Everyone loves Gmail, right? It’s one of the best email
services, it’s completely free, and it works like a dream. But you’ll be
surprised how little of Gmail’s plethora of features you are actually using.
Good old Gmail got a few
exciting new features recently, but that’s only the tip of the
iceberg. Several cool things in Gmail have existed for a long time without
anyone bothering to use them. Let’s change that today.
Mute Group Emails to
Stop Distractions
We’ve all been there. A group-wide
email goes out, and everyone keeps hitting “Reply All”, causing a constant ping
in your inbox. You need to deal with notification-based
tech distractions, and Gmail has some help.
When you want to read these emails
later but not be disturbed by the constant back-and-forth, you can mute an
email thread. Just open the message, click the “More” button in the top
bar, and choose “Mute“. It’s as simple as that.
Now you’ll get every message update in this conversation, but no
notifications for it. Ah, peace of mind.
Right-click Emails to
Archive, Delete, or Mark as Read
Your inbox can get overwhelming very
quickly. Every productivity guru advisessorting your emails to manage them and reach the fabled inbox zero. When you’re
sorting quickly, you need to be able to delete, archive or mark an unread email
as read.
You’ll need to enable the “Mark as
Read” button in Gmail Labs. Enable it by clicking Cog > Settings > Labs > Mark as Read Button > Enable > Save Changes.
In Gmail, it’s tedious to constantly select an email and then
move your mouse to the buttons up top for these actions. But you don’t need to
do that. The humble right-click has these three actions at the ready. Start
getting used to this, you will sort your emails twice as fast as you used to do
before!
Gmail Has a Preview
Pane!
I’d be richer than Zuckerberg if I
had a penny for every time someone said, “I like how Outlook shows the email
list and opens the clicked email in a pane. I don’t like switching back and
forth.” Yes, that reading pane makes it easy to blast through emails in
Microsoft Outlook, but it’s in Gmail too!
Enable it through Gmail Labs by
clicking Cog > Settings > Labs > Preview Pane> Enable > Save Changes.
In your main inbox view, you’ll find a four-line icon next to
the Settings cog in the top-right corner. Click the drop-down arrow, and choose
between “No Split” (no preview), “Vertical Split” (email list at the left,
preview at the right), or “Horizontal Split” (email list above, preview at the
bottom).
Bookmark Emails and
Searches with Quick Links
I’ll never understand why Quick Links
isn’t more popular. Saikat already talked about it in the 10 most underused Gmail
features, but it bears mentioning again.
Enable it through Gmail Labs by
clicking Cog > Settings > Labs > Quick Links >Enable > Save Changes. It is a simple
Gmail Labs extension that sits in your sidebar. What does it do?
Well, for one, you can save any email with this. When you have
an email open, just click the “Add Quick Link” button, give it a unique name,
and save it. Next time you click that link, you’ll be transported back to that
email.
Similarly, if you have searched for a particular query, you can
bookmark that search results page through the same process.
Just note that you can’t add quick links if you have the Preview
Pane on, so switch the pane off when you need to add a quick link.
URL Trick to Switch
User Accounts
If you have more than one Gmail
account, you can sign into multiple user
accountsnow. Whenever you want to switch, click your avatar in the
top-right corner and choose the other account. It’s simple, but if you love Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts,
then there’s a keyboard-friendly trick.
Go to the URL, and change between “0”, “1”, “2” to switch to the
account you want. So for example:
Account 1: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox
Account 2: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox
Account 3: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2/#inbox
Quick and easy, right?
Enable Personal Level
Indicators
You can find anyone’s real email
address with Gmail, but that also leaves you open to getting
unsolicited emails. Personal level indicators are a great way to find emails
that deserve your attention. You can enable it in Cog > Settings > General >Show Personal Level Indicators.
With that, a double arrow (>>) indicates emails sent only
to you, and a single arrow (>) indicates emails sent to your email address
and not a mailing list. A nice way to differentiate, right?
Sign Out Remotely to
Stay Safe
Are you sure that you remembered to log out of Gmail from your
office computer today? Could your friend still access your Gmail when you
borrowed his laptop? The easy way to stay safe is to log out of other sessions
remotely—after all, where you are using it matters, right?
Scroll to the end of your inbox and
you will find Last Account Activity:
x minutes ago. Click Details under it.
A pop-up window will show you all the other computers and places
you are logged in to Gmail with. With one click, you can sign out of all of
them. The next time anyone wants to use your email there, the user will be
asked for a password.
Verify Emails from Big
Services
You’re often warned of PayPal and other scammers
targetting your inbox, but you also use those services regularly. So
how do you know an email is authentic?Another Labs classic,
Verified Senders will ensure you’re getting emails from the proper services and
not scammers.
Enable it through Gmail Labs by
clicking Cog > Settings > Labs >Authentication icon for verified senders > Enable > Save Changes.
Now, whenever you get an email from a proper service, you’ll see
a little key icon to indicate it’s authentic. This way, you’re protected; if
you don’t see that icon, play it safe and don’t download anything from that
email or reply with any important or secure information.
Change What You See in
the Sidebar
You want to see “Inbox” and “Important”, but don’t want to see
“Chats” or “Sent Mails” in Gmail’s left-hand sidebar? Yup, that’s quite doable!
Go to Settings > Labels and you will see a list of System Labels. Click “show” or “hide”
on any option depending on what you want to see and what you want to hide! It’s
simple and it reduces the clutter in your sidebar.
You can also do that with Categories, Circles, and general Gmail
Labels!
How Many Do You Use?
So, that’s our list of nine cool Gmail features that most people
don’t know about. How many of these do you use regularly?
And yes, help us fill number 10 in this list
with an unused feature not noted here, but one that you swear by!