How to Ensure You See Emails from a Specific Sender in your Focused Inbox
Some staff may notice they are missing emails from certain senders, for example the Acute User notifications. These emails may have ended up in the Other tab, rather than Focused which is why they aren’t immediately visible.
What is the Focused Inbox?
Focused Inbox in Outlook separates your emails into two tabs: Focused and Other. Outlook automatically decides which emails are most important to you based on your reading habits, who you reply to, and how you interact with messages. Emails that are less relevant end up in the Other tab. This is a learned behaviour — the more you engage with certain senders, the more likely their emails appear in Focused Inbox.
This can happen because:
- The emails are read-only announcements that you don’t reply to.
- The emails are sent to many recipients and Outlook may consider them less urgent.
Even if you open the emails, Focused Inbox may still move them to Other if you rarely interact with them, as it “learns” which messages are most important to you.
Can I make emails from a specific sender appear in Focused Inbox for everyone?
No. Focused Inbox is personalised for each user, so there isn’t a way to force emails from a specific sender into the Focused Inbox across the whole organisation.
What you can do
➡️Mark important emails
- When you see an email from a sender you want in Focused Inbox, such as the Acute User emails, right-click the message and select “Always move to Focused”.
- ️This trains Outlook to place future emails from that sender in the Focused tab.
➡️Check the Other tab regularly
- Occasionally, emails you expect may appear in Other.
- Move them to Focused to help train Outlook’s algorithm.
➡️Turn it off
Outlook Classsic
Outlook Online / NEW
📢Note: This is default behaviour so this feature may be re-enabled in future updates. Its easy to check if the Focused inbox is enabled, as depicted below.,
