Do you want to become a gmail power user?
Making use of productivity extensions or examining gmail for easily overlooked settings are the two easiest ways to boost your productivity in gmail.
In this definitive guide, we will look at the later option.
gmail settings is one of the most underrated (yet powerful) tools. you’ll only see what you’re missing when you dig a little deeper.
That said, here are some of the awesome settings you didn’t know existed in gmail.
but first…
where is the gmail settings?
access to gmail settings depends on the device you are using. For the basic settings, you can access it on your android phone by following the steps below.
Step 1: Click on the gmail app on your android phone or tablet.
Step 2: Tap the menu icon at the top left of the screen.
Step 3: Scroll down to the settings icon and click general settings for the account you want to change.
Step 4: A pop-up page will appear. make the desired changes by following the instructions in each section.
accessing gmail settings on a computer is quite similar:
Step 1: Open your gmail accountt on your computer and sign in.
Step 2: Click on settings at the top right of your screen.
Step 3: Click “sell all configurations“.
step 4: Make any changes on each tab and click “save changes” at the bottom of the page.
what are gmail pop and smtp settings?
smtp configuration
smtp is an abbreviation for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. is used to send emails from one server to another.
for example, you may want to use gmail to send a message from an email service like outlook or thunderbird, which seems impossible.
To work, the service must understand how to communicate with a gmail server. it does this using smtp settings, similar to any email service provider you use with gmail.
default smtp settings for gmail
If your email provider requires gmail’s smtp settings, below is the default gmail smtp settings.
(Note that it only asks you this when you set up an email client to sync with your gmail account).
- gmail smtp server address: smtp.gmail.com
- gmail smtp port (tls): 587
- gmail smtp password: your gmail password
- gmail smtp port (ssl): 465
- gmail smtp username: your gmail address (for example, example@gmail.com)
- gmail smtp password: your gmail password
- gmail smtp tls/ssl required: yes
popup settings
The smtp settings allow you to send emails to other email service providers. the pop configuration in gmail does the opposite.
In short, it allows you to receive emails from email service providers like Outlook and any email client.
pop stands for post office protocol. the latest version is pop3, which is what you see in the gmail settings.
here is a step by step process on how to enable pop in your gmail account.
step 1: open your gmail account and click on settings in the upper right corner of the screen. then click view all settings.
Step 2: The action opens a screen with multiple configuration options. choose the forwarding and pop/imap tab.
Step 3: In the popup download tab, click enable pop for all mail or enable pop for mail that arrives from now.
This process is important as it will allow you to download emails directly from a local device at any time.
how to reset gmail account to default settings
if you thought that google is an impeccable company, you are wrong.
why?
gmail doesn’t have a “reset to defaults” button that can factory reset everything at once, a big disappointment. but there are a couple of manual options to reset your gmail account.
The common (and tedious) way is to track down all the settings you messed up with one by one. spoiler alert: this is going to take ages.
If you can’t stand the weather, there’s an easier solution, which puts your account at risk. this option is hard reset using google scripts.
here is an overview of what it does.
- delete all draft messages
- delete all gmail filters
- delete all emails in gmail
- empty permanently gmail junk folder</li
- delete out of office message
- delete all gmail tags
- delete all spam messages
as hinted, the option is riskier because it is irreversible. you cannot recover any of your gmail data after the reset is complete.
how to change spam settings in gmail
Gmail’s spam filter settings are getting stronger every day.
Thanks to ai, gmail can now block over 100 million spam messages every day. While that’s good progress, it’s best if you change your gmail spam settings and adjust them to your liking.
There are so many things you can do here. I’ll just give you the most popular spam setting change: disable your gmail spam filter.
Step 1: Sign in to your gmail account and open the settings icon. click see all settings
step 2: choose the tab labeled filters and blocked addresses.
Step 3: since you want to create a new filter, click on create a new filter
step 4: writeis: spam orinclude the words option.
step 5: scroll down to create filter with this search and click ok.
Step 6: You will be directed to another section. choose the option to never send to spam.
means you’ve overridden google from deciding which email is spam and which isn’t.
As stated above, there are a lot of changes you need to make to change gmail’s spam settings.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of gmail settings and what they are, let’s dive into the gmail settings you should use on a day-to-day basis.
15 gmail settings you should know about
1. undo sent emails
gmail doesn’t allow you to edit an email after you hit the send button.
but it gives you a small window to undo a message before the recipient opens it. this is how it works.
go to gmail settings and stop at the general tab. you will see an undo send icon, as shown on the screenshot.
Next, click select a cancellation period, which is 5 to 30 seconds. every time you send an email, you’ll get an undo popup that will stay for the length of time you selected.
2. change email density
As the name suggests, this setting allows you to change the density of emails you want to fit on the screen.
The process is simple. First, click on the settings icon. you will see three different density options to choose from:
- default: show all emails with attachments
- convenient: show only emails. does not include attachments to create more space.
- compact: further reduces the comfortable view to create more space to display more emails.
3. enable/disable conversation view
By default, Gmail automatically enables conversation view when you create a new Gmail account.
this is understandable as the configuration is well organized. conversation allows you to see the trend of a conversation in a thread.
However, some people don’t like this setting and prefer their messages to be open. these users argue that it is difficult to find a single message when the thread is long.
Either way, you can choose any option according to your preferences.
To enable or disable chat settings, open settings and go to the general tab. then scroll down to conversation view settings. you have the option to turn conversations on or off.
4. set maximum page size
This setting is intended to increase or decrease the number of emails per page.
for example, if you receive many emails per day, it is advisable to increase the maximum page. you won’t have to keep jumping to the next page many times.
This is how it works.
click settings and go to the general tab. choose the maximum page size and select the number of emails you want to appear per page.
5. getting unread message icon
This feature is useful when you keep the gmail tab open for a long time. Plus, it’s useful when you need real-time updates on emails you haven’t read.
In your gmail account, go to the settings section and choose the advanced” tab. the unread message icon is the penultimate option on the list.
click enable. this will allow you to see the count of unread emails at the top of gmail. Also, note that you can only keep the count at 100 emails.
further reading: how to find unread emails in gmail
6. set own default repeat times
While gmail’s snooze feature is useful, the default settings may not suit you: therefore some customization is required.
the interesting thing is that you can’t change the default settings in gmail.
you have to do the customization from google keep, google’s note-taking app. honestly, we still don’t know why google hasn’t included this feature in gmail yet.
however, that’s how it’s done.
go to your google account menu and open google keep (the white bulb inside a yellow box). Click settings in the upper right corner of the screen.
In the default reminders section, set your own time for morning, afternoon, and evening. click save once done.
finally, go back to your gmail and snooze a message. you’ll see your new custom times in the default suggested option.
7. keyboard shortcuts
gmail has powerful shortcuts that are useful when you need to access something quickly.
While these shortcuts are nice to master, what’s even more powerful is customizing your own shortcuts for maximum productivity.
But before we go there, let’s first make sure keyboard shortcuts are enabled. On your computer, go to settings and choose the general tab. enable keyboard shortcuts.
Once that’s done, let’s see how you’ll create your own shortcuts.
although not too fast, there is a problem. you can only edit the main navigation and inbox admin shortcuts.
To do so, first enable custom keyboard shortcuts. click on settings and go to the advanced tab.
Scroll down to custom keyboard shortcuts and turn them on.
save the changes once you’ve done that.
A new tab will appear called keyboard shortcuts. click it, and the page below will open. for each action, there is a default shortcut. but you have the option to replace it with something you’ll easily remember.
8. using priority inbox
As the name suggests, Priority Inbox allows you to have a specific section that prioritizes certain emails. this affects starred messages, unread messages, and new emails in the inbox.
And how does gmail know which emails are important? check this guide from their support page.
first, click settings and select the inbox tab. in the inbox type section, select priority inbox from the dropdown menu.
9. adding important bookmarks
gmail works as a filter.
check your inbox, analyze the frequency of messages from each sender and how you have treated their messages before.
then it will find out which email is important and add the important tag next to it.
what does this mean? you can easily navigate through your cluttered inbox to read the most important message quickly.
here’s how to bring this setup to life.
First, open settings and go to the inbox tab. check the importance bookmarks section and choose show bookmarks.
10. disable/enable nudges
We tend to forget a lot of things, and this habit can cost you a life-changing opportunity.
a study by hubspot found that 90% of customers want to receive a response to any email they send in less than ten minutes.
If you’re the “too forgetful” type of gmail user, this setting will come in handy.
Once again, go to the settings option and choose the general tab. scroll down to the pushing section.
You have two prompt options: “suggest emails to reply to” and “suggest emails to follow up on“. you can choose either option or both.
11. creating a signature file
a signature seals your professionalism.
google allows you to create signatures for your emails that do not exceed 10,000 characters. once created, the signature will appear at the bottom of every email you send.
Here’s how to create your next signature file.
open the settings and go to the general tab. scroll down to the signature section and create a signature.
You can add a short description of what you do, an image, and a hyperlink to your website. click save changes once done.
12. set up a vacation responder
It’s always good to reply to emails when you’re out of the office for the weekend or on vacation.
of course, this will destroy your peacetime. But that doesn’t mean you have to respond personally to every email. why not let the responder on vacation do it?
allows you to set a reminder that automatically responds to senders, telling them you’ll be out of the office for a while.
To activate or deactivate your vacation, follow the steps below.
open view all settings and in the general tab, scroll down to the vacation responder section.
The default setting is always off. if you want to turn it on, put the dates you will be out of the office. then, write a subject and a message.
13. use tags to organize
labels in gmail organize your inbox and make it neat.
however, you may have too many tags which will throw you back in disarray. in this case, you should hide the tags that you rarely use.
Go to settings and choose the label tab. On the left side, you will see all kinds of labels that you can show or hide. make sure to show what is relevant and hide what is not.
14. send emails from a different address
This setting is useful for users who have custom gmail addresses.
You can connect your personalized email with your main account. so you don’t have to jump from one email address to another.
In settings, go to the accounts and import tab. scroll down to the send mail as section and select add another email address.
The above action will open a new window. add your personalized email, name and click next step. gmail will send an email to the new address to verify it before adding it.
15. preventing gmail from creating contacts automatically
Whenever you reply to or send a message to someone who isn’t in your Google Contacts app, Gmail automatically adds that person’s email address to your Google Contacts app.
While this may be useful in the future, it also means you’ll end up with hundreds of spam email addresses clogging up your contacts.
These are the steps to get rid of the function.
open the gmail settings and go to the general tab. scroll down to the create autocomplete contacts section.
chooseI’ll add the contact myself and save the changes.
FAQ about gmail settings
how do you set up gmail on a mobile device?
Setting up gmail on a mobile device doesn’t offer many options compared to a laptop.
but you can still make basic settings. Go back to the first subsection of this guide to see how you can do basic settings with your android phone.
what are the correct settings for gmail?
There are tons of settings you can do in gmail.
what we have given you is just the tip of the iceberg. this begs the question: what is the most important setting?
well, there is no configuration that is more important than all. It goes back to your preferences and what you want to achieve with gmail.
This way, it’s easy to choose a setting that increases your productivity and improves your gmail experience.
how do you manage google privacy settings?
managing google privacy settings improves your browsing experience.
To activate it, go to your settings choose privacy and security. there are a lot of settings you will see. choose what you prefer.