24 Gmail Tips That Will Help You Conquer Email
Google's free email service has come a long way since its debut. It's time for you to become a Gmail power user. These tips will get you there.
1. Change it back
This video (Opens in a new window) highlights some of the cosmetic changes to Gmail over the years. One of the biggest changes happened this summer, when Google once again tried to engage Gmail users with tools like Chat and Meet and Spaces.
But you may not like those changes. If so, go back by clicking the gear/cog icon at the top of the screen to access quick settings. At the top, if you're using the new view, it will say "You're using the new Gmail view... Go back to the original view." Click it. Similarly, if you are using the old view, you can go to the new one. Keep in mind, however, that eventually Google will force all users to use the new Gmail view. So really, you better get used to it.
You can also use quick settings to get rid of some of the Chat, Spaces, and Meet icons on the left if you never use them. Under "Apps in Gmail," click Customize.
2. Shortcut Cheat Sheet
Gmail is packed with keyboard shortcuts for just about everything you can do; many only require pressing a button (press the C key to launch a compose window, for example). HitShift+? to see them all. To change a shortcut, select See all settings > Keyboard shortcuts. Any new shortcuts you make here will overwrite the defaults. Click Save changes at the bottom to keep them.
3. Use multiple accounts
If you're a Google super fan and have multiple Google/Gmail accounts (even a Google Workspace account at work), you don't need to constantly log in and out. On desktop (using Chrome, Firefox, or Edge), you can sign in to multiple accounts at once. Each one can occupy a tab and remain connected. Click your account avatar at the top right and select Add another account. Then, to switch between accounts, click on your avatar again and click on the desired account; no password entry required. The default account is the one you logged in with first.
You can also put Chrome Browser to work keeping your multiple accounts (or the accounts of other people using your computer) separate but usable (Opens in a new window) using Chrome Profiles. Click the profile icon at the top right of your browser window, click the pencil icon to give that profile a name, then click Add at the bottom. You'll get a new Chrome Profile login page to use here.
4. Add third-party email accounts to Gmail
Love the Gmail interface, but don't want to give up your Yahoo, iCloud, or Outlook email address? It is not a problem. Google allows you to add third-party email accounts to the Gmail mobile app, which provides Google features like spam filtering and a tabbed inbox for those accounts.
You must first have at least one Gmail account for it to work. To set it up on mobile, tap on your avatar in the Gmail app and select Add another account. Choose the type of account you want to add and enter the credentials. You can then access one inbox at any time, or view all your email in one unified inbox on your phone or tablet. Go back to the avatar and select Manage accounts on this device to deactivate or remove an account later.
On the desktop, tap the gear icon and select See all settings > Accounts & Import > Check mail from other accounts > Add a mail account. In the pop-up window, type the email address you want to link, click Next, and select Link account with Gmail.
5. Check which apps have access to Gmail
Linking frequently used services to Gmail can save you time, but you may want to check from time to time which apps have access to your accounts. Go to myaccount.google.com/Security(Opens in a new window), scroll down to the Third-party apps with account access section, and click Manage third-party access to turn off apps you don't need.
6. Send messages later, on time
Scheduling a message to be delivered at a later time is now integrated. Type your message, click the drop-down arrow next to the Send button and choose a quick scheduling option, or select Choose date and time to be specific.
7. Try to be confidential
Confidential mode for Gmail gives you a degree of granular control over who can see your information in an email you send and for how long the message is available. Turn it on by clicking the confidential mode lock/clock icon at the bottom of a compose window. You will get options to set expiration dates in the message; After that date, the message disappears and the person only sees a "message expired" notice. You can also limit what the recipient can do, such as block the ability to forward it or download attachments.
8. Send from a different email address
You may have multiple Gmail-based accounts or multiple addresses on the same account. Set all of those addresses to your primary Gmail and make it look like you're sending from a completely different account, either all the time or per message. Go to Settings > Accounts & Import > Send Mail As, where you can add multiple email addresses. This is great if you send a lot of messages in one account, but want the replies to go to another.
9. Don't just label spam, block senders
Is someone bothering you? Gmail allows you to block individual senders. On desktop or mobile, select the three-dot menu next to the Reply arrow button on a message and select Block [Username]. Any future messages from that email address will be sent directly to your spam folder.
10. Unsubscribe from Everything
Do you get a lot of newsletters and other junk you don't want? Most have an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the message. Gmail (mobile and desktop) also includes an unsubscribe link at the TOP of the message, right next to the sender's name, if you can spot the unsubscribe link in the message.
For easy cleanup, type "unsubscribe" in the Gmail search. You will get a list of all messages that have the word in the list. Go through each one. This is as close as you can get to mass unsubscribing without a third-party service. For more information, read How to unsubscribe from spam email.
11. How to 'Undo Send' in Gmail
We all know the panic of hitting send on an email too soon. With Gmail, add some buffer time to recover a mistakenly sent message. The feature, called Undo Send, is on by default and you can't turn it off. But you can adjust how long you have to cancel sending an email. Click the gear icon and select See all settings > General > Undo send and click the dropdown menu to select how long you want to be able to undo a sent message (5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds). Then scroll to the bottom and Save Changes. Every time you send a message, you'll see an Undo link in a black box floating at the bottom left of your screen on desktop and bottom right on mobile.
If you click the link before the time is up, your message will not be sent. You will have the opportunity to re-edit it or delete it entirely. You can also undo discards, so if you delete a message in progress, bring it back and start over.
12. Drag messages or labels
Gmail has labels, not folders. They are functionally the same, although they make those used to the full paradigm of folders uncomfortable. It's easy to drag a message from your inbox to a tag and file it away for future search. But if that message in your inbox requires more attention, do it the other way around: drag the label from the left sidebar onto the message. It stays in your inbox, but you're ready to archive it in the future.
13. Use Send+Archive
Label a message before sending it by clicking the More Options menu at the bottom right of the compose window. It will be archived instantly when submitted. To set this up, go to View All Settings > General > Send & Archive > Show "Send & Archive" button in response. If a reply you're composing already has a label, you'll see a new button called Send+Archive (although it doesn't actually say archive, it shows Gmail's archive icon: an archive box with a down arrow). .) Click that button and the entire thread will be filed under the pre-assigned tag.
14. Get infinite email disguises/aliases
Gmail ignores periods in email addresses. So yourname@gmail.com is the same as your.name@gmail.com or even you.o.u.r.n.a.m.e.@gmail.com. They all go to the same person. This feature may seem pointless, but you can still see the pattern, so it's great for newsletters or sharing your email address; For example, you can find out who sold your name to spammers.
Gmail also ignores anything after a plus sign (+). So yourname+pcmag@gmail.com goes to the same mailbox as yourname@gmail.com. This alias is useful for filtering messages, as Gmail filters see what's after the alias. So if you subscribe to each newsletter with yourname+news@gmail.com, you only need to filter messages sent to that address, instead of filtering by each individual newsletter sender. (The downside is that many services don't allow registrations with email addresses that have "optional" characters, such as a plus sign.)
15. Boost your search
The quickest way to perform an advanced search in Gmail is to click the settings icon in the search box, which produces a full search dialog. Or skip the box and type using the many (Opens in a new window) search operators supported by Gmail. For example, type "in:trash" and "in:spam" to search only those folders (they are usually skipped). Or restrict a search to just "in:inbox". Use "tag:" followed by the tag/folder name to search only that folder. The "filename:" followed by the name of an actual file searches for specific attachments.
Use a minus sign (hyphen) to search for one thing and not another: "dinner-movie" will only find messages that say "dinner", but skip those that mention "movie". The other supported Boolean operator is "OR" (all uppercase).
16. Answer in a can
Stop typing so much, especially the same message over and over again. Templates, formerly called "canned responses," are a must for repeating, redundant, and repetitive emails. Turn it on via View all settings > Advanced > Templates > Enable. Scroll down to Save Changes and Gmail will reload. Create a new email and write a canned response. Click the ellipsis menu in the bottom right corner of the message and select "Templates." Here you can save the message you just wrote as a template for future messages or apply an already saved template to the current window. If you rewrite the canned answer, save it again with the same name for future use. (There's a free extension that makes this sort of thing much easier, called Magical - Text Expander & Autofil(Opens in a new window), which works in more than Gmail.)
17. Be smart
Smart Reply is a machine learning technology that prepares three short and appropriate responses to the messages you receive. A single tap on the offered answer adds it to the answer window, where you can send it or write more. If you find these suggestions annoying, turn them off via Settings > General > Smart Reply > Smart Reply Off, then scroll down to save changes.
Similarly, Smart Compose will suggest words or phrases to use while writing in an email. If you type, "I hope you are," for example, you might see "are you okay" in the grayed-out text. If that's what you meant, press Tab and Gmail will automatically insert "okay" into your message. If that's not your phrase, keep typing and the suggestion will disappear. To turn this off, head to Settings > General > Smart compose > Typing suggestions off, then save your changes.
18. Log off remotely
You can access Gmail from multiple devices at the same time. Sometimes you stay logged in when you don't mean to (for example, on a public computer) or, worse yet, you suspect someone is using your account behind your back (turn on multi-factor authentication to prevent that).
On desktop, scroll down to the bottom of your inbox. In the fine print at the bottom of the page, it says Last Account Activity, followed by an hour. Click the Details link below to view all account activity. If something looks suspicious, run a Google security check and disable open sessions on other devices.
19. Press the Mute (or Snooze) button
Mute the email threads you want to banish. In your inbox, click the checkbox next to the thread in question, click the ellipsis icon at the top, and select Mute; you can also right-click a thread on the desktop to see a menu with Mute. The thread will appear to disappear, but it remains in the archive even when new messages arrive. You will not see any new messages in the thread again unless you are the direct recipient or search for it.
To mute a discussion for a set period of time, right-click on a thread to find Snooze. If you click on it, the message disappears from the inbox and returns after the time you specify.
20. How to select all messages
To select each message in a label in Gmail, click the checkbox in the top left corner, right? Almost. Checking that box selects all conversations on that first page of results, and that's limited to 100 items. If you want everything to be under that tag, visible on the page or not, check the box and look for the link at the top of the results that says Select all X conversations in [Tag].
21. Getting attached
The first trick to sending attachments: Don't forget to attach them. Fortunately, Gmail will display a reminder if your message includes phrases like "I've attached" or "I've included" and you hit send without attaching anything.
You can drag and drop files from the desktop to a Gmail message. The images will be embedded in the message unless you drag the file to the toolbar below the composition panel. There is a limit of 25MB (opens in a new window) per Gmail message sent. (However, you can receive attachments with a total of up to 50 MB.) If the file you're trying to send is too big, it goes to Google Drive and the recipient gets a link.
If you're a heavy user of Google Drive, attaching items that already reside there is not only a piece of cake, but they don't count toward the 25MB limit. Click the Insert Files Using Drive icon on the compose window toolbar to choose a file to attach to. This also helps you avoid the type of files that Gmail blocks, such as EXE files. (For more information, see Sending Large Files Over the Internet.)
22. Set a delegate
You can delegate someone else to share control of your Gmail account, be it a company administrator or your partner. Set up the account in Settings > Accounts & import > Grant access to your account > Add another account. The person must also have a Google or Gmail account of some kind - their email address must end in the domain name that matches yours. If you go the route above and find a delegate you didn't authorize there, change your password immediately; You have probably been a victim of phishing.
23. Delete large messages
If you were about to use the 15 GB of storage that Google provides for free and don't want to pay more (opens in a new window), delete some messages. Search for "size: xm" where you replace the x with a number. The "m" stands for megabytes. Any message larger than 10MB in size probably has some large attachments. Save them to your hard drive, but not to Google Drive; that's the space you share with Gmail, so you won't save space.
25. Forward messages as attachments
Usually, if you want to show someone an email you received, you just forward it. Simple. But that doesn't always work, and sometimes you might want to send a bunch of messages. Now you can. Check the box next to multiple messages, click the three-dot menu in the toolbar above, and select Forward as Attachment. The compose window that appears will have each individual message you marked attached as an EML file that the recipient can open in their own email client.