Become a Gmail professional with these 10 tools and tips

Even now that apps like Zoom and Slack have taken over, email is still a huge part of our work and home life. And chances are that at least one of your email accounts is running through Gmail, and that has more than 1

.5 billion users

While you probably know the basics of Gmail, there are lots of features and tricks you may have missed can help streamline your digital life. (There are also third-party apps, such as Kiwi for Gmail, which brings multiple accounts together in one app.)

Here are 10 tools that can help you work smarter – not harder – in Gmail.

Synchronize with calendar

If I don’t put an appointment in my Gmail calendar, I won’t remember it. Even if you usually paste an upcoming event or reminder into your Google account on your phone, those events will automatically sync with your Gmail calendar across devices. You can find your Gmail calendar on the desktop by clicking the Google apps waffle icon and choose CalendarOr you can download the Google Calendar app for your iOS or Android device; your Android phone may have these by default.

Access to multiple accounts at the same time

If you have more than one active Gmail account, you can switch between them effortlessly. Just click on your profile icon in the top right corner (mobile or desktop) and choose Add another accountFrom there, just log in and you can access it when you click on your profile icon in the future. If you don’t open one of the accounts often enough, you will be logged out.

Set filters

With so many websites asking for your email address these days, your inbox can start to look like the Wild West. You may also just want to organize emails better and prioritize those of certain people. This is where filters come in handy. To set up a filter, open Gmail, click the settings cog and choose See all settingsFrom there click Filters and blocked addresses> Create a new filter

You can customize your filter to organize emails by sender, recipient, subject, keywords and more. When you’re up to your specifications, click Create a filter

Set a signature

Setting up a signature in Gmail can save you one step of composing a message and make your email look more professional. Open to set a signature for all outgoing messages Gmail> Gear settings> View all settingsFrom there, scroll down until you see Signature and click Create New. Any signatures you have created will be visible in the settings where you can edit or delete them at any time.

Undo a sent message

If you’re anything like me, you’ve guessed yourself a second time after hitting the send button. Luckily, Gmail has a grace feature called Undo Send. Immediately after clicking Send, a message will appear at the bottom of the screen that the message has been sent, but there is also the option to undo or view the message. If you click Undo, Gmail will stop sending the message. You can also change how long to cancel a message. To install Undo Send, go to Settings> See all settings and scroll down to Undo sendingFrom there, you can set a send cancellation window of five, 10, 20, or 30 seconds.

Send plan

Scheduling a message is useful if you have colleagues or friends in different time zones and don’t want to risk bothering them with an email notification at odd hours. To schedule a message, just type what you want to say and instead of clicking Send, click the down arrow. Gmail will suggest some possible times, but you can also manually enter a specific send time.

Set up smart

Gmail’s Smart Compose works like predictive text and aims to streamline your writing process. For example, while typing “I’ll call”, Google Smart Compose suggests “tomorrow.” Simply press the tab to accept the suggestion or keep typing. If you’re not a fan of Smart Compose, you can turn it off in Settings.

Spell checker

Gmail’s spell check tool can take some of the stress out of sending important emails. The spell checker can help with words you are actually unsure of and simple hiccups caused by typing too fast. And Gmail will keep the word underlined when it changes, so you can choose to undo it if it’s not a change you want to make. In addition, Gmail also has grammar and auto-correct features. Everything can be turned on or off Settings > Spell check.

Mute conversations

We are all stuck in an email group that doesn’t seem to calm down. If so, just open the annoying email, click the three-dot settings icon just above the email’s subject line and choose Mute from the drop-down menu. As with Undo Send, you have the option to unmute if you accidentally clicked.

Labels

Labels can make your inbox much more manageable. They are similar to filters (and you can set a filter to send an email to specific labels). Labels are located in the sidebar where you will find Inbox, Sent, Junk and other folders. Scroll down with one click Create a new labelFrom there you can name both your label and group labels. For example, if you’re organizing for school, the main label could be Biology Lesson and you could group labels across class projects and assignments.

For more information, go to Gmail and Other Android Apps Crashing on Phones: Here’s Google’s Easy Fix and our list of the best android phones to buy for 2021