10 Powerful Gmail Tips (That Most Users Don’t Know)

Introduction

Gmail is one of the most widely used email plat­forms, cel­eb­rated for its user-friendly inter­face and seam­less integ­ra­tion with the Google eco­sys­tem. While many of us are famil­i­ar with its basic fea­tures, Gmail also offers a host of power­ful fea­tures and tools that saves time, improves pro­ductiv­ity and enhances email man­age­ment. We have pro­duced this art­icle to share 10 impact­ful Gmail tips on these fea­tures, com­par­ing them with the Out­look equi­val­ents where rel­ev­ant, and include step-by-step instruc­tions to help you make the most of these fea­tures.

1. Schedule Emails to Send Later

Schedul­ing emails allows you to com­pose a mes­sage now and send it later, per­fect for reach­ing people in dif­fer­ent time zones or send­ing timely remind­ers.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Lets you sched­ule emails with just a few clicks.
• Out­look: Offers a sim­il­ar “Delay Deliv­ery” fea­ture, but it’s less intu­it­ive to access, espe­cially in the desktop app.

How to Sched­ule Emails in Gmail:

1. Com­pose a new email.
2. Click the drop­down arrow next to “Send.”
3. Select “Sched­ule send.”
4. Choose a sug­ges­ted time or click “Pick date & time” to set your pre­ferred time.

2. Use Google Tasks for Email-to-Task Conversion

Turn­ing emails into tasks lets you organ­ize and pri­or­it­ize import­ant mes­sages without los­ing them in your inbox.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Integ­rates dir­ectly with Google Tasks, allow­ing easy cre­ation of linked tasks.
• Out­look: Uses flag­ging or tasks, but Gmail’s side­bar for tasks offers a more seam­less exper­i­ence.

How to Use Google Tasks in Gmail:

1. Open an email.
2. Click the “Add to Tasks” icon (a check­mark with a “+”).
3. In the side­bar, edit the task title, add details, or set dead­lines.

3. Dynamic Email for Interactive Messages

Dynam­ic email enables you to inter­act with con­tent dir­ectly in the email, such as respond­ing to Google Docs com­ments or RSVPing to events.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Provides smooth integ­ra­tion with Google Work­space apps for real-time inter­activ­ity.
• Out­look: Sup­ports action­able mes­sages, but Gmail’s dynam­ic email is bet­ter integ­rated into work­flows.

How to Use Dynam­ic Email in Gmail:

1. Go to “Set­tings” > “See all set­tings” > “Dynam­ic email.”
2. Ensure it’s enabled.
3. Inter­act with sup­por­ted mes­sages (e.g., click to RSVP or respond to a com­ment) without leav­ing Gmail.

4. Custom Email Filters and Labels

Fil­ters and labels help you auto­mat­ic­ally organ­ize your inbox by apply­ing tags or actions to emails that meet spe­cif­ic cri­ter­ia.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Offers flex­ible labels that func­tion like tags, allow­ing emails to appear in mul­tiple cat­egor­ies.
• Out­look: Provides folders and rules, but Gmail’s labels are more ver­sat­ile.

How to Cre­ate Cus­tom Fil­ters in Gmail:

1. Click the gear icon and select “See all set­tings.”
2. Go to the “Fil­ters and Blocked Addresses” tab.
3. Click “Cre­ate a new fil­ter.”
4. Define cri­ter­ia (e.g., sender, keywords) and select actions like apply­ing labels or for­ward­ing.

5. Undo Send

Undo Send lets you recall an email after you’ve sent it, pre­vent­ing embar­rass­ing mis­takes or wrong recip­i­ents.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Provides an intu­it­ive “Undo Send” fea­ture con­fig­ur­able for up to 30 seconds.
• Out­look: Offers a sim­il­ar option, but only in Office 365 and with less cus­tom­iz­a­tion.

How to Undo a Sent Email in Gmail:

1. Go to “Set­tings” > “See all set­tings.”
2. Under “Gen­er­al,” con­fig­ure the “Undo Send” can­cel­la­tion peri­od.
3. After send­ing an email, click “Undo” in the noti­fic­a­tion bar at the bot­tom.

6. Confidential Mode

Con­fid­en­tial mode helps pro­tect sens­it­ive emails by adding

• expir­a­tion dates,
• passcodes,
• and restric­tions on copy­ing, for­ward­ing, or down­load­ing con­tent.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Offers a user-friendly con­fid­en­tial mode with robust fea­tures.
• Out­look: Provides encryp­tion, but setup is com­plex and often requires Office 365.

How to Use Con­fid­en­tial Mode in Gmail:

1. Com­pose an email.
2. Click the lock-and-clock icon at the bot­tom — see fig­ure below.
3. Set an expir­a­tion date and passcode if needed.
4. Click “Save” and send the email as usu­al.

7. Search Operators

Search oper­at­ors allow you to quickly loc­ate emails by apply­ing advanced fil­ters such as sender, date, or keywords.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Sup­ports a broad range of search oper­at­ors for pre­cise res­ults.
• Out­look: Has fil­ters but lacks Gmail’s depth of oper­at­or func­tion­al­ity.

How to Use Gmail’s Search Oper­at­ors:

1. In the search bar, use com­mands like:
   • from:[email protected] to find emails from a spe­cif­ic sender.
   • older_than:1y to loc­ate emails older than a year.
2. Press “Enter” to see filtered res­ults.

See a list of Search Oper­at­ors with examples here >

8. Smart Compose and Autocomplete

Smart Com­pose uses AI to pre­dict and com­plete your sen­tences as you type, sav­ing time and effort.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Offers a highly intu­it­ive Smart Com­pose fea­ture.
• Out­look: Includes text pre­dic­tions, but Gmail’s ver­sion is more advanced and adapt­able.

How to Use Smart Com­pose in Gmail:

1. Go to “Set­tings” > “See all set­tings.”
2. Under “Gen­er­al,” enable “Smart Com­pose” and “Smart Com­pose per­son­al­iz­a­tion.”
3. While typ­ing, press “Tab” to accept sug­ges­tions.

9. Multiple Inboxes

Mul­tiple Inboxes allow you to organ­ize your emails into mul­tiple sec­tions, such as starred, unread, or from spe­cif­ic senders.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Offers cus­tom­iz­able mul­tiple inboxes for side-by-side view­ing.
• Out­look: Provides focused inboxes but lacks the flex­ib­il­ity of Gmail’s mul­tiple inbox setup.

How to Enable Mul­tiple Inboxes in Gmail:

1. Click the gear icon and select “See all set­tings.”
2. Go to the “Inbox” tab and select “Mul­tiple inboxes” under “Inbox type.”
3. Con­fig­ure cus­tom sec­tions (e.g., starred, unread emails) and save changes.

10. Email Delegation

Email del­eg­a­tion allows you to grant someone access to your inbox to man­age your emails on your behalf without shar­ing your pass­word.

Gmail vs. Out­look:

• Gmail: Makes del­eg­a­tion simple and secure.
• Out­look: Also sup­ports del­eg­a­tion but requires more setup and is lim­ited to cer­tain accounts.

How to Set Up Email Del­eg­a­tion in Gmail:

1. Go to “Set­tings” > “See all set­tings.”
2. Nav­ig­ate to “Accounts and Import.”
3. Under “Grant access to your account,” click “Add anoth­er account.”
4. Enter the delegate’s email address and fol­low the prompts.

By mas­ter­ing these power­ful Gmail fea­tures and under­stand­ing how they com­pare to Out­look, you can super­charge your email man­age­ment and pro­ductiv­ity!