If you use Gmail to send endless messages to friends and family then there are a bunch of tips and tricks to help speeds things up, make emails more secure and even get things back if you post something by mistake. Here are five things every Gmail fan should know if they want to master their inbox.
SCHEDULE SEND
If you want to post a message to someone at a set time or day of the week it’s simple to schedule an email in Gmail. Just write your message as usual but when it’s time to hit the “Send” button you simply tap the “down” arrow that sits in a box right next to it. This then brings up the option to schedule a time and date of your choice.
UNSEND EMAILS
We’ve all been there. You rush to send something to your boss then realise it’s full of typos. Luckily there is a way to recall a message but it’s worth tweaking the settings to give you more time to check what’s just been whizzed across the web.
The default settings for Gmail’s “Unsend” feature is just five seconds which really isn’t going to give you a whole lot of time to recall the message. However, it’s very easy to change this option and give yourself a little breathing space once something has been sent to a contact.
To change things up simply head to settings in your inbox then tap “See all settings”
From this menu, tap General, then look for the Undo Send option.
You can then simply click on the drop-down menu and switch things from 5 seconds to a number of other time options including 10, 20 and 30 seconds. Once a message is sent you’ll then see the option to Undo the action appear at the bottom left of the screen.
SELF DESTRUCT EMAILS
There’s a new way to keep emails safe in Gmail via something called Confidential Mode.
This new feature allows the sender to have total control over what happens to a message once it lands in a recipient’s inbox.
Confidential Mode can block an email from being forwarded to anyone else and will stop anyone printing or downloading its content.
Another nice extra is setting authentications.
This means an email can’t be opened without a unique text message being received and opened as well. To send a message in Confidential Mode simply click on the paddock with a clock symbol at the bottom of the screen. You can change the settings including making the message self destruct after certain amount of time.
SMART COMPOSE
Not everyone likes this feature but it’s worth giving it a go if you’ve never tried it. Google’s Smart Compose basically second-guesses what you are writing and fills in the blanks making it faster to bash out emails.
This option can really speed things up although Google doesn’t always get things right so it can be slightly annoying.
If you fancy giving Smart Compose a try then simply head to Settings and Smart Compose and toggle on or off writing suggestions.
MAKE A TEMPLATE
If you often send the same email message over and over again then there’s a very easy way to save you having to type anything on the keyboard. Gmail lets you create templates that allow a message to be sent with just one click.
To set up a template open Gmail then at the top right, click Settings and then See all settings. Then tap Advanced and look for Templates which then need to be enabled,
Once that’s been saved you can then set up a template by clicking Compose.
In this window, enter your template text then tap More and Templates.
Here you can save your message to be used whenever you like.
