Office 365 Mailbox Types: Explained in Detail

Microsoft Office 365 offers a range of cloud-based productivity tools aimed at enhancing workplace efficiency. One of these applications that Microsoft developed is Microsoft Outlook, it contains various mailbox types, and it is of great significance. It facilitates resource management, and fosters collaboration, integrates seamlessly with other Office 365 products and supports management and scalability.

Here are the types of Office 365 mailbox: 

1. User mailbox 
2. Group mailbox 
3. Resource mailbox 
4. Shared mailbox 
5. Contacts mailbox
6. Archive mailbox

Let us look at these types of Office 365 mailboxes in detail: 

User Mailbox

Also known as regular mailboxes, user mailboxes are the default mailboxes provided to users upon purchasing a Microsoft 365 subscription. It is one of the various types of Office 365 mailbox that are the most commonly utilized mailbox among users. Designed by Microsoft with a focus on collaboration for personal mail. It enables users to manage tasks, schedule meetings, and receive voice messages.

This mailbox type is primarily assigned to the employees of companies. Users can also create specific email addresses that end with their company’s or any other names. 

The key features of the user mailbox are: 

1. Helping users Send and receive emails. 
2. It provides users with a centrally located mailbox for users to work efficiently. 
3. It promotes productivity and enhances the user’s work experience. 
4. Offers various features such as organizing, sorting, searching, and filtering for better management of mail. 

Group Mailbox

Group mailboxes, also called shared mailboxes, are accessible to multiple users within a group or organization. Access is granted to a group of individuals who possess the necessary credentials to access the mailbox.

The main purpose of group mailboxes is to promote collaboration between team members. It serves as a repository for emails related to specific projects that a team undertakes, allowing multiple users to manage emails. 

The key features of the Group mailbox are: 

1. Helps users to enhance their collaboration. 
2. Helps team members communicate effectively. 
3. Helps a team improve their productivity. 
4. It makes the task of managing a project much easier and streamlined. 

Resource Mailbox

Resource mailboxes is one of the various types of Office 365 mailbox that represent physical resources . These specialized email accounts ensure streamlined management of organizational resources while minimizing conflicts and optimizing resource utilization. Resource mailboxes can be booked by users through scheduling events or sending requests via email.

The key features of the Resource mailbox are: 

1. It is typically paired with calendar applications helping users to view the availability of various resources. 
2. It can send notifications and reminders for nearing meetings, events, bookings, and cancellations. 
3. It provides various insights and reports for efficient usage of resources. 
4. It helps manage bookings and cancellations. 

Shared Mailbox

Unlike User mailboxes, Shared mailboxes is used by multiple users for collective management of incoming and outgoing mail. They function as a centralized hub where employees can collectively access and manage emails. Seamless integration with various collaboration tools like calendars and task management software improves the organization’s productivity.

The key features of the shared mailbox are: 

1. It promotes collaborative access to the employees in an organization. 
2. It supports shared folders and labels to categorize mail for easy access. 
3. Automatic replies and rerouting can be set up based on predefined criteria. 
4. The admins can also track the activities of the user within the shared mailbox such as edits, deletions, and attempts made to access emails. 

Contact Mailboxes

Contact mailboxes is one of the various types of Office 365 mailbox that consists of those contacts that are not a part of your organization. They may appear on the shared contacts list. Each added contact within distributed groups has their own unique email address. Any emails shared with these contacts are accessible through their respective email addresses.

Contact mailboxes can be useful if you need to have quick access without needing to search through various documents and emails.

The key features of the contact mailbox are: 

1. Mail contacts are integrated into an organization’s contact records. This allows users to easily access the contact information of people outside the organization 
2. The mail system automatically reroutes any email sent by a user to a mail contact, and ensures delivery to the correct recipient by sending it to the associated email address.
3. Users have the option to configure mail contact mailboxes for automatically syncing with external contacts. This ensures that all the contact details are up to date. 
4. Administrators can configure mail contacts to restrict sending mail to contacts outside the organization, hence allowing only a selected group of employees to do so. This measure enhances privacy and security.

Archive Mailbox

Archive Mailbox is the solution to the problem of limited storage space. It is a specialised mailbox that appears alongside the other folders.

An archive mailbox folder can store old emails so that they don’t occupy space in the primary mailbox. It is a systematic approach to protect the data contained in emails that enable faster retrieval of emails.

An Archive mailbox helps with storage and knowledge management and helps index incoming and outgoing emails. 

What Should You Do When You Need to Shift Your Mailboxes?

Over time, users needs evolve, and considering the number of Types of Office 365 mailbox available, you might opt for a different plan to suit your requirements. Shifting your entire data and files becomes necessary, even though it is a complex and time-consuming process.

To perform this process of shifting files and data securely and in time, you can make use of automated tools that do the entire process for you. Migrator Wizard Office 365 Migration Tool is the best tool for this purpose. It offers various features such as:

• Helps migrate contacts, emails, tasks, calendars and more.
• Supports Office 365 shared mailbox migration.
• Allows users to migrate their archive mailbox.
• Provides the facility to perform entire or selected user mailboxes.
• It offers account-based priority migration.
• Supports various Office 365 subscription plans.

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Comparison of All the Mailbox Types:

User mailbox	Group mailbox	Resource mailbox	Shared mailbox	Contact mailbox	Archive mailbox
Helping users Send and receive emails.	Helps users to enhance their collaboration	Helps users to view the availability of various resources.	Promotes collaborative access to the employees in an organization.	Mail contacts are integrated into an organization’s contact records	Solution to the problem of limited storage space
It provides users with a centrally located mailbox for users to work efficiently.	Helps team members communicate effectively.	It can send notifications and reminders for nearing meetings, events, bookings, and cancellations.	It supports shared folders and labels to categorize mail for easy access.	The mail system automatically reroutes any mail sent by a user to a mail contact, sending it to the email associated with that contact.	can store old emails so that they don’t occupy space in the primary mailbox
It promotes productivity and enhances the user’s work experience.	Helps a team improve their productivity.	It provides various insights and reports for efficient usage of resources.	Based on predefined criteria,  automatic replies and rerouting can be set up	Users have the option to configure mail contact mailboxes for automatic synching with external contacts.	A systematic approach to protect the data
It offers various features such as organizing, sorting, searching, and filtering to enhance the management of mail.	It makes the task of managing a project much easier and streamlined.	It helps manage bookings and cancellations.	Administrators have the capability to track the activities of users within shared mailboxes.	The administrators can configure mail contacts to restrict sending mail to contacts outside the organization to only a selected group of employees.	Index incoming and outgoing emails.
50 GB of free storage and Microsoft 365 subscription plans offer up to 100 GB	50 GB of free storage and Microsoft 365 subscription plans offer up to 100 GB	50 GB of free storage and Microsoft 365 subscription plans offer up to 1.5 TB	50 GB of free storage and Microsoft 365 subscription plans offer up to 100 GB	15 GB of free storage and Microsoft 365 subscription plans offer up to 50 GB	It initially has 100 GB of storage and can go up to a maximum of 1.5 TB

Also read: What are Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise: Step-By-Step Explanation

Conclusion

Microsoft Office 365 Improves user productivity and simplifies work processes with its cloud-based capabilities. It caters to both personal and business needs seamlessly integrating into users work. It’s important to note that while some mailboxes require purchase, others are free to use. There are various Types of Office 365 mailbox and it can be difficult to choose which plan is right for you.

Migrating files and data to a different plan is a difficult and time-consuming process and making use of an automated tool is a great way to reduce the complexity and time consumption. The data of the users will also be secure through this process.