Do you often feel like Gmail could do more for you? Are you only using it to send and receive emails? It turns out, the popular email platform is packed with features designed to make your life easier.
Schedule Emails in Gmail
Gmail’s scheduled sending feature enables users to delay the sending of an email until a later time. This is especially helpful if you have a message, idea, or photo that you would like to share, but it’s either too early or too late for the current moment.
With email, you can plan to send it way ahead of time – there doesn’t seem to be a limit on how much time in advance you can set for delivery.
There are two distinct ways to cancel an email you have scheduled to send on both mobile and web devices.
When you set up an email, a tiny alert will show at the bottom of your screen.
This alert will feature an Undo button that, when clicked, will terminate the email and reverse it back to its draft form so you can modify it or attempt it again.
There is also the option of canceling an email via your Gmail’s Scheduled folder, which reveals itself after scheduling an email on a web browser but is constantly there
Organizing by Changing Label Colors in Gmail
Gmail’s labels are similar to flexible folders for the emails you need to organize and classify.
You can frame rules for fresh incoming emails so they’ll sort automatically into labels, plus alter the shade of the label in order to effortlessly organize them.
Modifying the color is fairly easy, and will brighten up your inbox a bit more. Even though this feature is only available on Gmail for the web, it remains an exceptionally useful organizational tool.
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Automatically Organizing Emails
You can also set up rules for emails in your Gmail account and have them automatically labeled – e.g. tax-related documents and receipts can all be placed under one label for better organization. Additionally, emails can be automatically forwarded, deleted, archived, and much more.
Gmail has a feature that allows you to create rules for incoming emails which can make it easier to stay organized.
Experiment with different rules and try to find the method that works best for you as this tool can be tailored in many different ways.
Unread Message Icon in Chrome
Another nifty little feature you can enable is the unread message icon. This icon will appear as a number in your Google Chrome tab icon, showing you exactly how many emails you haven’t read yet.
Gmail Viewing Modes
If you prefer your inbox to be condensed so everything is within easy reach or spread out, Gmail has got you covered. All you have to do is go into Settings and change the density; there are three options available.
- Default
- Comfortable
- Compact
Play around with these different viewing densities, and choose one that fits your needs. Personally, I like default, since it allows the most information at a glance.
Customizing Your Gmail Theme
Some Gmail features are purely there as quality-of-life settings. Themes fit right into that category.
Rather than a dull white or black Gmail, you can develop or choose a theme that represents you a little better, or just lightens up your mood when replying to monotonous emails all day.
Gmail gives you the option to use preset photos, colors, or even images from Google Photos for your background.
After saving, your new theme should become visible as the background in Gmail. There are no restrictions regarding changing your theme, so feel free to experiment.
Turning Off Google Chat/Meet in Gmail
While certain settings can be great if enabled and others even better if disabled, an example of this is Google Chat and Meet. Though it helps with communication, it often makes Gmail look congested, which it already has a tendency towards.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether you should disable Google Chat and Meet based on your Gmail usage. If you never use these features and want a simpler experience, here’s how to deactivate Chat and Meet:
Whether you choose to disable Google Chat and Meet in Gmail, or perhaps neither of them, depends solely on your preferences for functioning with Gmail.
Once you click Save changes, Gmail will refresh and the recent alterations will be noticeable. Immediately, you will observe that the side menu has less clutter and is more germane.
Confidential Mode
For the privacy-conscious, Gmail includes a confidential mode that adds extra layers of security to outgoing emails. This blocks the ability for recipients to forward, copy, print or download an email you send. You’ll be able to set a time limit for the email expiry, too. But that’s not all, as you can even protect content with an SMS passcode.
Offline Mode for Desktop Computers
On desktop, Gmail has an “Offline” mode that allows users to access their account and view specific content in the absence of a WiFi connection. Also, you can store up to 90 days of emails meaning you’ll have those accessible whenever needed.
Expanded Email Address Aliases
Gmail does some cool things with the way that it reads email addresses on your account. Effectively, this means that you can do all kinds of neat things like a drop or add full stops in your account or even add plus icons to expand the aliases of a regular old email.
For example, if you sign up for a service and desire to utilize a tailored email for it, you can include “+twitter” or “+instagram” to your current Gmail account and it should serve the purpose of classifying individual accounts.
This will show as gmail.user+twitter@gmail.com for illustration. This may help with searching for certain emails in an instant.
Furthermore, Gmail does not recognize full stops, so you can add many to your account and still receive messages, thus increasing the number of individual emails your account can have.
Have you tried these Gmail features? Tell us in the comments section below.
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