Gmail, Google's email: tips and tricks

Gmail is similar to many desktop software. We only use a small number of the options offered each day. It's packed with features that will make your life easier and increase your productivity, which can help free up your time for other things.

Nothing beats an example. If you run out of space (your Google account has 15 GB for free), you will be offered to buy it. Just type “a:attachment large:5M” into Google Mail search. You will then see all the mails containing attachments that you have saved on your external or internal hard drives.

This comprehensive guide will show you how to make your Gmail mailbox your best communication system.

We will offer you tools to increase productivity, secure exchanges, repair small errors, etc.

You'll also find some tips and tricks to help you manage your Gmail. You can use Gmail to get information. An app is also available. Thunderbird, an email program that lets you access your account, will let you do this.

Gmail: the numbers of Google's email

Gmail will soon celebrate its 15th anniversary. Google's free email service was launched on April 1, 2004. It was initially offered to invited people and had only 1 GB of storage space (compared to 15 today). According to the web giant, Gmail now has, 16 years later, more than 1,8 billion users worldwide. Many people have switched to Yahoo! or Hotmail (now Outlook). Mail to switch to the mail service provided by Google, also known for its search engine and Youtube.

The latter is often used to provide business email services. It is also possible to configure a domain name (NDD) on Gmail (for example firstname.lastname@monnomdedomaine.fr).

It is a webmail which is accessible via an Internet browser. It is possible to access your email account using an email client (Mozilla Thunderbird, for example). The software must be configured by you.

Messaging is also accessible on smartphones, and an Android application is available for all mobiles that have the little green robot. There is a synchronization of all my mails when I use Gmail on several devices.

Google Mail has a powerful anti-spam feature that filters out spam and unwanted items.

Inbox offers an alternative version which has been available since 2014. It offers a new interface, intelligent sorting and automatic sorting of emails.

An @gmail.com (or at) email address is created when you create a Gmail account. This address can then be used to connect to many Google services (Google app), such as Google Drive and Google Maps.

It is possible to have several addresses and group them together in a single electronic mailbox.

How to create a Gmail account?

The infographic above shows that Google's service is the market leader. If you don't have an account yet, you can create one in just a few steps.

The following steps will help you create a Gmail account.

1. Go to the following address: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp
2. Fill in the fields required for authentication. You must enter your first name, last name, desired username, and a password.creation-account-messaging-gmailcreation-account-messaging-gmail
3. Complete the account security questions. It is important to provide a valid recovery address.
   Create your Google accountCreate your Google account
4. Accept these terms and conditions

You can use your account after following these four steps to create a Gmail email address. This article will help you understand the service and use it optimally.

You can group multiple mailboxes together.

How does Gmail work?

The interface is simple and intuitive, even for those unfamiliar with it. You will find all your folders on the left side.

• Inbox: Folder where you receive new e-mails (received messages).
• Pending: Emails are being processed
• Sent items: The different emails sent via Gmail
• Email Drafts: In-progress emails that need to be completed
• Spam: Junk mail you have received.
• Trash: The various deletions made

Click on a folder to see all the mails it contains.

You can switch between your primary, social media, and promotions email using 3 tabs in the inbox.

You will find a search box at the top of this page that allows you to search for an email subject, email address or keyword.

You'll also find Google tools built into Gmail on the left side. The Agenda, Keep, and Tasks will be the most prominent. You can add additional modules.

Nothing is easier than creating a new email using your email address. It is at the top right that you will find the "New message" button.

How to delete messages from Gmail?

It's easy to delete messages from your inbox or another folder. Depending on your situation, you can follow the next steps.

Delete an e-mail

To delete identified mail:

1. Check the box to the left of your subject
2. Click the delete icon (trash can).

You can delete multiple emails from your Gmail mailbox by performing the same operation, making sure to check the appropriate boxes.

Attention ! Deleted emails will be moved to the trash. To delete them all, you will need to empty the Trash.

All emails in inbox and other folders should be deleted

To delete the entire inbox or another folder:

• Check the box to the right of the list of all messages.
• Click the delete icon (shaped like a trash can).

All emails in your Gmail account should be deleted.

You want to delete all emails, including archived, sent, and received. It's possible.

To do this, just click on the following link https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#all and repeat the removal steps above.

Tips and Tricks for Gmail

The search bar and its keywords

As we saw in the introduction, you can use a few keywords to search your Gmail inbox to find attachments and clean them up. Sometimes you are looking for an email but only have a few words, a title and a name.

So, type “blablabla” in the address bar. It will search all folders, including the trash, and limit the results to your inbox.

You can also add "in:trash" if you're sure you've sent the infamous "blah, blah, blah" mail to Gmail.

All search operators for Gmail can be found here. These keywords will greatly facilitate your search and make your life easier.

Can you unsend Gmail mail? Yes it's possible !

After a quick investigation in the cafeteria, it turned out that no one knows that Gmail allows undoing any mail. Ask your friends the same question. It's a good way to look good and make less money.

It is possible, and your mailbox is natively configured to allow cancellation of e-mails within 5 seconds of clicking "send".

The best part is that you can increase this delay to 30 seconds to undo an annoying email sent to the wrong recipient. How to do ?

To access your mailbox interface, click on the cog wheel in the upper right corner. Then go to the “Settings” section. You can change the duration of the option by clicking on the "General" tab.

Save your changes and send a test mail. You will see a message at the bottom of your Gmail window that allows you to cancel the email.

A preview pane can help boost your reading speed.

To organize your e-mails, to make them easier to sort (by using stars of different colors, for example), it can be tedious to open them one after the other. You can access "Settings" by clicking on the cog wheel located in the upper right corner of your Gmail window. This tab is located under “General”. Scroll through all the options until you reach "Preview pane". Click activate to save.

You will find a small icon in the upper right corner of your box. This icon is located next to the famous gear wheel. It allows you to activate or deactivate the "Preview pane" option. To preview, click on the message.

You can choose horizontal or vertical display by clicking on the small arrow below the icon. It's up to you which one you prefer.

With the same little icon, you can always go back to your email list format.

You can see at a glance the number of unread messages in your Gmail mailbox.

This little trick for Gmail allows those who prefer "0" unprocessed mail to see, at a glance, how many unread mails are in your inbox.

We go back to "Settings", then to "Advanced settings", and scroll through the options to "unread message icon".

After activating and saving, you will see the number of unread messages in the tab icon.

Connect to your Gmail mailbox remotely

Many of us forget to log out of our webmail when we leave the office, home, at a friend's house or even at work. It is possible to log out of Gmail remotely using a simple trick.

Click on "details" at the bottom of your inbox.

A new window opens. It displays all active sessions in your account. Just click on the link at the top left and select "Sign out from all other Gmail web sessions" to complete the process. Nothing's easier !

How to Make Space or Quickly Delete Posts by Category

This function is very useful because it allows you to store emails sent to social networks, such as promotional messages or forums, in a separate tab.

Just click on "configure inbox" using the cogwheel in the Gmail interface.

A pop-up window appears. It allows you to choose which tabs you want to activate. You can also see sample emails that match your real email. Once you have made your choice, click on “save”.

You will find the emails in each tab once you return to your inbox. Emails from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will be found under the "Social Media" tab. It will be easier to remove them.

To return to the initial display of your inbox, you will have to repeat the operation by deselecting all the categories.

This message will be deleted

Many surprises await us in the messaging system. This is all the more important as your eyes must have been distracted by numerous microscopic icons.

Did you notice the padlock and the clock in the “new message” window?

You can activate/deactivate confidential mode by hovering your mouse cursor over it.

A pop-up window opens when you click on it. To open your e-mail, you can now set an expiry date (1 day, 1 month, 3 or 5 years), and request a secret code (which will be sent to you by SMS).

This service is extremely useful when exchanging confidential data, contracts and other information. This process must be repeated for each email you wish to send confidentially. This option cannot be used for general purposes.

Gmail lets you schedule email

Google's online service allows you to schedule an email to be sent. It's easy to schedule emails in advance and let Gmail take care of the rest.

Click on the little arrow located just to the right of the send button, then click on “Schedule sending”.

The window will allow you to select the date and time your email should be sent.

This Gmail trick is very practical and eagerly awaited by Internet users.

You can enable an automatic reply in Gmail.

You can easily activate an automatic reply in Gmail You will ask yourself: why?

While most people use it as a personal inbox, others use it for work. It is possible to send a message, for example, about holidays. But how to do it ?

Here is the easiest way to do it. Click "Auto-reply on" in "Settings".

As you can see, after filling in the subject and content of your automatic reply, you can also choose not to send it to your contacts.

Allow keyboard shortcuts in Gmail mailbox

Google's mail system has many keyboard shortcuts. Some of these shortcuts only work if you check the "Enable keyboard shortcuts" box.

To do this, click on the toothed wheel, then go to “Settings”.

Gmail has many keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts allow you to navigate from one message to another, modify them, archive or delete received mails.

How not to forget your attachment?

It's true, it can be embarrassing to send an email discussing the importance of a document you forgot to attach. To avoid this embarrassing situation, and to be sure not to forget to include the mention of the attachment in your e-mail, it is preferable to send a new one! Shortly after clicking "Send", you will notice that the mention "attachment" is missing from the body of your message. This feature, called "forgotten attachments detector", will be available soon. It was introduced in September 2018.

Set up Gmail in an email app (like Thunderbird).

It is possible to view the Google service via a web browser. You can also use Gmail with a Thunderbird client or mobile app. How to configure it? This requires knowing the addresses of all the web giant's servers.

You have two options for receiving your emails: The POP3 protocol or the IMAP protocol.

• POP3 server: pop.gmail.com SSL on port 995
• IMAP server: imap.gmail.com SSL on port 993

Send this email:

• SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com with SSL on port 465

A misconfigured port will most likely cause a problem during setup. Be sure to populate all ports.

Your email address and password are required to log in.

How to Manage All Your Gmail Email Addresses

Did you know ? Gmail allows you to manage all your email addresses, whether they are Outlook, Yahoo or another platform.

It is possible to add POP or SMTP configurations of different email accounts. However, it has been easier to do so since 2016. Google has indeed integrated Gmailify into its service.

Gmailify makes it easy to link your external account to Gmail mail. You can also access all its options. It offers spam protection, automatic sorting, and searching, which is a huge improvement over a traditional setup.

Ok, but how do you add an Outlook or Yahoo email account to Gmail? Just go to settings, then click on "Accounts and import", then on "Add an email account".

Fill in your email address.

Next, select the “Link your account via Gmailify” option.

Your emails will be integrated into your Gmail mailbox. You will be able, when you create a new e-mail to the sender, to choose the address of your external accounts.

How to Use Gmail Email Templates

You may often send the same type of email. This can be for personal or professional reasons.

It can be very interesting to activate templates in Gmail. The following steps will help you do this:

1. Go to settings, then click on “See all settings”.
2. Go to the "Advanced Settings" section.
3. Activate Gmail templates, then validate.

To create a template, follow these steps:

1. Click on “New message”.
2. If the template is for a person or a group, fill in the recipient. Otherwise, leave the field blank.
3. Enter the subject of the message.
4. Enter the message type. If parts need to be completed later, please use xxxxx.
5. Click the three dots at the bottom of the screen, then click "Template" or "Save as Template." Finally, click on “Save a new template”.

To be able to use it later:

1. Click on “New message”.
2. Scroll down to the bottom menu (3 dots), then click on "Templates".
3. Select the model you want from the list.

You can do more with your Gmail mailbox

These Gmail tricks may not be enough for you. Here are some extensions that you can add to your favorite mailbox to add more functionality.

Timyo provides an estimate of response time

Timyo was created to help people who are overwhelmed by their emails know which messages to prioritize.

This way, the recipient will know exactly when to respond upon receipt. Even better, if the recipient has the extension, their Gmail mailbox will be sorted according to priority.

Checker Plus for Gmail shows notifications for every new email

This extension for Google Chrome allows you to display a notification at the bottom of your screen when you receive an email from Google's mailbox.

You can mark the email as read or delete it from this notification.

Unsubscribe from unsolicited newsletters or get your free Yout inbox

This extension will help you get rid of annoying emails and useless newsletters you receive.

It will automatically delete unwanted emails from your mailbox and file them in a “FreeYourInbox”.

Boomerang for Gmail lets you schedule emails to be sent and received automatically

You want to schedule an email to be delivered at a later date. It is not possible to schedule the delivery of an email at a later date if this functionality is not available in the application. Thanks to the Boomerang extension, it is possible.

After composing your email, you will see another option that will allow you to send it later. It is possible to set the desired date.

Alternatives to Gmail

You don't have to use Google's email service if it's the most popular in the world. If you don't want to use Outlook or Yahoo!, you can also look for an alternative. mail, you can go to ik.me.

Infomaniak, a Swiss company, launched this messaging service. It is free for life but respects privacy. It is secure, ad-free and eco-friendly.

The Gmail alternative offers 20 G0 of storage, 3 Gb on kDrive, the kMeet video service and access to Swiss Transfer to securely send up to 50 Gb of data.

However, ik.me messaging has some limitations. You can only send 100 emails per day and you can only have 10 unique recipients per email. These limits are not too restrictive for most people.

ProtonMail offers another very secure and data-friendly option. It only offers 500MB of storage in its free version.