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Today, most inboxes contain thousands of emails with hundreds more being received every day, adding to the overwhelming amount of information at your fingertips. Some of the emails are quite important and require your immediate attention, while others are simply informational and can be attended to later. And of course, there are at least some messages that are outright irrelevant and can be ignored.
To solve this problem, Gmail includes a flexible feature called Gmail labels.
Labels offer effective ways to better organize and control all incoming email, helping you get rid of the things you don’t need, clearly labeling and categorizing emails you may need to access later, and displaying the handful of emails that truly need your attention.
What are labels in Gmail?
Gmail labels can be thought of as tags attached to the email. Individual messages can have multiple labels applied to them, indicating for example, the category of information in the email and its urgency. An email with labels, "Pay Bill," and “High Priority” will immediately indicate its nature and importance. Labels can be created based on any criteria and topics of your choosing, allowing for clear and flexible categorization of information in your inbox.
How to customize labels in your Gmail inbox
When creating labels, color selection can be used to add visual cues and to color code your labels, making them easier to identify and differentiate at a glance. Both colors and labels themselves can be updated, added, and even merged at any time.
Nesting your labels allows arranging them in a visually structured way. Parent labels can have one or more related labels nested underneath them. This nesting capability ensures a more granular organization of your emails, making it easier to locate specific messages within broader categories.
All labels used in your inbox will be listed in the sidebar or within the email interface. This will allow you to simply click on a label within the Gmail interface and view all emails associated with it.
To further customize your inbox, Gmail enables you to create a separate inbox based on a label, adding even more organization for your incoming and outgoing emails. This method can be used to create a zero inbox, where all or most of your emails are processed and addressed, leaving your inbox empty or nearly empty.
Increase efficiency with Gmail search
When Gmail labels are applied to emails, label information gets added to the email metadata, which creates more parameters that will be used when searching for emails. Gmail allows you to combine multiple labels in your search queries, making it especially useful when you want to retrieve all emails related to a particular topic or project, regardless of their location within your inbox or other labels. Additionally, you can combine label-based searches with other search operators in Gmail to further refine your search.
Boost productivity with filters and automation
Lastly, Gmail filters offer a simple way to automatically apply labels and organize your inbox. Filters are rules that can be set up in Gmail to automatically perform actions on incoming emails. These actions can include applying labels, archiving, forwarding, deleting, marking as read, and more. By creating filters, you can automate label assignment and ensure that certain types of emails are organized for you, leaving your inbox streamlined and free of unnecessary distractions.
How to create a filter in Gmail
You can manage your incoming mail using Gmail’s filters to send email to a label, or archive, delete, star, or automatically forward your mail.
- Open Gmail.
- In the search box at the top, click Show search options.
- Enter your search criteria. If you want to check that your search worked correctly, see what emails show up by clicking Search.
- At the bottom of the search window, click Create filter.
- Choose what you’d like the filter to do.
- Click Create filter.
Note: When you create a filter to forward messages, only new messages will be affected. Additionally, when someone replies to a message you've filtered, the reply will only be filtered if it meets the same search criteria.
Explore additional resources
- Create and manage labels to organize Gmail
- Organize and find emails
- Create rules to filter your emails
- Advanced Gmail filters for work or school
- Tips to manage important or sensitive emails
- Manage unwanted messages in Gmail
Are you taking advantage of Gmail labels and filters today? Have questions or found this helpful? Please let us know in the comments!