Gmail[2] is more powerful than you think and gets more features almost every day. With a few hidden tips for using Gmail, you can turn it into an incredibly robust email system that does just about everything you would expect from a paid email management app.
From creating email templates to using aliases, you can increase your productivity by learning to customize Gmail. Want a longer time window for undo sending, create branded e-mail layouts, schedule e-mails and even send perishable messages? Gmail has stacks of great - but largely unknown - features.
Use this list of 20 dazzling Gmail tips and tricks to streamline your workflows, stay safer and get much more done.
1. Create email templates
Gmail's email templates feature saves you an enormous amount of time, eliminating the need to type emails over and over again. You don't even have to save repeated text in a file somewhere and copy and paste into it.
Here's how to do it:
Open Gmail
Click on the gear icon Settings in the upper right corner
Click View All Settings and then Advanced
Next to Templates, click Enable
Then, when you write an e-mail, click the three stacked dots in the bottom right corner and choose Templates. You can save your current draft as a template or use a previously created template.
Create email templates
2. Use Gmail add-ons to increase your productivity tenfold
Gmail extensions and add-ons are very powerful. Here are a few of the best:
Checker Plus for Gmail: read and listen to emails without opening the Gmail app.
Email tracker for Gmail: find out if your recipients have read your emails.
RightInbox: track emails in Gmail, set reminders and create automatic follow-ups.
Zoom for Gmail: Launch Zoom meetings from within Gmail.
GMass: eigenlijk een Chrome-extensie voor Google[1] Spreadsheets, deze geeft je Gmail-account superkrachten voor bulkmailing.
You can find dozens more by searching the Chrome Web Store for the words "Gmail," "email," or "mail.
3. Increase time for undo sending
"Wait, I didn't mean to send that!" You probably already know that you can undo a Gmail message after you send it. But does that undo time window seem a little too short? No problem! It's normally set at 5 seconds, but you can increase it to 30 seconds.
Just click the small settings wheel in the upper right corner, scroll down to Undo Send and adjust the time.
4. Delegate your Gmail.com inbox
Virtual assistants save an enormous amount of time, but you may not want to give them your most important login information. With Gmail, you don't have to. Just create a delegated account to let someone read, send and delete messages - without giving them administrator privileges.
Add a proxy:
Go to Settings and then click on the Accounts tab
Scroll down to Grant access to your account
Select Add another account
Enter the email address of the account you wish to add
Click Next Step and then Send Email to grant access
5. Add files directly from Google Drive
"Hey, where's that document?" Skip the file search when sending a Gmail by attaching files directly from your email draft. Just start a draft and click the drive icon at the bottom. You can find your file from there and cut out additional steps.
Add files directly from Google Drive
6. Schedule emails.
Gmail plays a serious role as a personal email marketing platform with the ability to schedule emails. If you want to send newsletters but can't quite pay for a separate email scheduler, Gmail has you covered. Just write your email concept and next to the blue Send button, click the down arrow and then click Schedule Send.
7. Create email layouts
If you're a Workspace Individual subscriber, Gmail lets you create beautiful email layouts with your branding. (More on that below in Gmail tip #15.) Start a draft and at the bottom, click Layouts > Customize Style and add logos, colors, fonts, links and footer details. You can also add text, images and buttons.
8. Stop spam with aliases
Here's the dilemma: You sign up for an online account with your Gmail address and then - surprise surprise - you receive lots of spam emails. Put an end to that with Gmail aliases. It works like this: when you sign up for an online account, you use your Gmail address, but add a plus sign and an identifier.For example, if your address is [email protected] and you sign up for a Netflix account, you sign up with [email protected]. Any email generated by that signup will still go to your inbox. But with the tip below, you can send it directly to its own folder.
9. Organize with smart filters
Save time by putting incoming emails where they belong before you see them. To do this, create a filtering rule:
Open your Gmail inbox
Type your criteria in the search box at the top
Click on the filter icon to the right
Choose Create Filter at the bottom of the pop-up
Select what you want Gmail to do with emails that meet your criteria
If you combine this Gmail tip with the one above, you'll soon have almost no unwanted e-mail, even if you use your Gmail account to sign up for new online accounts.
Organize with smart filters
10. Use labels to find posts
Imagine this: you are looking for an e-mail about a certain project, but you can't remember who sent it or when. You try 6 different searches, but your search is fruitless and your neck gets hot and tingly. We've all been there, but with Gmail labels, you can easily find emails related to a particular project or topic.
From within an email, click the label icon at the top and then choose a suggested label or create a new one. You can also add colored stars to your Gmails and then find them by clicking the star icon in the left menu above Important Messages.
11. Put your Gmail signature to work
Your Gmail signature can sell for you. Gmail can automatically add a short bio, product link and other useful information at the bottom of every email you send. Go to Settings > View All Settings > Signature and add text, links, images and other content.
You can also write a shorter signature for replies so you don't disrupt long email threads with additional content.
12. Link other email accounts to Gmail
Once you have customized, labeled and filtered your Gmail interface as you like, it is so convenient to route all your emails from all your email accounts through it.
Click Settings and then View All Settings
Click on the Accounts tab
Under Check email from other accounts, add your secondary email address and login information
13. Use Gmail shortcuts
Speed up your email workflows by using Gmail keyboard shortcuts. Without clicking, dragging, or typing long commands, you can scroll through messages, draft emails or instant messages, format text, reply, and even create your own keyboard shortcuts for commonly used actions.
14. Use confidential mode
Prevent people from accidentally forwarding your e-mail with confidential mode. Set expiration dates for messages, revoke access to emails you have sent in the past, or password protect your emails. To do this, you must be a Google Workspace user. (See tip 15 below.) If so, go to Gmail > User Settings > Confidential Mode, enable it and save your changes.
15. Set up Gmail for business
If you only use personal Gmail for your small business, you are not taking full advantage of the full power of Gmail. With Workspace, you get more business and collaboration features for all of Google Drive. For example, you can send branded emails and access CRM integrations and a Workspace management console.
Sign up for a Google Workspace account here.
16. Mute conversations
"Ugh, another e-mail from that useless thread." You can mute e-mail threads you don't think are important without blocking the senders. Once muted, Gmail automatically archives all past and future emails from that conversation. In the email, click on the three vertically stacked dots and select Mute.
17. Use Gmail advanced search
Finding a specific e-mail can feel like searching for a needle in a digital haystack. Advanced search in Gmail solves that. You can search emails with various search operators, such as specific senders, recipients, dates, subjects, main text, labels, attachments, attached file types or folders. Just open Gmail and click on the filter icon on the right side of the search box.
Use Gmail advanced search
18. Keep track of paired apps
It's easy to grant access to your Gmail account for third-party apps, such as sports, sports or business apps. To manage, delete or keep track of the apps you have granted access to, go to the Security section of your Google Account and scroll to Third-party Apps with account access.
19. Unsubscribing easier
Almost all bulk e-mail has an unsubscribe link, so if you search for "unsubscribe" in your e-mails, you will see all the junk e-mail for which you can currently unsubscribe. First, select Inbox from the Advanced Search drop-down menu to avoid seeing messages already in your junk mail folder.
20. Snooze Gmail to get more done
Sometimes you can't answer an e-mail right away, but you don't want it to fall between bars. You can snooze an e-mail by clicking the clock icon on the right side of the e-mail in your inbox. Then choose a time when Gmail brings it to your attention again.
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