Managing contacts and unsubscribing from newsletters
Cleanbox automatically discovers and categorizes every sender who emails you. Your contact list is the central place to manage who can reach your inbox, unsubscribe from newsletters, and control how messages from each sender are handled.
How contacts are discovered
When you connect a mailbox, Cleanbox scans your existing emails and builds a contact list automatically. From that point on, every new sender is added as they email you. For each contact, Cleanbox tracks:
- Email address and display name
- How many emails they have sent you
- When they last emailed you
- Their automatically detected category
- Whether they send newsletters or marketing emails
Contact categories
Cleanbox automatically assigns a category to each contact based on their domain and the type of emails they send. There are 20 built-in categories:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Social Networks | Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X |
| Shopping | Amazon, eBay, Etsy |
| Entertainment | Netflix, Spotify, YouTube |
| Finance | Banks, PayPal, crypto exchanges |
| Travel | Airlines, Booking.com, Airbnb |
| Education | Universities, Coursera, Udemy |
| Food Delivery | Uber Eats, DoorDash, Deliveroo |
| Logistic Services | FedEx, UPS, DHL, PostNL |
| Business Services | Slack, Notion, Salesforce |
| News & Magazines | NYT, Reuters, Medium |
| Gaming & Gambling | Steam, Epic Games, PlayStation |
| Internet & Communication | ISPs, Discord, WhatsApp |
| Discounts & Promotions | Coupon sites, deal aggregators |
| Restaurants & Dining | OpenTable, restaurant chains |
| Events & Tickets | Ticketmaster, Eventbrite |
| Productivity & Tools | GitHub, Trello, Figma |
| Hobbies & Interests | Reddit, forums, hobby platforms |
| Home & Supplies | IKEA, Home Depot, hardware stores |
| Fun & Activities | Theme parks, activity booking |
| Adult | Age-restricted content |
Categories are automatically detected based on the sender's domain. You can also manually assign or change a contact's category. Categories can be used in filter rules — for example, automatically move all Shopping emails to a specific folder.
Contact states
Every contact has a state that determines how their messages are handled. There are five states:
| State | Effect |
|---|---|
| Unset | Default state. No special treatment. The message goes through normal spam evaluation and filter rules. |
| Whitelisted | Always deliver. Messages from this contact skip spam evaluation and are delivered directly to your inbox. |
| Prioritized | Always deliver and mark as flagged/important in your email client. Useful for contacts whose emails you never want to miss. |
| Muted | Deliver silently. The message is forwarded to your inbox but automatically marked as read. You won't get a notification. |
| Blocked | Reject all messages from this contact. Blocked messages are denied and not delivered to your inbox. |
To change a contact's state, navigate to your contact list, find the contact, and select the desired state from the dropdown. The change takes effect immediately for all future messages.
Unsubscribing from newsletters
Cleanbox automatically detects newsletters and marketing emails by reading the List-Unsubscribe header. When a contact is identified as a newsletter sender, you'll see an unsubscribe toggle on their contact page.
How one-click unsubscribe works
- Navigate to your contact list or find the contact in your message history
- Toggle the unsubscribe switch
- Cleanbox sends an unsubscribe request to the sender using the
List-UnsubscribeURL or mailto address from the email headers - If the sender supports RFC 8058 (one-click), a POST request with
List-Unsubscribe=One-Clickis sent - Future emails from this sender are automatically denied
Re-subscribing
Changed your mind? Simply toggle the unsubscribe switch off. Cleanbox will stop blocking the sender and their emails will flow through normally again. Note that Cleanbox can re-enable delivery on its end, but if the sender has already processed the unsubscribe request, you may need to re-subscribe on their website as well.
Browsing and searching contacts
Your contact list is organized alphabetically and can be browsed by first letter (A–Z, 0–9). For each contact, you can see:
- Their name and email address
- Number of emails received
- Assigned category
- Current state (unset, whitelisted, prioritized, muted, or blocked)
- Subscription status (if applicable)
Use the top senders view on your dashboard to quickly identify which contacts email you the most. This is a great starting point for cleaning up your inbox — you can block or unsubscribe from high-volume senders you no longer care about.
Cloud storage per contact
When cloud storage is enabled, Cleanbox automatically extracts and stores attachments from emails, organized by contact. You can enable or disable cloud storage for individual contacts from their contact detail page. This is useful if you want to save attachments from business contacts but skip personal conversations.
Stored attachments are accessible from the Cloud section in your dashboard, grouped by sender for easy browsing.
Deleting a contact
You can delete a contact from their detail page. Deleting a contact removes their state, category assignment, and stored metadata. However, it does not delete any messages already received from them. If the deleted contact emails you again, they will be re-added as a new contact with default settings.
