Several years ago, Google launched an email experiment called Inbox by Gmail. It was a fantastic email service and for those who did not use it, basically it was a smarter version of Gmail where it would be smart enough to detect the contents of your emails and label it and categorize it accordingly.
For example, if you receive emails from Amazon or PayPal, Gmail would assume that you’ve done some shopping and would create a category that these emails would go into. It would also be smart enough to detect emails from hotels, airline companies, and so on and sort those into a travel category.
Unfortunately, that experiment has since concluded and Google has shut Inbox by Gmail down. If you do miss some of that smarts or if you’re looking for a better way to regain control of your inbox, then Gmail’s Labels are probably the next best thing.
How To Add Labels In Gmail
- Click the gear icon at the top right corner of Gmail
- Click See all settings
- Click the Labels tab
- Click the Create new label button
- Enter the name of the label you want to create and click Create
How To Delete Labels In Gmail
- Click the gear icon at the top right corner of Gmail
- Click See all settings
- Click the Labels tab
- Look for the label you want to delete and click Remove
- Click Delete when the confirmation window appears
How To Add Labels To Emails
Now that you’ve created a label, you can start tagging emails with that label. What this means is that when you click on the label on the navigation bar on the left of your screen, it will show you all emails that have been tagged with that email. This is a good way for you to sort your emails where you can create labels for family, friends, work, and so on.
- In your inbox, right click the email you want to apply the label to
- Go to Label as
- Select the label (or labels) you want to apply
How To Automatically Add Labels To Emails
Applying labels manually to existing emails or emails as they come in can be a bit inefficient and tiresome, plus you might forget to do so and miss out on some emails. This is where using a combination of filters and labels can truly take your Gmail experience to the next level.
- Click the downwards pointing arrow in the search bar at the top of Gmail
- Enter the email addresses or the names of the people or companies you want to apply this label to
- Click Create filter
- Click Apply the label and choose the label you want
- Click the “Also apply filter to matching conversations” box
- Click Create filter