Let’s face it: Email is inherently a bit of a pain. And while Google’s Gmail service is generally pretty pleasant to use, it certainly has some room for improvement — especially on the mobile front.
But as is so often the case with Google products, what you see isn’t entirely what you get. The Gmail Android app has some super-useful hidden touches you’ve probably never noticed lurking beneath its surface — easily overlooked features that can make your mobile email experience more powerful, productive, and effective.
Here are 16 such options worth uncovering — or maybe just remembering.
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The Gmail Android app’s email composing screen seems like a pretty bare-bones affair, but long-press on any open space whilst writing a new email — and by golly, goodness goshness, look what you’ll find:
Tap that “Format” option, and how ’bout that? It’s a full slate of advanced text formatting commands for composing your message. You can style any part of your email with bold, italic, or underlined text; you can change your email’s font color or background color; and — an occasional life-saver for the clipboard-happy hyper-pasters among us — you can clear out all existing text formatting with a single tap.
Ever wish you had an easier way to snooze messages from your inbox — or maybe even just mark ’em as unread without having to do a complicated finger-tap dance? Prepare to be pleased.
Go open up the Gmail Android app’s settings (by tapping the three-line menu icon in the upper-left corner and scrolling down until you see the “Settings” option). Tap “General settings,” then select “Swipe actions.”
There, you can configure exactly what action is associated with swiping an email to the left and to the right from your inbox or from any other message list view. Set things up the way you want, then swipe away to your heart’s content (with the optional occasional cackle).
Speaking of secret swipes, if you’ve got more than one Google account connected to your phone — say, a work account and a personal account or maybe a work account and a confidential chinchilla-chatting account — make a mental note of this: You can switch between your accounts in the blink of an eye by swiping that furry little finger of yours up or down on the profile picture in the Gmail app’s upper-right corner.
While we’re on the subject of face-oriented actions, here’s another underappreciated Gmail Android gem to add into your productivity toolkit: While you’re viewing any email in your inbox, tap on the sender’s profile picture toward the upper-left corner of the screen.
That’ll pull up a tucked-away control panel that holds one-tap options for starting a new email to that person, scheduling a new calendar event with that person, firing up a new Google Chat conversation with that person (if they’re using a Google account), and calling that person (if you have their phone number stored in your phone’s contacts).
(Side note: That might be the most flattering image of me ever creeated.)
You can also add the person into your contacts directly via that panel by tapping the little person-plus icon in its upper-right corner — which’ll appear only if said person (and/or chinchilla) is not already in your contacts.
Let’s keep the contact-related goodness going, shall we? Betcha didn’t know you could press and hold a sender’s name whilst viewing an email in Gmail to unearth some handy hidden options.
