How to Put Gmail and Outlook in One Inbox

Your job runs on Outlook. Your life runs on Gmail. Your kid's school, your bank and your landlord all write to one; your manager and clients write to the other.

So every morning you open two email apps, scroll two inboxes, and occasionally discover the message you were waiting for has been sitting in the other one since yesterday.

You don't need two apps. Here are four ways to put both in one place.

The Gmail app on Android, iPhone and iPad can add other email accounts, including Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo and other IMAP accounts. Tap your profile picture, choose Add another account, and pick the type. Google's help page notes a limit of five addresses.

Good for: people who mostly live in Gmail.

The Outlook app for iPhone and Android can add a Gmail account from the account menu with the + button. Your Gmail messages then appear alongside your Outlook mail.

Good for: people whose work life runs on Microsoft.

On iPhone and Mac, Apple Mail can hold both accounts and show them together in All Inboxes. Many Android phones' built-in mail apps can do the same.

Good for: a simple, free option with no extra app.

The first three options combine email only. If your work also lives in Slack, Teams or chat apps, a universal inbox can bring all of it together.

YAFOY connects Gmail and Outlook directly through your accounts, on desktop browsers, Android and iPhone, so you can read, reply in threads and send attachments. Microsoft Teams (work or school accounts) and Slack can join the same inbox, and on Android, so can WhatsApp, texts and other chats. Mail lands in its own Mail tab, and Insight sums up which emails need a reply first. See the Universal Inbox →

Good for: people whose messages are spread across email and chat.

• Email only, Gmail-first: the Gmail app.
• Email only, Microsoft-first: the Outlook app.
• Simplest, nothing new to install: your built-in mail app.
• Email plus Slack, Teams and chats: a universal inbox like YAFOY.

One tip whichever you pick: give each account its own signature, and double-check which address you're replying from before you hit send.

Try YAFOY free and see Gmail, Outlook and your work chats together.

Open YAFOY in a desktop browser, sign in to YAFOY, then open Connected apps and connect each Gmail or Outlook account you need. Approve the requested permissions for reading, replying and attachments. You can add more mailboxes separately; replies to received mail use the receiving account. Slack and Teams can join the same message list. Desktop search and the side-by-side conversation pane make reviewing mail easier without phone notification access. Work accounts may require organization approval.