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As your Gmail inbox becomes more cluttered, you may wish for an easier way to navigate through your email messages. Good news, Google just launched a new tool to help you deal with emails faster and easier.
Google has been busy rolling out a new feature for Gmail — a greatly expanded right-click menu that has new options to deal with email messages. Using this new menu you’ll be able to take quick actions with email messages even before you open them.
This new feature was announced by Google a few weeks ago, and has been rolling out to Gmail users since then. By now, all Gmail accounts should have the newly expanded right-click menu that can be used to deal with email messages on your computer.
Previously right-clicking on a message in your Gmail inbox would give you only three options:
- Archive
- Mark as unread
- Delete
Now with the update you’ll have many more choices to dealing with emails when you right-click on a message in your Gmail inbox. Using this new menu could help you speed through the task of going through new messages in your inbox and save you valuable time.
Gmail Right-Click Menu Options
From the moment you see a message in your inbox, you may know exactly what you want to do with it. These new right-click menu options in Gmail will save you steps and help you perform actions directly from your inbox without having to open the message first.
Here are the actions that can be taken using the new right-click menu in Gmail:
- Reply
- Forward
- Archive
- Delete
- Mark as unread
- Snooze
- Move to
- Label as
- Mute
- Find all emails from the sender
- Find all emails with the same subject
- Open in new window
Conversation View
The “Find all emails withe the same subject” option is only available for Gmail accounts that have Conversation View turned off. [Note => Conversation View is a setting that controls how you view a string of emails in Gmail.]
To turn off (or on) Conversation View in Gmail, click the Gear icon, then Settings:
Click Conversation View => Off/On:
Confirm your selection by clicking Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
New Gmail Right-Click Menu
Here is the new Gmail Right-Click Menu with the Conversation View On:
And here is the Gmail Right-Click Menu with Conversation View off:
Using the Right Click Menu in Gmail
The new right-click menu is automatically turned on by default in Gmail. There is no setting you have to adjust to see the new menu when you right-click.
You can see this new menu by going to Gmail on a computer, then logging into your Gmail account.
Hover your cursor over a message in your inbox, then open the new menu by:
- Right-click
- Ctrl+click on Mac keyboards
- The menu key on Windows keyboards.
If you’re using a computer with a trackpad, such as a laptop, tap the trackpad with two fingers to right-click.
The new menu will appear with the options you can choose, without opening the message first.
Snooze
Snooze is a handy feature that lets you delay dealing with an email until a later time. Don’t want to respond to an email now, but don’t want it to get lost in the morass of your inbox? Use Snooze.
To put off dealing with an email until a later time, right-click on a message in your Gmail inbox. Choose Snooze, then set the date and time when you want the email to re-appear in your inbox.
The message you snoozed will disappear from your inbox and re-appear at the time and date you chose.
Don’t worry if you change your mind and decide to deal with a snoozed email before the time you chose. You can still see snoozed emails in Gmail.
To the left of the inbox is a section called “Snoozed.” Click that section to see all of the Gmail messages you’ve sent to Snooze.
On the right side of each message is the time and date in red when the message is scheduled to re-appear in your inbox.
Your Thoughts
Do you use Gmail? Have you tried the new right-click menu for your inbox? Do you like having the ability to snooze messages until later?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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*Google icon (edited) from Wikimedia Commons
Akaahan Terungwa says
Hi Carolyn,
It’s good to be here again – I have truly missed your tech inspired updates 🙂
Sadly, it appears that my own Gmail account shows nothing on right click.
Could you kindly reply as to what could be the cause of this?
Best,
Terungwa
Carolyn Nicander Mohr says
Hi Terungwa, Great to have you back here at The Wonder of Tech! Google was supposed to have rolled this feature out to everyone by the end of February. If you don’t have it yet, make sure your browser is updated to the latest version, clear your cache, then try it again.
I hope it works for you then.
Sajid Akhter says
Hi Carolyn,
I guess this updates from Gmail was much required. I have been using Gmail for a long time now and I think It is the best email service we have.
Thanks for sharing, have a good day.
Carolyn Nicander Mohr says
Hi Sajid, Yes, this shortcut could make it much easier to deal with our Gmail inboxes. I hope this new feature saves you lots of time.
Joshua Tackett says
Hi, new to your site and overwhelmed with the info that appeals to me. I have over 10,000 emails on my account and have never been able to select emails by sender or by group at all. I DO HAVE CONVERSATION GROUPING SELECTED. Now I know what I can do to delete years worth of emails! Thanks!
Carolyn Nicander Mohr says
Hi Joshua, Yes, this update to Gmail can make purging an overcrowded inbox much easier. I hope you’re able to speed through those 10,000 emails easily now.