5 easy ways to customize your email inbox and give it a personal touch
Take a look at your cell phone screen. Do you see a picture of your pet? A beautiful moment with your spouse? Possibly a favorite vacation memory? Personalization is par for the course in this digital world. You can magnify the typeface or darken the screens on your mobile gadgets, choose from seemingly endless ringtone options, and organize your apps however you please. Even your social media accounts offer myriad ways to make them your own — but did you know your email inbox does, too?
AOL Mail is a goldmine of tailor-made solutions, from custom background designs to various message display views. Don't settle for a standard, one-size-fits-all experience when you can make your inbox a destination that suits you to a 't', both aesthetically and functionally.
5 brilliant ways to customize your AOL Mail inbox
Logging into your AOL Mail to draft a note to your best friend or check on the status of an online order can spark a little bit of joy each time with these five tricks to creating a custom inbox experience.
1. Cut down on ads.
Tired of random advertisements cluttering your inbox? It's easy to make them disappear. Ad-Free AOL Mail is a service that removes paid ads — basically, anything that promotes non-AOL-related goods and services — from your inbox so you get a cleaner and more streamlined view of things. This product is available for one email address per subscriber and is exclusive to AOL Webmail, which means you have to log in via the web from a computer or mobile device versus the AOL Desktop software or app.
Try Ad-Free AOL Mail for $4.99 a month.
2. Add a fun background.
You're not a basic person, so why have a basic background? AOL Mail lets you choose from lots of fun and beautifully designed custom backgrounds for your inbox. Some popular themes include tropical landscapes, colorful abstracts and animal-themed illustrations. All you have to do is log into AOL Mail, navigate to your username and click Options > Mail themes, and then select the background that rings true to you. There's even a "use random theme" option if you like surprises.
3. Make your messages easier to read.
Struggling to read your emails, especially on your phone? Don't invest in a stronger pair of reading glasses; just adjust your font size instead. AOL Mail lets you enlarge your text size by opening to your Settings and choosing 'Enable large text size.' Then, to make things even more readable you can adjust your inbox spacing while in your Settings by choosing between small, medium and large options. Watch as the entire picture gets clearer!
4. Choose how you preview messages.
Everyone processes information differently, which is why AOL Mail offers three different ways to preview the messages in your inbox. You can choose between List view (no preview pane), Right view (show message in a preview pane on the right) and Bottom view (show message in a preview pane on the bottom). To make your selection, go into Settings, find your options under 'Message Layout.'
5. Level up to AOL Desktop Gold.
If you want a truly customizable AOL Mail experience, take things to the next level with AOL Desktop Gold. It’s free for 30 days, then $6.99 per month. (To avoid being charged the recurring subscription fee, simply cancel before the free trial period ends.) You can choose from a slew of free background images, custom sounds and color options, plus enjoy advanced mail filtering, which lets you see every single attachment and image ever received from one sender's email in a single location. AOL Desktop Gold has built-in cybersecurity features too, like screen grab protection and anti-key logging.
