15 things that Google didn't tell you.

By: SEYI The Motivator

Filed Under: Motivations

Gmail: 15 Things That Google Didn't Tell You

May 15, 2020

Gmail has worked its way into the hearts of email users all around the world, and why shouldn’t it? Designed by the geniuses over at Google, Gmail has provided us with the easiest, most condensed, and most helpful platform to receive our necessary electronic communications. However, even some of the most loyal Gmail users aren’t fully aware of everything that the program has to offer. To find out what your missing out on, check out our list! Don’t forget to check back soon, for the reveal of our part two article with the top eight things you didn’t know about Gmail!

15.

The Dots Mean Nothing. The periods in your email address mean absolutely nothing. For example, you could send your emails to jane.doe@gmail.com or janedoe@gmail.com, and they will still arrive at the same location. Weird, huh?

14.

You Can Put Your Accounts to Sleep. Gmail offers a cool app called Boomerang which allows you to set up emails to return to your inbox at your discretion. With this feature, you can choose to have an email pop up in an hour, a day, or even at a chosen time.

13.

The Cool Tracking Feature. If you sign up for a lot of account emails from various sites (and who doesn’t these days), this feature may be useful to you. When signing up to site accounts, try adding a “+” symbol anywhere in your email address; you will still receive all your emails, and the platform will organize them for you! For example, for shopping sites, you could use jane+doe@gmail.com (as opposed to janedoe@gmail.com) and your inbox will separate these emails. By adding the symbol in other areas, you could create multiple folders based on their source. This can also be useful in narrowing down options for who is spreading your email address.

12.

You Could Set Up Notifications. If you get a lot of important emails that require attention as soon as possible, you might need to start using the platform’s notification feature. Turn on chat or mail notifications in your settings under “Desktop Notifications”, and every time you receive an email labeled as important it will pop up on your screen no matter what you are doing!

11.

Delete Everything with One Click. Spring cleaning is approaching soon, and you shouldn’t neglect your electronic life. It can be tedious going page-by-page to delete only 25 or 50 emails at a time, so Gmail allows you to delete every email in your inbox, if desired. Just click on the little part of the page that tells you how many emails you see per page, and an option to (show more messages) will appear. Click that and select (All), and delete as normal in one easy click.

10.

Take Back the Mistakes. We have all had the gut-sinking feeling of terror after sending an email that simply wasn’t what you had wanted to say. It is commonly believed that these emails are gone forever once sent, but there is actually a way to reel them back in. Simply go into the Labs tab in your settings, and find the “Undo Send” one. Choose “Enable”, and you’ll have a few extra moments to get those emails back!

9.

There is More Than Just One Star. If you are a busy emailer, the “star” option has become your best friend. Although, did you know there is more than one star? Stars come in six different colors, and even an array of other symbols, to help you sort your mail. You can use whichever is your favorite for all of your starred emails, or you can create separate folders for each symbol to further organize your emails.

8.

Can Your Emails. As one of the better features offered in Gmail Labs, you now have the option to “can” your responses. Canned responses simply give you the option to save your response to a certain email for future use. This is quite helpful if you find yourself often typing out the same messages to multiple recipients. As you compose emails, the options bar at the bottom right will now allow you to save or use canned responses.

7.

Get Read Receipts. We’ve all faced the struggles of ignored emails and eagerly awaiting particular replies, and now you can put your mind at ease. Though not many people know about this, you could be receiving read receipts to see when your emails have been opened. Many extensions offer services like this, including Bananatag Email Tracking, Sidekick, and Intelliverse Email Tracker.

6.

Make a To-Do List. It can be extremely tiresome to keep tabs on your digital life from multiple devices, which is why it can be helpful to create inbox to-do lists for every aspect of your life. Remember The Milk is a service that simply adds a to-do checklist to the right side of your email platform. You can make lists for your personal life, work, and even turn messages into tasks. If you’d like, you can even import these lists to your calendar and contacts. For even more helpful features for to-do lists, try Todoist for Gmail.

5.

Keep Track of Your Calendar. To further consolidate your electronic life, the services also offers a handy little calendar. You can manually enter all your important dates and reminders you might normally have on your phone or on paper, and Gmail will remind you of your plans. Why have your schedules and daily actions spread across multiple locations, when you could put it all in the same place?

4.

Connect Your Accounts. Google’s email service is especially helpful in organizing multiple email accounts. They make it possible to connect each of your email accounts, making it simple to have separate accounts for work, personal, shopping, etc. There is also a way to alter your settings to see new emails from all, or some, of these accounts simultaneously.

3.

Get Reminded with a Text. There are many programs available that offer to notify you at your discretion. AlwaysFind is one of the top options, although this service requires a fee; there are free substitutes with the same features. All you have to do is denote important emails, say, from a specific sender, and the program will text you when your inbox receives an email from this person.

2.

Search Apps. This feature is most useful for users who take advantage of other Gmail apps, such as Google Docs or Google Sites. Using these apps can be extremely helpful in consolidating your digital life, but are often timely to get to. To simplify the process, a feature called “Apps Search” is available in the Labs. From just altering a few settings in this feature, you could include app results (or any Google feature) in every search you make in your inbox.

1.

Just Archive It. Possibly the most obnoxious and inevitable aspect of email is an inbox full of read emails that one day require too much effort to go through and clean. I mean, you could always just delete it after reading, but if you need to check back on it later it is already dead and gone. If you just lead it, it just exasperates the issue of a cluttered inbox. So how do you get around this? Just archive it. It is possible to alter the settings in Gmail so that a read message just goes straight to the archives. Simply go to General Settings, and scroll down to “Send & Archive”; mark the option for the button to appear, and you can easily send a message to the archives after you have read it. Hope you enjoyed our list about the top 15 things you didn’t know about Gmail!