Every characteristic-rich app has its share of hands overlooked settings. Simply Gmail—homo, oh man. Gmail has a virtual labyrinth of underappreciated options.

Consider this: Some of Gmail'south settings are available only on the Gmail website. Others are simply in the mobile apps—or sometimes just in the mobile app on ane specific platform. And other Gmail settings, paradoxically, can't even be constitute inside Gmail at all (aye, really!).

It practically requires a recurring spelunking expedition to make sure you lot're taking reward of everything Gmail has to offering, particularly since the list of possibilities evolves and then often. But not to worry—I'm hither to aid.

I've dug up and broken down a dozen of Gmail's virtually helpful withal least visible settings. Consider this your map to some of the service'due south best buried treasures—no messy metaphorical cave-crawling required.

ane. Give yourself more room to write

Outset things first: Gmail's default compose window for new emails is a small box in the lower-right corner of the screen. That tin can be prissy if you want to keep an eye on your inbox, I suppose. Only it can also exist quite distracting when you actually want to focus on what you're writing.

If you lot discover yourself preferring a more than total-screen writing feel by and large, start a new message in the Gmail website then click the three-dot menu icon in the bulletin's lower-right corner. See the option there called "Default to full screen?" Click it. Then close out of that message entirely, beginning some other new bulletin, and . . .

Gmail'south compose window, in its little-known full-screen form.

Ta-da! Your Gmail compose window will now always open upwardly front and center and as large as your electric current browser window allows. And if yous ever want to compress it back downwardly into that smaller setup, y'all can merely click the icon with two arrows pointing in in the window'southward upper-right corner.

2. Motion from message to message without stopping

Are you the type of person who powers through your inbox message by message until you achieve the end? If so, accept a peek at Gmail'south tucked-away auto-accelerate setting. One time you lot enable information technology, you'll automatically be taken to the next electronic mail in your list (or the previous email, if y'all prefer) as shortly equally you annal or delete a conversation—instead of being taken back out to your inbox, as would typically occur.

In Gmail's desktop version, you'll first need to activate the pick by going to the Advanced tab of the Gmail website's chief settings area (which y'all can get to by clicking the gear-shaped icon in the site's upper-right corner and selecting "See all settings" in the panel that comes upwardly). Find the "Motorcar-advance" line, click on "Enable" next to it, and click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen. Once the website reloads, you'll need to go back into Gmail'south settings and look for the newly nowadays "Auto-advance" expanse within the General tab to configure exactly how the option works.

On Android, in that location's a separate, independent option within the "General settings" section of the Gmail app's settings. No such option seems to be present on iOS, unfortunately.

3. Read more, click less

Speaking of reading, 1 of the simplest and most helpful Gmail settings you can change is the choice for "Maximum folio size," located in the General tab of the Gmail website's settings.

By default, Gmail shows you just 50 email conversations on each page and requires you to click to a subsequent folio in lodge to run into more messages. Perhaps such a setup made sense in earlier days of the internet, when bandwidth was at a premium. Merely nowadays, all that extra clicking is piffling more than an inconvenience.

So save yourself some clicks and also some sanity by changing that setting from 50 to 100. Just be sure to click the Salvage Changes button at the bottom of the screen when you're washed to apply the change.

4. Put your emails back in proper guild

If you're using Gmail's tabbed inbox interface—the one where your messages are sorted into categories such as Social, Promotions, and Updates—yous might've noticed a strange habit Gmail has on the telephone front. For some reason, in the mobile apps merely, Gmail rearranges the messages in your Promotions tab to put the emails it sees as being "highest value" at the tiptop.

Practically speaking, that means the messages in that category are often shown out of chronological order, with no obvious rhyme or reason behind the sequencing. And you frequently end up seeing days-onetime messages at the superlative, with more recent emails cached beneath them.

Y'all can turn that behavior off and restore guild to your inbox by toggling a deeply buried setting in the Gmail mobile apps. On Android, open the app's settings, tap your business relationship name, then tap "Inbox categories" and look for the "Enable Bundling of Top E-mail" choice at the very lesser of the screen that comes upward. On iOS, the same choice is 1 step higher, on the settings screen that comes up immediately after you tap your account's name.

Flip that switch into the off position. Trust me: You'll be glad y'all did.

5. Gear up your ain default snooze times

Snoozing is 1 of my favorite Gmail features, but it'southward likewise ane of the most confusing when it comes to settings. The reason: You can actually customize the default times for email snoozing in Gmail—the specific forenoon, afternoon, and evening times that pop upwardly past default in the diverse one-click snoozing options—simply the setting to make that aligning isn't really located inside Gmail.

Instead, it'south in Google Keep. Become figure, eh? Crazy as it sounds, endeavor this: Pull upwards the Proceed website, click the gear-shaped icon in the upper-right corner, then select "Settings"—or open the equivalent section in the Go on mobile app—and expect for the "Reminder Defaults" section in the panel that pops up.

You'd never know it, merely those innocuous-looking Keep snooze settings likewise tie into Gmail.

Fix the values for Morning, Afternoon, and Evening to any times make sense for you, then click "Relieve" on the website or simply back out of the menu on mobile.

In one case that's washed, go back to Gmail and snooze a message—and sure enough, you'll see your new custom times come upwards inside the default suggested options.

Why does this piece of work that way, you lot might exist wondering? Why aren't the settings separated out and available within Gmail, likewise? At that place's actually only one reply: Sometimes, Google's simply gotta Google.

6. Enable a pace-saving ii-in-ane button

I don't know nigh you lot, but nearly every time I finish responding to something in my inbox, I annal the bulletin to get it out of my hair. Well, Gmail has a spectacular footstep-saver that lets you perform both those actions—sending and archiving—in one fell swoop on your calculator. All you have to do is enable information technology.

Just look through the Full general section of the Gmail website's settings until you lot see the "Ship and Archive" option. Modify its setting to "Show 'Send & Annal' button in respond"—something that isn't enabled by default—and once you salve out, you lot'll see a spiffy new blue button next to the regular Transport button that'll allow y'all transport and archive in a single step anytime you lot're replying to a message.

And a bonus tip: One time that button is visible, y'all tin can also hit Ctrl (or Cmd) and Enter together to trigger the same activity without any mousework required.

7. Permit Gmail get personal

We all go a mix of personal letters and bulk mail these days, and while both can be perfectly legitimate and valuable, the messages actually written to you lot, specifically, are probable the ones that require the well-nigh firsthand attention.

Gmail tin help sort the personal stuff from the bulk: Just find the "Personal level indicators" option within the General tab of the desktop site's settings. Change its setting to "Show indicators," and you lot'll get-go seeing unmarried arrows next to messages sent specifically to your address (every bit opposed to those sent to a list) and double arrows adjacent to messages sent only to you, with no other recipients involved.

eight. Sweep away some of your label clutter

It doesn't have much for Gmail's labels to get out of hand—and odds are, no matter how many labels you've created over the years, there'southward only a scattering that you interact with on a regular basis.

You can brand your life meaningfully easier by hiding away the labels you don't employ frequently and leaving yourself only with the ones you lot genuinely need to see. Start your cleanup by clicking on the Labels tab in the Gmail website's settings. At that place, you'll see a list of all your bachelor labels, along with the power to set whatsoever label every bit subconscious in both the label list—the sprawling list of labels that shows up at the top of the Gmail sidebar—and the bulletin list, which is the list of label options that appears whenever you lot use the command for calculation a label onto an individual message.

You lot tin keep infrequently accessed labels out of sight to give yourself a less cluttered and more efficient workspace.

Hide abroad annihilation you don't ofttimes access in either of those places, and you'll stop wasting time looking through superfluous stuff.

9. Increase your second-guessing buffer

Gmail has a tremendously useful feature called Disengage Send that lets you pull back a bulletin afterward yous've sent it, in case you all of a sudden realize you said something wrong or included a wildly inappropriate attachment by mistake. By default, though, Undo Transport gives you a measly 5 seconds to brand that call—which isn't much at all, especially when potentially mortifying errors are involved.

Take two seconds now to find the "Undo Send" option in that same Full general section of Gmail's desktop settings, and you tin boost your buffer from five seconds to a full thirty. At that place's little real downside, outside of your messages sitting for an boosted 25 seconds earlier they're really delivered. And there's a world of face up-saving proceeds.

10. Give yourself an undo equivalent on mobile

That handy Undo Send selection isn't bachelor in the Gmail mobile apps, for some reason, but you tin create a roughly similar safety net for yourself past enabling the service's confirmation settings there—at least, if yous're using Android. (Sorry, iPhone pals!)

In the Gmail Android app, tap the three-line carte du jour icon in the upper-left corner of the main inbox screen, so select "Settings" followed by "General settings" and scroll all the manner downwards to the bottom of the screen that comes up. In that location, you'll observe three off-by-default options: "Confirm before deleting," "Confirm earlier archiving," and "Confirm earlier sending."

Check the box next to the last one—and either of the other 2, if you lot're and so inclined—and from so on out, you'll ever go a popular-up confirmation to give yourself a 2nd chance earlier any such action is completed.

Avoid sending, deleting, or archiving messages by mistake on your phone with the Android Gmail app'southward handy confirmation options.

11. Customize Gmail's fourth dimension-saving swipe shortcuts

While nosotros're on the subject of Gmail's mobile apps, think about what deportment you take nearly often on your messages—whether it's archiving, deleting, mark as read or unread, or snoozing—and then set your app'south swipe shortcuts to reflect those priorities.

For example, maybe y'all'd like to swipe left on any message in your inbox to snooze the email and swipe correct to archive it. Or perhaps you'd prefer to swipe left to toggle a bulletin betwixt read and unread, and swipe right to delete information technology. Whatever the case, those gestures can stand for the commands that'd exist most convenient for you lot, if you lot take the time to fix them upwards accordingly.

In the Gmail Android app, look for the "Swipe actions" selection within the "General settings" department of the app'southward settings. On iOS, you'll notice the same prepare of choices right within the app'south chief settings card. Either style, you lot'll be one tap abroad from picking whatever activeness y'all want for both the left and the right swipe.

12. Make Gmail less nudgy

Last but not to the lowest degree, ane Gmail feature you might be better off eliminating is the service's addiction of nudging y'all to reply or follow upward on emails that've been lingering in your inbox for a while. Maybe that habit's helpful for you—and if so, hey, more ability to you—only if you're organized enough on your own to know what yous practise and don't demand to respond to, it can be more irritating than advantageous.

Luckily for those who don't want it, information technology's easy as can be to plow off. Y'all'll find two associated options in the General tab of the Gmail website'south settings—one for nudges related to "emails yous might have forgotten to reply to" and 1 for nudges about "emails you might need to follow upwardly on." Disable both, cackle quietly for good measure, and prepare for a delightfully nudge-gratuitous electronic messaging life.

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