Top 10 Gmail Labs and Features You Should Enable
As if Gmail wasn't powerful enough, you can find all sorts of goodies and extra features inGmail Labs. The list is pretty massive, so we've narrowed down our 10 favorite labs to help increase your email productivity.
This post was originally published in 2011, but Gmail has grown a lot—it's gotten some new labs, while other labs have graduated to real-life features. So, we've updated this post to include our current 10 favorite labs and former labs—and where you can find them.
While options like asterisked messages and Multiple Inboxes ar nice for accessing oft-needed labels or messages, fast Links will access around something, right from Gmail's sidebar. Once you change fast Links in Gmail Labs, you will see a box on the left, within which you'll add one-click access to any bookmarkable universal resource locator in Gmail—including saved searches, specific messages, labels, or anything. you'll simply use them as a handy grab bag of links, or maybe flip them into a killer kerfuffle list.
9. Canned Responses
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
If you discover yourself doing plenty of repetitive writing, the Canned Responses laboratory can prevent serious time. change it in Gmail Labs, sort within the messages you discover yourself causing over and once more, then send them within the future with the press of a button. you'll even send them mechanically victimization filters, that makes for a helpful vacation respondent. Note conjointly that you simply will use OS-wide text growth if you wish to try and do this outside of Gmail—though Gmail's canned responses will be used in spite of what pc you are on. they are even obtainable on your phone.
8. Default 'Reply All'
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
Arguably the foremost contentious feature of the bunch, this helps you to set your default reply action to "Reply All" rather than "Reply". Often, once multiple folks ar concerned in AN email thread, one person can break off by accidentally touch the "Reply" button rather than "Reply All", then everybody else misses that a part of the oral communication. Save yourself from being that guy or woman by tweaking this selection in Gmail's general settings. On the occasions you wish to reply simply to at least one person, you will still be able to do thus by touch the dropdown menu next to the Reply All button.
Of course, if you tend to measure on the opposite facet of the spectrum—replying only too often—then perhaps this laboratory is not for you.
7. Apps Search
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
If you employ Google Docs or Google Sites, Apps Search (available in Labs) may be a nice feature that extends Gmail's search capabilities to those 2 apps. That way, once you explore for one thing in Gmail, it will conjointly quote matching search results from Docs and Sites below the Gmail ones. That approach you'll do all of your Google-related add one, consolidated tab.
6. Send & Archive
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
How I lived before this button, i will ne'er recognize. simply head into Gmail's General Settings and click on the "Show "Send & Archive" button in reply" radio button. From currently on, once you are composing AN email, you'll send your message and archive the thread in one fell swoop-keeping your inbox clean and tidy.
5. uninformed Message Icon
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
Gmail's tab would possibly remove darkness from once you have new messages, however if you wish a fast look at what percentage uninformed emails ar in your inbox, Gmail Labs' uninformed Message Icon can do the trick. It's good for keeping Gmail in an exceedingly stapled tab, however check that it does not distract you: finally, you mustn't be responsive email as shortly because it comes in. thus if having it on tempts you to perpetually check your inbox, keep it off.
4. Auto-Advance
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
If you cycle through plenty of messages quickly, it's most likely very annoying that Gmail takes you back to the inbox whenever you delete, archive, or mute a oral communication. The Auto-Advance feature, obtainable in Gmail Labs, helps you to opt for what Gmail will during this scenario, thus you'll go straight to ensuing (or previous) email whenever you delete or archive a message. It's small, however an honest time saver and a fix for a reasonably massive annoyance.
3. Preview External Services in Messages
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
Gmail has quite few labs that permit you preview things like videos, documents, voicemails, and pictures in emails if they are sent from bound services. for instance, if one in every of your contacts sends you a message with AN address in it, the Google Maps Preview laboratory can mechanically show you that address on a map. There are preview Labs for Google Voice, Yelp, and Picasa if you or your contacts use those services.
2. Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
We love keyboard shortcuts. It's no secret. The shortcuts in Gmail ar a number of our favorites, permitting you to ninja your approach through Gmail with simply your keyboard—and they even add many each once in an exceedingly whereas. However, if you do not notice Gmail's default keybindings terribly intuitive, the Custom Keyboard Shortcuts feature—available in Gmail Labs—lets you customise your own shortcuts from Gmail's Settings page.
1. Undo Send
Top ten Gmail Labs and options you ought to change
We've all been there: you pay 0.5 AN hour writing a powerfully worded letter, hit send, and understand you most likely should not have done that. Thankfully, Gmail's Undo Send feature—available in Gmail Labs—is there to save lots of you from yourself. once causing AN email, Gmail can wait a predefined variety of seconds (5, 10, 20, or 30, configurable in Gmail's settings) before causing. throughout this era, you'll hit the "undo" button to require back your mistake. though you do not foresee needing it, it is a euphemism of plenty higher than yanking out your coax cable, thus you would possibly furthermore keep it around simply just in case. i exploit it way more than i might wish to admit.
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