from 2016 to the latest outlook365 update but there is no way to make it work.

  4. When I send from my alias email, the receiver receives from my alias email but the name displayed is from my primary email.

    For example when I send using my primary email, my receiver receives the following –> John Doe .

    And when I send using my alias email, my receiver receives the following –> John Doe .

    Is there a way that I can set a name for the alias email?

  5. Crazy, it works on OWA and Outlook-ios but when I want to send from Outlook-windows I get an reply that I’m not allowed to send as this alias.
    Any idea???

  6. It works sending from Alias in Outlook on the web.
    But sending from Alias in Outlook (desktop) still use the principal SMTP of the account.
    Updated GAL, re-added profile, different PC and user, Microsoft 365 for business Version 2210 build 16.0.15726.20202.
    We have Azure AD Connect configured.
    I have also tried to set the Send As right in the Security tab of the premise AD of the user, but still not work after more than 24h.

  7. hello!

    This works for me just internally. when i send an email to external recipient it arrives with the primary smtp address.

  8. Works from Outlook desktop and web apps. But still doesn’t work from Android or IOS Outlook Apps. Alias does not appear in drop down list and there does not appear to be a a way to add it.

  9. Nice article and great screen shots…. After doing all that was listed in this article I sill can can not send as an alias. When I type in the alias it always reverts back to my primary address. Is there a way to force this change …..
    I have checked and the FromAliasEnabled = True ?

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