Typing email addresses from memory is slow and error-prone — especially on a phone keyboard. SmartXHosting webmail lets you pick recipients directly from your address book, with type-ahead matching, groups, and colleagues on your organisation's shared directory. This tutorial covers picking recipients in the compose flow, creating quick-add contacts inline, and using distribution lists for recurring sends.
Recipients are always added from the compose window. Open it via the + icon in any folder view, or via Reply / Forward on an existing message.
The To, Cc and Bcc fields each support the same two input methods:
You can repeat the process for Cc and Bcc, or pick all three fields at once in a single picker session if the picker offers field assignment.
As you type in the To field, webmail offers matching suggestions from:
Type the first few characters of a name or an email address, wait half a second, and the dropdown appears. Use the arrow keys (desktop) or tap (mobile) to select.
Suggestions rank by recency and by contact "priority" — people you email often appear first. Unknown addresses typed in the past without saving as contacts appear at the bottom.
A distribution list (DL) or group is a named set of contacts. Addressing the DL expands to every member at send time.
Creating a group:
Using the group:
Personal groups (the kind just described) are private to your mailbox. Organisational DLs, managed by your administrator, are visible to all users in your domain and often used for all-staff@, finance@, etc.
The GAL is the organisation-wide directory of mailboxes and distribution lists on your Axigen domain. Enabled by the administrator, it gives every user auto-complete access to every colleague's email address without needing to save them as personal contacts.
To search the GAL:
When someone leaves the organisation, removing them from the GAL prevents new messages being addressed to them by auto-complete — useful after leaver offboarding.
If you type an address that is not in your contacts and click Send, webmail may offer (after send) to save the address as a new contact. Configurable in Settings › Address book › Auto-save recipients.
To save inline without sending:
Many organisations use alias addresses like sales@, support@, info@ that forward to one or more mailboxes. When you send to an alias:
SmartXHosting provisions common alias addresses by default on business email plans. Custom aliases can be added via the admin panel or by raising a support request.
Q: Can I import contacts from a CSV file?
A: Yes. Address book › Import › CSV. Use the standard vCard or Google/Outlook CSV export format. Mapping columns to contact fields is interactive.
Q: Do contacts sync across devices?
A: Yes. The address book lives on the server. Desktop clients connected via CardDAV see the same contacts.
Q: How many contacts can I have?
A: No practical limit. Tens of thousands supported. Search remains fast.
Q: Can I share a contact or group with a colleague?
A: Yes. Like mail folders, contact folders support sharing with granular permissions. Shared address books are a common pattern for sales teams maintaining a joint client list.
Q: Why does my auto-complete sometimes show wrong results?
A: Auto-complete ranks by frequency. A mis-typed address that was used once may still appear until you remove it. Delete it from Recent correspondents in Settings.