Gmail brings Google’s powerful search capabilities together with email, providing an intuitive way to locate important messages within your inbox. However, there are also plenty of lesser-known features which make using Gmail even more efficient.
Gmail makes life easy by suggesting canned responses when messages like, “Monday works for me.” Additionally, you can set Gmail to automatically delete emails after a set period–perfect for keeping confidential data out of the wrong hands.
Search
Gmail’s search bar lets you enter any word or phrase and instantly returns results. As you type, Gmail offers suggestions based on what it thinks your search may be about – but for more specific searches there are search operators you can use to filter emails more precisely.
The “from” search operator searches messages whose recipients match those entered in the search bar, whether their first or last names, email addresses or both; you can even add additional filters so as to find any messages with attachments.
To narrow your timeframe of search, use date search operators. Enter “before:” followed by any date format you prefer (e.g. “before:YYYY/MM/DD” will return messages sent prior to March 29th 2021).
Use the “subject:” search command to quickly and effectively find messages with specific topics, such as status updates from your project. Your search will include any message with that keyword in its subject field; you can further narrow it down by including an exclamation mark or an underscore after it.
“in:” search operator will show all starred messages you have personally marked as important, not only those which Gmail considers essential. Additionally, with “category:”, you can specify either before:dmy to see only messages prior to that date or “newer_than:dmy” for any newer messages that have come in since a specific date.
Smart Reply
Gmail is always striving to make users more productive, and with the Smart Reply feature Google has further extended this trend. This feature allows you to respond instantly with one-click responses like “Yes,” “Thanks” and “No thanks,” depending on the content of an email message.
The tool, first used by Inbox by Gmail and later Allo messaging app, utilizes machine learning to provide contextually relevant reply options. A “Deep Neural Network” generates short, three or four word responses which go beyond what can be accomplished using traditional rules-based programming alone; additionally it takes into account each person’s writing style and voice for personalized replies.
Smart Reply has now made its way into Gmail desktop and mobile apps, but was previously only accessible via its web interface. One possible explanation may be that Google views Smart Reply as more of a system-level feature rather than something individual apps need to implement (similar to RCS texting).
If you want to try Gmail’s Smart Reply feature, just open an email and click on its suggested response at the bottom. Alternatively, to disable it you can go into Settings and uncheck that option.
Gmail API requires that you supply conversation transcript data in a bucket to use Smart Reply effectively, creating and deploying a ConversationModel with its associated Conversation dataset ID included as metadata. You also have the option of customizing Smart Compose with your writing style and voice by selecting “On”. This feature demonstrates Google’s “AI first” strategy slowly penetrating into more areas of its products while we still remain far away from Skynet.
Smart Compose
Google is unveiling a new feature in Gmail called Smart Compose that will automate email responses based on past correspondences, understanding your typical writing style and common word sequences to predict what you may type next. Google believes this new tool will increase productivity while saving users valuable time each day.
To enable Smart Compose in Gmail, navigate to your Settings menu. From there, click “See All Settings,” scroll down until you reach General tab and check “Enable Smart Compose.” And that should do it!
As you compose an email, any suggested text will appear in light gray. To accept or decline it, press the Tab key; alternatively you can click the X in the corner of any suggested text to reject it.
Smart Compose makes creating draft emails easy with its single tap capability and you can send out messages quickly to multiple recipients simultaneously. Furthermore, its Send Later feature enables you to schedule delivery at later time slots.
Gmail is a free web-based email service that enables you to exchange messages with individuals or groups. It serves both personal and professional communication needs. Gmail’s advanced features allow you to organize conversations into threads for easier browsing, while instant chat functions allow instantaneous communication with others. Businesses reliant on email for their business processes will find Gmail highly efficient; its customer support team are available round-the-clock should they encounter any difficulties.
Snooze
Gmail makes it easier to keep up with incoming email with Snooze’s feature of temporarily saving messages until a time that suits you, making Snooze an effective tool to manage email overload, particularly if it comes in the form of newsletters or non-urgent communications.
Gmail makes it easy to snooze messages both on the website and mobile app. Just select an email that needs snoozing and tap its clock icon at the right-hand side; from here, a menu with options such as tomorrow, this weekend or next week will appear – plus there’s even one that lets you choose a date/time for when you want the message back again!
Once you set a time, an email will temporarily leave your Inbox until it reappears at your chosen time. It will also appear in your Snoozed folder which can be found directly under Inbox; and can even be searched via PC and mobile phone.
Snooze can be an ideal tool to set a reminder to look back at an email later, giving you time to return later when your schedule allows it. Snooze also serves as an invaluable way of reviewing and editing an email before it goes out, saving yourself from potentially missing an important message or task deadlines.
Undo Send
Gmail’s Undo Send feature gives you a window of time after clicking send to recall any emails already sent, once limited only to Labs users but now open to all desktop and mobile users of its app.
To use Undo Send, log into Gmail and open your Inbox. Select the +Compose button in the upper-left corner (or main menu if using classic Gmail). Type your recipient’s email address into the “To” field, provide them a subject text box, then press the blue “Send” button.
Once you click “Send,” a popup message will appear at the bottom of your screen offering options to undo and view. Your amount of time available to cancel depends on your time delay settings – normally five seconds but can be increased up to 30.
When recalling an email, its status will remain in your Outbox until its cancellation period has elapsed; after which it will be moved to Drafts folder for later.
Before sending any email, it’s a wise practice to proofread it thoroughly for mistakes before hitting Send. Tools such as Grammarly can assist in this regard; but even with these apps it’s advisable to take an additional moment or two to double-check names and important details before hitting Send; correcting mistakes early will save time in fixing later stages.
