Gmail is one of the most popular email services around, but you may not be enjoying all of its features. Here are 13 Gmail tips and tricks you can use when sending your next email.
If you can believe it, Gmail has been around for over 11 years and has grown significantly over that time with added features and better designs. Right now Gmail is at an all-time high and the best thing about it is that over the years it keeps adding essential features and improving the overall design while maintaining the simplicity that has made Gmail so great.
However, something many users don’t know about Gmail is that not all of these features are used and most users can take advantage of them, whether it’s to save time by setting up canned responses or to disable new email notifications. Focus and be more productive after lunch.
Here are 13 Gmail tips and tricks you can use to get more out of Google’s email service.
Retrieve Sent Emails
If you accidentally sent an email before you were ready to send it, there’s a feature in Gmail that you can enable that allows you to undo an email that was sent within a certain amount of time.
This feature gives you up to 30 seconds to retrieve an email after sending it; this can be great if you forgot to add an attachment or any other important information, that way you don’t look like an idiot when you have to. send a second email with more information or attachments.
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the web page and select . Under the tab, find and put a checkmark next to it. Then, from the drop-down menu, select the amount of time you will need to retrieve a sent email.
Adding Multiple Accounts on iPhone
If you have multiple Gmail email accounts and want to access them all from your iPhone, you can easily add them and have multiple Gmail accounts on the go.
One method is to add your Google account to iOS in Settings and then use the built-in Mail app to access your Gmail accounts.
The second method is the easier way, as you download the Gmail app from the App Store and then add your multiple Gmail accounts directly inside the app. Each has its pros and cons and from there you can decide which one will be best for you.
Stop Gmail Adding Events to Google Calendar
About a month ago, Google added the following feature to Gmail and Google Calendar: Allows Gmail to add events automatically your email will appear on your Google Calendar, but you can easily disable this feature.
Essentially, Gmail scans your email and displays dates and times, etc., based on the emails you receive. Creates new events with That means Gmail and Google when you get confirmation to buy game tickets, book a hotel or book a flight. Calendar automatically adds that event to your calendar.
To disable this feature, go to your Google Calendar and click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Choose . Find the setting named and uncheck it. Click when the popup appears and then swipe up and click towards the top left corner of the screen.
Reply and Archive Emails with One Click
If you’re all about productivity and want to get through your inbox as fast as possible, there’s a trick I’d recommend you learn.
When replying to an email, Gmail lets you click a button to send that reply and then archive the email, so essentially two steps are done with one click. However, it may not be enabled on your Gmail account, but it’s a quick fix.
Just click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select find in tab. Then select . Scroll down and click.
Set up Canned Responses
Google calls this feature “email for the really lazy”. Canned replies are prewritten e-mail replies that you can save and send to common e-mails you receive. For example, if you receive a lot of emails asking the same question, you can automatically find a ready-made answer to be sent back, saving you time.
To enable the feature to set canned responses, click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the web page and select . Click on the top tab and scroll down and find the feature called. Canned Responses. Select its right and then scroll all the way down and click .
Enable Vacation Mode
If you’re on vacation and won’t be able to access your Gmail account during this time, don’t leave your email senders waiting for a response. Instead, you can enable an autoresponder.
Simply click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and on the tab, select find. Holiday Responder. Then enable it and write a message that will be automatically sent to anyone who emails you. Then you can choose whenever you want it to be activated. From there, scroll down and click.
Reply vs Reply All
When you reply to an email, you have the option to reply only to the person who sent the email, or you can reply to anyone copied to the email.
In Gmail, you can make any of these options the default choice when you go to reply to an email.
Just click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select find in tab. Then select or . Then you can choose whenever you want it to be activated. From there, scroll down and click.
Separate Unread Emails from Everything Else
If you like to be organized but your Gmail inbox is getting a little too cluttered, you can organize it a bit by separating unread emails from everything else in your inbox, which can clean things up a bit.
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select . Within the tab, go to the first setting towards the top, i.e. . Choose from the drop-down menu.
Then there’s what’s called below that. You will have and . Checking for each of these lets you customize it a bit.
Connect Another Email Account
If you have multiple Gmail accounts that you want to merge, you can use your primary Gmail account to receive new emails from your other Gmail accounts and send emails from your other Gmail accounts through your primary account.
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select . Next, go to the tab. From there, you can use POP3 to receive email from another Gmail account and add an email address to send new mail without having to log into that account each time.
Leverage Filters
Only want email from a specific sender to go straight to the trash? Or want to add a label to an email if it’s talking about something specific? That’s what filters are for.
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select . Then go to the tab and start creating your filters! In my case, I have a filter that applies a custom label when an email contains the word “unsubscribe”, and I also have filters that ensure that when I receive certain important emails and they don’t accidentally go to the spam folder.
Obviously, there are many different filter options to choose from, but this is one feature in Gmail that is incredibly useful.
Refresh Gmail
If you don’t like the default look of the Gmail UI, you can change it in the settings.
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select . Next, go to: Themes tab will show you a number of different themes to choose from to give your Gmail account a much needed makeover.
Personally, I like to keep things simple so I stay with the default view, but if you want to give Gmail a little more character, here’s how to do it.
Archive or Delete an Email from Android Notifications
If you’re using Android, you can quickly archive or delete emails right from the notification bar and the option you want depends on what you have set in the settings.
At the bottom of the Gmail app is a setting called Gmail default action and you can change it to either or . Choosing one lets you archive or delete an email directly from the notification bar on your Android device.
Disable Mobile Notifications
If you need to do some work with anything distracting, you can easily disable new email notifications from appearing on your phone.
Open the Gmail app on iPhone and tap the menu bar in the upper left corner to bring up the sidebar. Then tap the gear icon and select below.
When you’re done and want to get your notifications back, just go back to that settings menu and tap on it to start getting alerts again.
