Mail for Mac: Use events, contacts, and other items found in emails

Use events, contacts, and other items found in emails

When you receive emails that include invitations, dates and times, addresses, phone numbers, or other types of information, you can use that information in other apps, such as Calendar or Contacts. For example, Mail can detect dates and times in a message and suggest an event to add to your calendar.

Mail shows a suggested event it detected in an email beneath the message header in the preview area.

Add events to Calendar

You can add events and invitations you receive in messages to the Calendar app. If you have an Exchange account, you can reply to invitations sent from Calendar, Outlook, or Outlook Web Access.

  • Accept a Mail suggestion: Click Add to review the suggested event (you can customize it by clicking Details), then click Add To Calendar. To decline the suggestion, click the Close button or Ignore.

  • Add events yourself: Move the pointer over a date or time anywhere in a message until an outline appears around the information. Click the arrow, then click Add to Calendar (shown only if you have already set up an account in Calendar).

  • Add events for an Exchange account: In the banner at the top of the message containing the invitation, click Accept, Decline, or Maybe. If the event is being canceled, click OK. To view the invitation in Calendar, click the Calendar button in the banner.

    Mail sends your reply to the event organizer and updates your calendar on the Exchange server and in Calendar, when it syncs with the server.

  • Have Mail add events for you: Choose Mail > Preferences, click General, click the “Add invitations to Calendar” pop-up menu, then choose Automatically.

Add information to Contacts

When you read messages, you can add email addresses and other contact information to the Contacts app.

  • Accept a Mail suggestion: Click Add (you can review the suggested information before adding it to Contacts). To decline the suggestion, click the Close button .

  • Add contacts yourself: Move the pointer over a phone number, email address, or street address anywhere in the text. Mail outlines the information; click the arrow, then choose an option from the pop-up menu. Or simply force click the outlined information.

  • Add a contact from a Smart Address: Move the pointer over the Smart Address, click the arrow that appears, then choose Add to Contacts.

  • Add a contact from the message list: Select a message in the list, then choose Message > Add Sender to Contacts.

To add a person to your contacts directly in the Contacts app, see Create a contact.

Add passes to Wallet

The Wallet app on your iPhone or iPod touch (with iOS 6 or later) lets you store “Wallet passes” such as boarding passes, coupons, movie tickets, and so on. When you receive a Wallet pass in Mail, you can add it to Wallet on your iPhone or iPod touch. The pass is also added to Wallet on Apple Watch, if Mirror iPhone is on in the Apple Watch app.

  • View a pass: Click View Pass in the banner at the top of the message. If a pass has been redeemed or has expired, its bar code is dimmed.

  • Show pass details: Click the Info button in the pass.

  • Share a pass: Click the Share button in the pass.

  • Add a pass to Wallet: Click Add to Wallet in the pass. If you already added the pass, but its content has since changed, an Update button is shown. You must be signed in to your iCloud account to add passes to Wallet.

  • Search for passes: Type “pass” in the Mail search field, then choose a suggestion from the Attachments category. You can also search for a pass type (such as coupon) or vendor.

Mail also detects web links in messages. To open a webpage, just click the link. To preview the webpage, move the pointer over the link, then click the arrow (or simply force click the link).

Last Modified: Sep 22, 2016
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