how to Work with the Gmail app’s labels and notifications for your android phone

We have already explored how you can filter certain emails into various tabs on your

desktop, but how does that translate to the mobile Google or gmail app? Truth be told, fairly

confusingly. When you open the Gmail app and start scrolling down through your inbox,

you’ll see various labels and markings that look initially bemusing. With a bit of exploring you

can easily figure out what everything means, but better still you can simplify your mobile Gmail

experience and make everything more manageable and digestible.



By tapping the menu icon in the top-right corner of the screen, you can access your account

settings and disable certain tabs in the mobile app so that it is instantly easier on the eye. If you do

decide to keep all of the tabs active then you can also tailor the way in which you are notified when

a new email arrives within a particular tab. With a wide range of tones (and the vibrate feature), you

can set your phone up so that you instinctively know when a new mail has arrived. Another useful

feature is the way in which you can set up the swipe commands to suit your needs, so when you

work your way down through your inbox, you can deal with the messages in a faster and more

efficient way on the move. We will guide you through using these features in this tutorial.

how to Work with the Gmail app’s labels and notifications for your android phone


Browse inbox: If you scroll down through your new-look Gmail inbox present in the mobile app, you will see that it’s a real label-fest and can be somewhat daunting. Help is at hand, though, since you can alter the settings… 

Go to Settings: Tap on the menu icon in the top-right corner of the screen and then choose Settings. Now choose your account and then towards the top of the settings screen you will see a section called ‘Inbox categories’. Click on this. 

Disabling tabs: All of your active Gmail tabs will be listed within this screen. Simply scroll down through the list and remove the tick from the checkbox of any tab or tabs that you wish to disable on the mobile app. 

Modify your alerts; Now you need to head back into the main account Settings screen and then scroll down the list of options there until you see one called ‘Manage labels’. Now just tap on this option to open up a menu for it. 

Select a tab; You will again be presented with a screen listing all of your active Gmail filtering tabs. Tap on one of the tabs in the list and you will then be taken to the ‘Sync & notify’ screen. Now tap on‘ Label notifications’. 

Set a new alert; You can now choose how you want to be notified whenever you receive a new message in the selected tab. Tap the Sound option to choose a tone and tick the Vibrate box if you wish your phone to shake.
Change swipe actions: From the main inbox screen, tap the menu icon and then choose Settings, then tap on the ‘General settings’ option to be taken through to a settings screen that relates to non-account specific options. 

Archive & delete: Tap on the ‘Archive & delete actions’ option at the top of the screen and then choose which options are displayed when you swipe through an email. Tap the option you want, filling its radio button, and then go back. 

Swipe to manage: You can also enable the ‘Swipe to archive’ action from the main settings screen. This means that when you are back in the Gmail inbox, you can now perform swipe actions to manage your inbox on the fly.