Using Gmail on a Smartphone or Tablet

Gmail, also known as Google Mail, is the most popular email service in the western hemisphere. Some things that make Gmail a good choice include:

• It’s free!
• Google gives you lots of free storage. Most people will never run out of email space.
• Gmail is encrypted. No one can eavesdrop on your conversations.
• Gmail is flexible. You can attach photos and files to your message.
• Gmail is customizable. You can create labels to organize messages and create filters to file messages automatically based on the sender or content!

Gmail automatically applies filters to sort incoming emails into categories based on the sender and email content:

• Primary. Email from friends and family and certain important individuals.
• Social. Email from social media. For example, an email from Facebook telling you about general activity on the site. A Facebook alert about suspicious activity on your account will go directly to Primary.
• Promotions. Email promoting sales or events.
• Updates. Email about activity on a website. For example, an email from YouTube letting you know your favorite channel has uploaded a new video.
• Forums. Notification emails from forums.

You can use the More  > Move to command to move a miscategorized email into the proper category. Gmail will ask if you want to do the same with all future emails from that sender.

The Gmail interface

The basic view of Gmail is your list of messages filtered by the current category.

• Menu . Tap the hamburger icon to open the menu. The menu displays all the inbox categories and labels associated with your Gmail account. Tap any category or label to display only emails with that filter.
• Current category. Displays what Inbox category or label is filtering the emails. Open the menu to change the filter or tap All mail in the menu to view all archived, sent, and received emails at once.
• Search. Tap here to search by keyword. Gmail will search by sender, subject line, and even email contents.
• Unread/Read email. Unread emails are bold.
• Compose . Tap here to write a new email.

Managing messages

You can swipe an email (right or left) from the list view to archive the message. You can change the default archive action to delete in Menu  > General settings > Swipe actions.

Reading messages

Tap any email in your list of messages to open, read, and respond.

• Back to Inbox. Closes the email and returns to inbox.
• Archive. Removes the email from all inbox categories. The email is not deleted, and you can still search for it by keyword or any label you added to it.
• Move to Trash. Emails moved to Trash are deleted after 30 days or when you manually empty the Trash folder.
• Mark as Unread. Tap here to close the email and mark it as unread.
• Sorting options. Tap here to apply a label or report an email as spam.
• Subject/Label. Displays the Subject line of the email and any labels. Tap the label to add or remove labels. Removing an email from the Inbox label is the same as archiving the email; it will not appear again until you search for it.
• Mark with star. Adding a star marks it as important. You can limit a search to starred emails only.
• From/to. Displays the name of the sender. Tap View details (Down arrow) to see the sender’s email address.
• Smart reply. Gmail’s algorithm will display a generic reply based on the content of the email. Tap one to compose a reply. The Smart reply will automatically appear in the body of the email, so all you must do is tap Send  .
• Reply. Tap here to compose a reply to the email.
• Email Options. Tap here to reply to sender, reply to all, or forward the email. You can also add a label or a star. You can block the email sender if you don’t wish to receive email from them.

Opening and saving email attachments

You may receive an email with a file attached. You can open it to read or view the attachment or download the attachment to your device or a cloud storage account. The default cloud storage for Android is Google Drive. Your Google account includes 15GB (gigabytes) of free storage.

Composing a new email

Sending an email from your phone is the same as sending one from a computer, albeit with a smaller keyboard.

1. Tap Compose to open a new blank email.
2. If you have multiple Google accounts on your device, choose which account to send the email From.
3. Type an email address in the To field. You can type in the name of a contact stored on your phone, and Google will auto-fill the email address if the contact has one. Tap the down arrow to add the CC and BCC fields.
   • CC stands for Carbon Copy. A CC recipient will get the email and be able to see who else it was sent to.
   • BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. A BCC recipient will get the email but not see who else it was sent to.
4. Tap  to send a file as an attachment. If the file(s) will be transmitted with the email, such as with a photo stored on your device, there is a 25MB limit. If the file(s) are stored in Google Drive’s cloud, there is a 10GB limit. Executable files (files with an .exe extension) are never allowed.
5. Although not required, adding a Subject is considered good etiquette. Sending an email with no subject may also activate the receipient’s spam filter.
6. Adding something in the body of the email is also not required but considered good etiquette.
7. Press Send  .

Deleting and archiving a message

Archiving an email removes it from the Inbox but does not destroy the email. You can still search for and read archived emails. Deleting an email moves it to the Trash folder. Emails are permanently deleted from the Trash folder after 30 days, after which they can never be recovered. You can empty Trash manually at any time. From an open email:

• Archive an email by tapping  .
• Delete an email by tapping .

Retrieving deleted email

If you decide to keep an email after you move it to the Trash folder:

1. Tap  .
2. Tap Trash .
3. Press and hold the email to select it. Once Gmail is in selection mode, tap more emails if you want to move more than one at a time.
4. Tap More  .
5. Tap Move to to move it to a specific label or inbox category.

Remember, Gmail automatically and permanently deletes emails after 30 days in the Trash folder. To empty the Trash folder immediately, tap Empty trash now.

Spam

Gmail has a fantastic spam filter, but it can be aggressive, especially with newsletters from businesses. If you visit the Spam folder and find a message that isn’t spam:

1. Press and hold the email to select it. Once Gmail is in selection mode, tap more emails if you want to move more than one at a time.
2. Tap More  .
3. Tap Report not spam .

Emails are easy to disguise as sent from someone they weren’t, so when in doubt, just leave it in the Spam folder.