18 Gmail Settings You’ll Need to Use Your Email

How often do you check your Gmail settings? Most likely, you went into them only a couple of times, or maybe you never did it. But in vain.

In this article, we will tell you about Gmail features that will save you time when working with mail and increase productivity. 

Read Also: View location history on Google Maps : track the location of an Android phone through Google.

Email Preview 

Want to see the contents of emails without opening them? Turn on the preview feature. 

For this:

1. Go to “Settings” (gear icon), select “All settings”;
2. Open the Inbox tab. In the “View area” section, check the “Enable reading pane” box. 
3. Set the desired setting and save the changes. 

Privacy mode 

Using the confidentiality mode, the user can protect information in letters from unauthorized access. For additional security, you can set up an access code for the letter. You cannot download, forward, copy or print a confidential letter. 

To enable privacy mode, click on the “Enable confidential mode” icon in the message creation window. 

In the window that appears, you can set the period of access to the letter and enable the request for an access code via SMS. 

Automatic mail grouping 

Gmail has a useful feature for those whose inbox is littered with emails. Users can create automatic rules to sort emails into folders. You can redirect mailing lists, letters from specific senders, or messages on specific topics to separate folders. 

To set up automatic sorting of emails into folders: 

1. Open the letter. 
2. Click the More icon (three dots) on the toolbar to bring up the menu. 
3. Select “Filter Emails (Messages) like this”.
4. Set the rules by which you want to group messages. 

You can group emails from a specific sender or emails on a specific topic. In addition, you can sort out emails that contain the specified keywords or, conversely, do not contain them. 

After specifying the conditions, you need to click on the “Create filter” button. 

Then select the desired items and click on the “Create Filter” button again. 

Note : in order for letters that meet the specified conditions to be sent to a separate folder, you must select the “Apply shortcut” item and check the “Skip inbox” checkbox. Then these emails will not appear in the main inbox. 

Google Meet 

Video conferencing service Google Meet is fully integrated with Gmail. Users can set up video meetings and join calls right in the mail. To do this, select “New meeting” in the sidebar. 

We will not dwell on all the nuances of working with Google Meet in Gmail. Detailed instructions can be found  here . 

Create a contact group 

Users who often send letters to a specific group of people (for example, to the entire department of the company) can create a contact group and enter only the name of the group in the “To” field in the future. In such cases, you do not have to register the email address of each recipient. 

To create a contact group in Gmail, you need to: 

1. Click on the Google apps icon and select “Contacts”. 
2. Click on the item “Who do you often communicate with” and select the users you want to include in a particular group. 
3. Select a shortcut icon to create a shortcut. 
4. Give the group a name and save the changes. 

Working with mail offline 

If your internet is intermittent or not working at all, you can use Gmail offline. The function allows you to enter the mail and read letters without access to the Internet. 

Important point : the function is only available in the Chrome browser on a computer. 

How to enable Gmail offline: 

1. Go to “Settings” and select “All settings”. 
2. Select the Offline tab. 
3. Check the box next to “Enable offline access to mail.” 
4. Save your changes. 

Shortcuts 

You can speed up your Gmail experience by using keyboard shortcuts. The service has already been configured by default with keyboard shortcuts to navigate through mail sections, send letters, and format text. In addition, users can independently set keyboard shortcuts for different actions. You can do this in the “Settings” in the “All settings” section, the “Shortcut keys” item. 

You can read more about the function  in Help . 

Cancel sending email 

If you clicked on “Send” but remembered that you didn’t finish the letter, or found that you were sending it to the wrong person, use the undo function. With its help, you can cancel the sending of the letter, edit the message or delete it. 

To activate the function, go to “Settings” – “All settings” – “General” tab – “Cancel sending” item. Set the period of time during which the sending of the letter can be canceled: 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 or 30 seconds. 

Save your changes. 

Letter Template 

With this function, you can create a letter template and use it for messages that contain information that is often repeated. 

How to activate the feature: 

1. Go to “Settings” – “All settings”. 
2. Click on the “Advanced” tab. 
3. In the “Templates” section, select the “Enable” option. 
4. Save changes. 

To create, use or delete a template, you need to select the “More” option when writing a letter, and click on the “Templates” item in the menu that opens. 

Shipment Schedule

Sometimes you need to send letters at a strictly defined time. With one of the features of Gmail, you can schedule emails. 

How to do it: After you’ve finished writing your email, click the arrow next to the Send button, select Schedule Send, and then enter your desired date and time. 

Removing formatting 

When you copy text and paste it into an email, the formatting may be broken. As a result, extra elements appear in the text and the design changes. 

The next time this happens, select the desired fragment and click on the “Clear Formatting” button. It is located on the toolbar in the message creation window. 

Translation of incoming Email

Google Mail is convenient in that it allows you to translate emails written in other languages ​​through Google Translate directly into Gmail. To do this, go to the letter, click on the “More” icon and select the “Translate message” item. 

Deleting large emails 

Google provides the user with only 15 GB of data storage for free. Storage is used by three services: Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. 

To free up space, you can delete junk files by selecting the largest emails. To do this, type larger:10m in the Gmail search bar . The mail service will show all messages larger than 10 MB. By the way, you can specify the numerical value in the command yourself. 

Note : You can check how much space you’ve already taken up in Google’s free storage here. 

Ignoring messages 

New email notifications can be annoying. To avoid being distracted by annoying messages, Gmail has an ignore feature. With its help, the user can hide a chain of letters from individual recipients. All replies from a particular thread will no longer appear in your inbox. If messages become important again, they can be returned from ignore. 

To enable the function of ignoring messages, you need to select letters, click on the “More” icon in the top panel and select “Ignore” from the menu that opens. 

To return ignored messages from the archive, type is:muted in the Gmail search bar . Google will show all ignored emails. Check the box next to the email you want and click Move to Inbox. 

Forwarding a letter as a file 

Any email can be sent as an attachment, that is, as an attached file. How to do it: 

1. Select the desired letter or letters. 
2. Click on the “More” icon and select “Forward as Attachment”. 
3. Write a letter, specify recipients, send a message. 

Note : Gmail allows you to attach an unlimited number of emails, but if the file size exceeds 25 MB, the attachment will appear as a Google Drive link. 

Priority mail folder 

Gmail users can sort their incoming emails by importance. To do this, you need to enable the “Priority” view. After enabling the function, all messages will be distributed into three sections: “Important and unread”, “Starred” and “Other”. 

How to enable sorting: 

1. In the upper right corner, click on “Settings” (gear icon) and select “All settings”. 
2. Open the “Inbox” tab. 
3. Select “Priority” in the “Inbox type” item. 

Signature 

In Gmail, users can set up a signature – text that will automatically be added at the end of each letter. You can include your contact details or other information there. 

To add a signature, go to “Settings” – “All settings”. In the “General” tab, find the item “Signature” and add text. Save your changes. 

Note : Users have the option to add multiple signature options. You can select the desired signature in the process of creating a new letter by clicking on the pen-shaped icon in the bottom panel. 

Auto answer 

If the user is going on vacation or just wants to give himself a digital detox, giving up the Internet for a while, you can set up an autoresponder. Senders of letters in this case will receive a response that the person is temporarily unavailable. 

How to set up automatic reply in Gmail: 

1. Go to “Settings” – “All settings”. 
2. In the “General” tab, find the item “Autoresponder”.
3. Select “Enable auto-responder”, specify the period of validity, enter the text of the message. 
4. Save your changes. 

What features of Gmail do you use? Share in the comments. 

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