Configure custom MailTips for recipients in Exchange Online

MailTips are informative messages displayed to users in the InfoBar in Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App) and Microsoft Outlook 2010 or later when a user does any of the following steps while composing an email message:

  • Add a recipient

  • Add an attachment

  • Reply or Reply all

  • Open a message from the Drafts folder that's already addressed to recipients

In addition to the built-in MailTips that are available, you can create custom MailTips for all types of recipients. For more information about the built-in MailTips, see MailTips.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. For information on the permissions you need, see the "MailTips" entry in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online article.

  • You can configure the primary MailTip in the Exchange admin center (EAC) or in Exchange Online PowerShell. However, you can only configure additional MailTip translations in Exchange Online PowerShell.

  • When you add a MailTip to a recipient, two things happen:

    • HTML tags are automatically added to the text. For example, if you enter the text This mailbox is not monitored, the MailTip automatically becomes <html><body>This mailbox is not monitored</body></html>. Additional HTML tags in the MailTip aren't supported.

    • The text is automatically added to the MailTipTranslations property of the recipient as the default value. If you modify the MailTip text, the default value is automatically updated in the MailTipTranslations property.

  • The length of a MailTip can't exceed 175 displayed characters.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this article, see Keyboard shortcuts for the Exchange admin center.

Configure MailTips for recipients

Use the EAC to configure MailTips for recipients

  1. In the EAC, go to Recipients > Mailboxes. Or, use Manage mailboxes.

  2. Select any of the following recipient tabs based on the recipient type:

    • Mailboxes

    • Resources

    • Contacts

  3. On the chosen tab, select the recipient you want to modify.

  4. Select an individual mailbox by clicking anywhere in the row other than the button option that appears in the blank area next to the Display name column.

  5. In the User mailbox details flyout that opens, go to Others > Manage mail tip.

    Important

    If you select the Contacts recipient tab, you must select General > Manage mail tip in the details flyout that opens, to configure the mailtips.

  6. Enter the text for the MailTip. When you're finished, select Save.

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to configure MailTips for recipients

To configure a MailTip for a recipient, use the following syntax:

Set-<RecipientType> <RecipientIdentity> -MailTip "<MailTip text>"

<RecipientType> can be any type of recipient. For example, Mailbox, MailUser, MailContact, DistributionGroup, or DynamicDistributionGroup.

For example, suppose you have a mailbox named "Help Desk" for users to submit support requests, and the promised response time is 2 hours. To configure a custom MailTip that explains this, run the following command:

Set-Mailbox "Help Desk" -MailTip "A Help Desk representative will contact you within 2 hours."

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to configure additional MailTips in different languages

To configure additional MailTip translations without affecting the existing MailTip text or other existing MailTip translations, use the following syntax:

Set-<RecipientType> -MailTipTranslations @{Add="<culture1>:<localized text 1>","<culture2>:<localized text 2>"...; Remove="<culture1>:<localized text 1>","<culture2>:<localized text 2>"...}

<culture> is a valid ISO 639 two-letter culture code associated with the language.

For example, suppose the mailbox named "Notifications" currently has the MailTip "This mailbox is not monitored." To add the Spanish translation, run the following command:

Set-Mailbox -MailTipTranslations @{Add="ES:Esta caja no se supervisa."}

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully configured a MailTip for a recipient, do the following steps:

  1. In Outlook on the web or Outlook 2010 or later, compose an email message addressed to the recipient, but don't send it.

  2. Verify whether the MailTip appears in the InfoBar.

  3. If you configured additional MailTip translations, compose the message in Outlook on the web where the language setting matches the language of the MailTip translation to verify the results.