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The Owlery: help centre
Answers on scams and the night watch, link x-ray, quiet hours, your owl phrase, importing from Gmail or Outlook, and billing. A person replies within a working day.
What the night watch looks for
The night watch checks every incoming message for four things: senders pretending to be someone else, pressure to act fast, links that go somewhere other than they claim, and patterns already seen in known scams.
When it holds a message, it tells you what gave it away in a sentence or two, such as “The sender is paypaI.com with a capital I, not paypal.com.”
You don’t need to turn anything on. The night watch runs on every plan, including Owlet.
Using the owl’s nest
Suspicious mail goes to the owl’s nest, found in the sidebar under Inbox. Each message waits there for 30 days with a note on why it was held.
To release a message, open it and tap Release. It moves to your inbox with links and images intact. Tap Always trust this sender if you want mail from them to skip the nest in future.
Nothing in the nest is ever deleted without warning. After 30 days, messages are removed, and a summary of what was cleared appears in your inbox.
Report a scam the owl missed
Open the message and choose More → Report as scam. The message moves to the owl’s nest and the sender and pattern are shared with every member’s filter.
Only the sender and the pattern are shared. Your name, your address and the rest of the message are not.
If you’re unsure, forward the message to check@viaowl.com instead. A person will look at it and reply within one working day.
When real mail is held by mistake
Some genuine senders look suspicious: a new supplier, a bank using a different mailing service, a courier with an unusual link. Open the owl’s nest, find the message and tap Release.
To stop it happening again, tap Always trust this sender. You can review your trusted list under Settings → Night watch → Trusted senders.
Tap Not a scam when you release a message, and our team reviews the pattern that caught it.
See where a link really goes
On a computer, hover over any link in a message. On a phone, press and hold. The owl shows the real destination, not the words written on the link.
If something is odd, you’ll see a short note: a lookalike domain, a risky ending such as .top or .zip, or a redirect that sends you on somewhere else.
Link x-ray works on Owlet for the owl’s nest. On Barn Owl and Parliament, it works on every message.
Opening a risky link in a safe preview
On paid plans, a flagged link opens in a sealed safe preview instead of your browser. You see the page as a picture, with nothing able to run, download or ask for your password.
If the page is what you expected, tap Open normally. If not, close the preview and nothing will have touched your device.
To change this, go to Settings → Links → Safe preview and choose Always, Only for flagged links, or Never.
Why .zip and .top links are flagged
Some web address endings are cheap to register and popular with scammers. A link ending in .zip can also look like a file attachment, which makes it easy to trust.
A flag doesn’t mean the link is harmful, only that it deserves a second look. Check the full address in the x-ray note before you open it.
Setting quiet hours
Go to Settings → Quiet hours and tap the hours on the 24-hour dial that you want quiet. Tap again to wake an hour back up.
During quiet hours, mail still arrives as normal. Your phone simply doesn’t buzz or light up.
Quiet hours are part of Barn Owl and Parliament.
Letting certain people through
Under Settings → Quiet hours → Exceptions, choose who can still reach you: Family, Work VIPs, Starred senders or Calendar invites.
To add someone to Family or Work VIPs, open one of their messages, tap their name and choose Add to group.
Exceptions only affect notifications. Everyone’s mail arrives on time regardless.
Sign-in codes during quiet hours
Two-factor codes and sign-in links are never delayed. They arrive in your inbox the moment they’re sent, quiet hours or not.
If you want the buzz as well, open a code email, tap the sender’s name and choose Add to Starred. Then make sure Starred senders is ticked under Settings → Quiet hours → Exceptions.
Move your mail from Gmail, Outlook or iCloud
Go to Settings → Import, choose Gmail, Outlook or iCloud, and sign in to your old account when asked. Your folders, labels and contacts come across as they are.
Large mailboxes can take a few hours. You can use Viaowl as normal while it runs, and you’ll get a message when it’s finished.
While importing, the owl checks your old mail for scams that slipped through. Anything it finds goes to the owl’s nest with a note.
To keep new mail coming, turn on forwarding in your old account to your @viaowl.com address.
Your owl phrase
At sign-up you chose a secret two-word owl phrase, such as “Silver Lantern”. The real Viaowl sign-in page shows it after you enter your email and before you type your password.
If the phrase is missing or wrong, the page isn’t Viaowl. Close it, and forward the email that sent you there to check@viaowl.com.
To change your phrase, go to Settings → Security → Owl phrase. Never share it, and never type it into any page yourself: Viaowl only ever shows it to you.
Using Viaowl in another mail app
Viaowl works in any app that supports IMAP and SMTP. Find your server details under Settings → Mail apps.
Scam checks and tracker blocking still happen before mail reaches that app. Link x-ray and safe preview need the Viaowl web, iOS or Android app.
Reset your password
On the sign-in page, tap “Forgot?” and enter your email. If it has a Viaowl account, we’ll send a 6-digit code to your recovery address. It works for 15 minutes.
Enter the code, then choose a new password. You’ll be signed out on your other devices, which is a good thing if someone else had it.
No code after a few minutes? Check the spam folder of your recovery address, then ask for a new one. Still stuck? Write to help@viaowl.com.
Add a custom domain
On Barn Owl and Parliament, you can receive mail at your own domain, such as you@yourname.no. Go to Settings → Domains → Add domain.
We’ll show you a few DNS records to add at the company where you bought the domain. Most domains are ready within an hour.
Night watch, tracker blocking and link x-ray work on your domain exactly as they do on @viaowl.com.
Change or cancel your plan
Go to Settings → Billing → Plan. Upgrades apply straight away, and you pay only the difference for the rest of the period.
Yearly plans cancelled within 14 days are refunded in full. After that, your plan runs to the end of the period and then moves to Owlet.
Moving to Owlet deletes nothing. You keep your address, your mail and your owl phrase.