gmail is one of the most powerful and popular email services available, and there’s a reason for it. however, many of its best features are buried in the app’s dense settings pages. you’d be forgiven for missing out on some of the many powerful tools that lie just below the surface. we’ve got some of the best here to save you time and help you get back to the work you need to do.
By default, gmail will wait five seconds after you hit send to send the email. this gives you a moment to realize that you forgot to add an attachment and recover the email. however, five seconds is not a long time to detect an error. To make this window last a bit longer, go to settings > view all settings > undo send, where you can increase this time period up to 30 seconds. It’s still not a lot of time (a bit more than that and you may want to schedule emails instead), but every second helps.
When checking or replying to emails on mobile, it can be easier to tap in the wrong place and accidentally delete the wrong email, or send a reply before you’re ready. Fortunately, the app can ask for confirmation before certain actions. in the gmail mobile app, go to settings > general settings > action confirmations and you will find settings to confirm before deleting, archiving or sending emails. enable the ones you want and from now on gmail will confirm that you are absolutely safe before sending that email.
If you keep your gmail tab open all day, there’s an easy way to know when you have a new email. go to settings > view all settings > advanced and enable the “unread message icon”. this will update the icon on your gmail tab with a number, indicating how many unread emails you have. if you receive a new email this will be updated. this is extremely useful for keeping up to date on any email you receive, without having to go back to gmail as often.
You’ve probably used gmail stars to mark a particular email that you wish you could find later. but did you know that gmail has more than one star? to turn them on, go to settings > view all settings > stars. here, you can see a variety of other stars and icons that you can add to your rotation. drag the ones you want from “not in use” to “in use”. From now on, when you click the star icon in gmail, it will apply the normal star, but if you continue to click it, it will cycle through the other stars you added.
Most of the time, when you send an email, you safely end that conversation until you hear back from the other person. so if you want to remove an extra click from every email you send, there is an option for that. go to settings > view all settings > general and enable “send and archive”. with this on, your default send button will now send the email and archive the conversation at the same time.
gmail shortcuts are one of the best tools you can use to save time, but they don’t have to stay at default. If you prefer to change your shortcuts to make them more convenient for your workflow, first go to settings > view all settings > advanced and enable “custom keyboard shortcuts. you will have to click “save changes” to apply the change and reload gmail. once you do, go back to the settings page and you will see a new sub-tab called “keyboard shortcuts”.
here you will find existing shortcuts for a long list of actions you can perform in gmail. most of them already have a keyboard shortcut assigned, but you can change the default one or add a second custom shortcut of your own. just make sure new shortcuts you create don’t conflict with existing ones before applying them.
by far the most dangerous custom setting in gmail, you can change the app so that when you reply to an email, it automatically sends the email to everyone in the thread. You’ll still have the option to reply to just one person if you want, but the reply all button will be more prominent, and in some places you may need to click through an additional menu to find the normal reply button.
This tool can be extremely useful if you email multiple people in a chain every day, but be careful. this will also make it easier to accidentally email everyone who cc’s in a chain, embarrassing yourself and annoying everyone else. if it’s worth the time you save every day, go for it, but be sure to be careful from that day on.
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