@mentions are one of the simplest ways to get someone’s attention in a long email thread or meeting invite. When you type @ and pick a person, Outlook highlights their name, automatically adds them to the recipient line if they’re not already on the email, and surfaces the message with a special @ icon in their inbox so they know they were specifically called out.

Here’s how to use mentions effectively in every version of Outlook.

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1. How @Mentions Work

When you type @ in an email body or meeting invite description and pick a person from the contact picker:

• Their name appears highlighted (blue) in the body of the message
• They are automatically added to the To line if they weren’t already
• Their copy of the email gets an @ icon in the message list
• They can filter their inbox to show only messages where they were mentioned

This is different from CC’ing someone — a mention says “I’m specifically asking you to read this part.” It’s also different from a Microsoft Teams mention (which sends a chat notification). An Outlook @mention is purely an email-side feature.

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2. @Mention Someone in an Email

New Outlook & Outlook on the Web

1. Open new Outlook or outlook.office.com.
2. Start a new email or reply to an existing thread.
3. Place your cursor in the message body where you want the mention.
4. Type @ followed by the first letter or two of the person’s name.
5. A contact picker appears showing matches from your contacts and the global address list.
6. Click the person you want to mention (or use arrow keys + Enter).
7. Outlook inserts their full name in the body, highlighted in blue.
8. If the person wasn’t already in the To, Cc, or Bcc field, they’re added to To automatically.
9. Continue writing your message and click Send.

You can shorten the highlighted name afterward — for example, change “@Jane Doe” to “@Jane” — and the highlight and recipient link still work.

Classic Outlook for Windows

The flow is the same:

1. Click New Email.
2. In the message body, type @.
3. Outlook shows the contact picker.
4. Pick the person. Their name appears highlighted; they’re added to the To line.
5. Send.

Outlook for Mac

1. Click New Email.
2. Type @ in the body.
3. Pick from the contact picker.
4. Send.

Outlook Mobile

1. Tap New email (pencil icon).
2. Tap into the message body.
3. Tap @ on the keyboard.
4. The contact picker appears above the keyboard.
5. Tap the person to insert.

Mobile mentions work the same way as desktop — they auto-add the person to the To line and highlight the name.

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3. Mention Multiple People

You can mention several people in the same email — each one is a separate @.

Hey @Jane Doe and @John Smith, can you both review the attached spec? @Sam Lee will follow up next week.

All three people are added to the To line. All three see the @ icon on their copy. None of them have to scroll through a long thread to figure out whether you meant them.

You can also @mention a group:

• Microsoft 365 group — type @ and pick the group. The group gets added to To, and the email is also archived in the group’s shared inbox.
• Distribution list — same; type @ and pick the DL. Everyone on the list receives it.
• Contact group — same; the group expands to its individual members on send.

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4. @Mention Someone in a Meeting Invite

Meeting invite descriptions support mentions too. Useful for assigning action items in the agenda or pointing to who owns each topic.

1. Open the calendar and click New event (or New Meeting in classic Outlook).
2. Click into the Description / Notes field.
3. Type @ and pick a person.
4. They’re added to the attendees list automatically as Required.
5. Continue writing the agenda and click Send.

This is the fastest way to convert “we should discuss X” into “@Sam will own X” inside the meeting body without leaving the invite.

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5. Filter Your Inbox by Mentions

When you’re triaging email, mentions are a high-signal filter — they tell you which messages specifically asked something of you.

New Outlook & Outlook on the Web

1. Open Mail.
2. Click the filter dropdown at the top of the message list (usually labeled “Filter” or showing a funnel icon).
3. Select Mentioned.

Outlook now shows only emails where you were @mentioned. Click the filter again and select another option (or Clear filter) to return to the full inbox.

Classic Outlook for Windows

1. Open Mail.
2. Click the All dropdown at the top of the message list.
3. Select Mentioned mail.

Some classic Outlook builds have this in the View tab > View Settings > Filter > More Choices > Only items with: At least one mention. The exact location depends on your Outlook version.

Outlook Mobile

1. Tap the filter icon at the top of the inbox.
2. Tap Mentions me.

The view filters to mentioned-only messages.

See the @ icon in the message list

Even without filtering, every message where you were mentioned has an @ icon next to it in the message list. Look for the icon to scan for mentions in a busy inbox.

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6. When @Mentions Don’t Work

The contact picker doesn’t appear when I type @.

• You’re using a personal Outlook.com account on classic Outlook. Mentions only work on Microsoft 365 and Exchange accounts.
• The mention feature might be disabled in your tenant. Ask IT.
• You’re typing into a plain-text email. Mentions only work in HTML format. Switch the message to HTML in Format Text > HTML.

The mention shows but the person isn’t added to To.

• They were already in Cc or Bcc. Outlook doesn’t move them to To if they’re already in another recipient field.
• The mention picker matched a contact that has no email address. Check the highlighted name and confirm there’s an email on the contact card.

Mentions aren’t filtering correctly.

• The filter only catches mentions where Outlook recognized your email address as the @-mentioned contact. If someone typed your name without using @ (just plain “Sarah, can you…”), it won’t be filtered.

My mention notifies the person but they don’t see it as urgent.

• @mentions don’t trigger a louder notification in Outlook itself — they just add the @ icon and add the person to To. If you need a real notification, send via Microsoft Teams instead, or make the email itself flagged for follow-up.

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7. @Mentions in Other Microsoft 365 Apps

The same @ shortcut works in several other Microsoft 365 apps and behaves the same way:

• Microsoft Word & Excel comments — @ someone to send them a comment notification with a deep link to the cell or paragraph
• Microsoft Teams — @ someone in a channel or chat to ping them with a notification
• Microsoft Loop components — @ someone in a shared component
• OneNote — @ someone to send them a notebook share

Outlook and Teams mentions don’t cross over — mentioning someone in Outlook does not ping them in Teams, and vice versa.

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Quick Reference

Where	How	Effect
Email body	Type @, pick contact	Highlight name + add to To + @ icon in their inbox
Email reply	Type @, pick contact	Same as above
Meeting invite description	Type @, pick contact	Highlight + add as Required attendee
Inbox filter	Filter > Mentioned	Show only emails with @mentions of you
Message list	@ icon	Visual marker for @mentions

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When the Right People Show Up Without Being Tagged

@mentions are a manual signal — you have to remember to tag the right person. Carly is an AI assistant that reads your inbox and routes the right people into the right threads automatically, so the loop closes faster across Outlook and 200+ other apps.

More on Outlook: How to create an email template · How to BCC in Outlook · How to create a distribution list · How to send an email to a group · How to add a signature in Outlook

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