This one needs a computer. The Gmail and Outlook phone apps do not have forwarding settings at all — only the full websites do. It is about five minutes, once.

Point your school mail here

One forwarding rule, set once, and the briefings start. Nothing else in your inbox is touched, and the only mail we ever read is what arrives at your FridayFolder address.

Your family address

Where does your school mail arrive?

Pick the mailbox the school actually writes to.

Does the school give you a separate parent address? Something like yourname@yourschoolparent.org. If nothing but the school ever writes to it, forward all of it and skip the filter entirely — everything arriving there is already school mail, and a filter can only lose things.

Not up for any of this? You never have to. Add your FridayFolder address to the school’s contact list, or forward the odd email by hand when it arrives. The briefing works exactly the same way.

Open Gmail on a computer — not the phone app — and sign in to the mailbox the school writes to.

Then click the gear at the top right, and in the panel that slides out, See all settings. The little panel is not the settings; the button at the top of it is.

A sketch, not a screenshot — Gmail moves things around, but the gear stays top right and the button stays at the top of the panel.

Along the top of the settings page is a row of tabs. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

It is usually the fifth one, and the row scrolls sideways on a narrow window, so if you cannot see it, widen the window or scroll the row itself.

The first row on that page is Forwarding. Click Add a forwarding address.

Paste your address into the box, click Next, then Proceed on the small window that appears.

Gmail may say the address looks unusual, or open a small window asking you to confirm. That is the normal flow. Click Proceed.

Google now emails a confirmation to your FridayFolder address to check that it really wants your mail.

That address has no inbox you can open — so we catch the message and put the button right here. Leave this page open; it checks every few seconds.

Your confirmation arrived

Watching for Google’s confirmation…

You are not signed in, so this page cannot watch for you. Sign in and come back, or open the confirmation email yourself if it reached an address you can read.

Nothing after a few minutes? Check that you pasted the address exactly, then click Add a forwarding address again — asking twice is harmless. Google sends it within a minute or so, and it does expire, so a fresh request is often faster than waiting.

Google’s email also contains a cancel link, one paragraph below the confirm link. We never show you that one.

Back on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP page, your address now appears — and Gmail offers to forward everything to it.

Do not take that offer. Leave the setting on Disable forwarding and click Save Changes at the bottom.

This is the step people get wrong, and it is the important one. Turning on blanket forwarding would send us your bank statements, your doctor, your work. The filter in the next step is what keeps this to school mail and nothing else.

Now the filter. Go back to the tab row and click Filters and Blocked Addresses, then Create a new filter.

In the From box, put your school’s email address. If mail comes from several addresses at one school, the domain covers all of them — type @yourschool.org and every sender there is included.

Then click Create filter.

More than one school, or a sports club too? Make one filter each, the same way. Or put several addresses in the one From box separated by OR: @yourschool.org OR @cityyouthsoccer.org.

The next screen asks what to do with that mail. Tick Forward it to, and choose your FridayFolder address in the dropdown beside it.

Tick Also apply filter to matching conversations if you would like the school mail already sitting in your inbox sent through too — that gives your first briefing something to work with.

Then Create filter. That is the whole setup.

Your address not in the dropdown? Then Google’s confirmation has not gone through yet. Go back two steps, click the confirm button there, and return to this one — the dropdown only lists addresses that have been confirmed.

That is it. School mail now arrives here on its own, and nothing else does.

Two ways to be sure it worked, neither of which requires waiting for the school:

Find a school email already in your inbox, forward it by hand to your address above, and watch it appear in FridayFolder within a minute or two.
Or tick Also apply filter to matching conversations on the previous step, which sends everything already sitting there through in one go.

Your next briefing arrives at the times you chose. If something looks wrong in it, reply straight to the briefing — it goes to a person. Stuck on any of this, support@fridayfolder.ai is a person too.

Open outlook.com in a browser on a computer — not the Outlook app on your phone, which has no forwarding settings.

Click the gear at the top right, then Mail, then Rules.

There is a “Forwarding” entry right below Rules. Skip it. That one forwards everything — your bank, your doctor, your work. A rule forwards only what you name.

Click Add new rule and name it something you will recognize in a year: School to FridayFolder.

For the condition, choose From and enter your school’s address. For the action, choose Forward to and paste your FridayFolder address.

Tick Stop processing more rules, then Save.

Outlook usually starts forwarding right away, with nothing to confirm. If it does send a confirmation, we catch it and it appears here.

Your confirmation arrived

To be sure it worked, find a school email already in your inbox and forward it by hand to your FridayFolder address. It should show up in the app within a minute or two.

A work or school Microsoft 365 account? Your IT administrator may block automatic forwarding outside the organization, and Outlook will not always tell you — the rule saves, and then quietly does nothing. If mail never arrives, that is almost certainly why. Forward by hand for now, or ask IT to allow this one address.

Nearly every mail provider has this, under Settings → Mail → Forwarding or Settings → Rules. Yahoo, iCloud, Proton, Fastmail and most school webmail systems all do.

Two things to look for, whatever it is called:

A way to forward only mail from a particular sender — usually called a rule or a filter. Use that in preference to forwarding everything.
A confirmation step. If the provider emails a code or a link to your FridayFolder address, it will appear on the next screen.

No forwarding option at all? Then forward school emails by hand whenever they arrive, or add your FridayFolder address to the school’s own contact list so it is copied on everything. The briefing works exactly the same either way.

If your provider sends a confirmation to your FridayFolder address, it lands here.

Your confirmation arrived

Then test it: forward one school email by hand and watch it appear in the app within a minute or two.