10 Best Experimental Gmail Features and Features to Enable
As if Gmail wasn’t powerful enough, you can find all sorts of goodies and advanced features in Gmail Labs . The list is quite long, so we’ve narrowed down 10 of your favorite labs to make your email more productive.
This post was originally published in 2011, but Gmail has grown a lot with a few new lab features while other labs have moved to real-world features. So, we’ve updated this post to include 10 of our current favorite and former labs, and where to find them.
10. Quick links
While features like starred messages and multiple inboxes are great for accessing frequently needed shortcuts or messages, quick links can access just about anything right from the sidebar of Gmail. Once you enable quick links in Gmail Labs , you will see a box on the left where you can add access to any bookmarked URL in Gmail with one click, including saved search results, specific messages, shortcuts or whatever. You can simply use them as a handy set of links, or even turn them into a killer to-do list .
9. Template responses
If you find yourself doing a lot of repetition when entering text, the template response lab will save you a lot of time. Turn it on in Gmail Labs , enter the messages you send over and over and then send them in the future with the click of a button. You can even send them automatically using filters , making them a useful autoresponder while on vacation. Also note that you can use the OS-wide text extension if you need to do this outside of Gmail, although the standard Gmail replies can be used no matter what computer you’re on. They are even available on your phone .
8. The default is “Reply all”.
Perhaps the most controversial feature of all, it allows you to set the default response action to Reply All instead of Reply. Oftentimes, when there are multiple people in a conversation, one person gets interrupted by accidentally hitting the Reply button instead of Reply All, and then everyone else skips that part of the conversation. Save yourself from being that guy or girl by customizing this option in your general Gmail settings . If you only want to reply to one person, you can still do so by clicking the drop-down menu next to the Reply All button.
Of course, if you tend to live on the other side of the spectrum – you answer too often, then perhaps this laboratory is not for you.
7. Search for applications
If you’re using Google Docs or Google Sites, App Search (available in the Lab ) is a great feature that extends Gmail’s search capabilities to those two apps. This way, when you search for something in Gmail, it will also display matching search results from Docs and Sites below the Gmail results. This way you can do all your Google related work in one consolidated tab.
6. Send and archive
How I lived up to this button, I will never know. Just go to General Gmail Preferences and select the “Show Send & Archive button in reply” radio button. From now on, when you compose an email, you can send your message and archive the thread in one fell swoop, keeping your inbox clean and tidy.
5. Unread message icon
The Gmail tab can light up when you have new messages, but if you want to quickly find out how many unread emails are in your inbox, the Gmail Labs unread message icon will do the trick. It’s perfect for keeping Gmail in a pinned tab, but make sure it doesn’t distract you: after all, you don’t have to answer your email as soon as it arrives . So if you’re tempted to constantly check your inbox, don’t turn it on.
4. Auto-promotion
If you cycle through many messages at once, it’s probably really annoying that Gmail returns you to your Inbox whenever you delete, archive, or disconnect a conversation. The Auto-Advance feature available in Gmail Labs allows you to choose what Gmail will do in this situation so that you can skip straight to the next (or previous) email whenever you delete or archive a message. It’s small, but it can save you time and get rid of a lot of annoyance.
3. Preview external services in messages
Gmail has several labs that allow you to view things like videos, documents, voice messages, and images in emails when sent from certain services. For example, if one of your contacts sends you a message with an address, Google Map Preview Lab will automatically show you that address on a map. There are also pre-release Labs for Google Voice, Yelp, and Picasa if you or your contacts use these services.
2. Custom keyboard shortcuts
We love keyboard shortcuts. It’s not a secret. Gmail shortcuts are some of our favorites, they allow you to navigate Gmail using your keyboard – and they even add multiple keys sometimes. However, if you don’t find the default Gmail keyboard shortcuts very intuitive, the custom keyboard shortcuts feature available in the Gmail Lab allows you to customize your own keyboard shortcuts on the Gmail settings page.
1. Cancel sending
We’ve all been in it: you spend half an hour writing a well-worded letter, hit send and realize that you probably shouldn’t have done this. Luckily, Gmail’s Undo-Send feature in experimental Gmail saves you the trouble of yourself. After sending an email, Gmail will wait a predetermined number of seconds (5, 10, 20, or 30, configurable in the Gmail settings) before sending. During this period, you can click the “Cancel” button to correct your mistake. Even if you don’t foresee that you will need it, it’s much better than yanking out the Ethernet cable , so you can keep it with you just in case. I use it a lot more than I’d like to admit.
These are far from the only useful Gmail features and labs – I myself am partial to the Google Calendar sidebar widget – but they are some of our favorites. To learn more about Gmail, check out our guide on how to become a Gmail ninja .
Caption image of Ben Krebs .