13 Gmail Labels Tips and Tricks to Organize and Manage Them

Key Takeaways 

• Creating and applying labels allows you to categorize emails based on various criteria, such as projects, clients, or topics.
• You can customize your labels by adding colors for easy identification, renaming labels, and creating nested labels to create a hierarchical email structure.

Tip 1: Create Labels in Gmail

There are two ways to create a label from the Gmail website.

Step 1: First, open Gmail

Step 2: Click Create new label from the left sidebar. If you don’t see it directly, click More > Create new label.

Step 3: The New label pop-up will open. Type the name of your label and click on Create. The new label shall appear in the left sidebar.

Another way to create a label is by sending it via email. Let’s say you are reading an email and want to add it to a label, but you don’t find a suitable label. You can create a label instantly.

Step 1: Open the email.

Step 2: Click on the Label icon at the top and select Create new label from the menu. Type the name and hit Create.

Note: You cannot create, edit, or delete labels from the Gmail Android app. However, you can do it on the iOS app.

Tip 2: Add Label to Emails

After creating labels, it’s time to apply them to your emails. When you apply a label to an email, it will continue to have one of the existing labels, such as Inbox, Update, etc., where the email initially arrived. Adding a label will not remove it from those folders. So you can access it from the primary inbox and the added label.

Step 1: Open the required email,

Step 2: Click the Labels icon, check the box next to the labels you want to apply, and hit the Apply button.

Tip 3: Move an Email to a Label

If you want a clean inbox, you can remove your inbox label emails and keep them on their dedicated labels only. When you do so, you will find the emails only under the labels added to it and not in the primary inbox.

Open the required email and click the Move to icon. Select the required label from the menu.

Alternatively, add the required label to your email first. Then click on the cross icon next to the labels you want to remove. Let’s say Inbox. Keep only the labels where you want the email to appear.

Alternatively, drag and drop the email from the emails list onto the required label in the left sidebar.

Tip: Find out what is an archive in Gmail and how to archive emails.

Tip 4: Add Color to Labels

You can color code the labels to easily identify your emails. For instance, you can use red for high-priority emails or add brand colors to labels, etc.

Step 1: Hover your mouse over the label from the left sidebar.

Step 2: Click the down arrow or the three-dot icon next to the label name. Select Label color from the menu. Then, choose a color from the list. If you don’t like the colors offered, click on Add custom color.

The colored labels will show up in the list of emails.

Tip 5: Rename Labels

You may rename a label if it conflicts with a tax or if you need to refer to it differently.

Step 1: Click the three-dot icon on the left sidebar next to the label name.

Step 2: Select Edit. Then type a new name for your label. It will automatically apply to the emails under that label.

Tip 6: Create Nested Labels

Nested labels are like subfolders. You have the main label and can create nested labels under it. That way, you can further organize your emails in a much better way. The email will only appear in the nested labels. But the label name will have the names of all the top labels added to it.

Step 1: Click on the three-dot icon next to the label name.

Step 2: Choose Add sublabel.

Alternatively, while creating a label, you must have noticed the Nest label under the new label option. Check the box next to it and select the label under which you want it to be the sublabel.

Tip: You can create multiple hierarchies of labels, i.e., a sublabel can be under a nested label. To nest an existing label, click on the three-dot icon next to it. Choose Edit. Then from the pop-up, select Nest label under.

For instance, you can have a main Bills label followed by nested labels – electricity, gas, water, etc.

Tip 7: Remove Label From an Email

If you no longer like a label associated with a certain email, you can remove it.

Step 1: Open the email.

Step 2: To remove a label, click on the cross icon next to its name or on the Remove label button at the top. You can also uncheck the labels that you don’t need from the Labels option.

Tip 8: Remove Multiple Emails From a Label

Sometimes, you want to remove a particular label from multiple emails. The above method is time-consuming, but there’s a better alternative.

Step 1: Open the required label from the left sidebar in Gmail.

Step 2: You will find all the emails with that label. Select the emails from which you want to remove the label. Once selected, click on the Remove label button at the top.

Tip 9: Find Emails Without Labels

Before you remove labels, check whether the email has any labels. An email with no label will not be found in the Primary inbox. Such orphaned emails go to the All Mail folder, which can be accessed from the left sidebar.

Tip 10: Merge Labels

Suppose you want to merge emails from two existing Gmail labels into a new label. There are multiple ways to achieve that.

Step 1: Create a new label.

Step 2: Select all the emails from the first label and drag and drop them to the newly created label. Similarly, move emails from the second label to the new label. Then, delete the first two labels.

Tip: Instead of drag and drop, you can use the Move to option to move labels.

In the second method, you need to use Gmail’s search.

Step 1: Create a new label.

Step 2: Enter the name of the labels that you want to merge in the search bar. They should be in the format label:name1 OR label:name2, where name1 and name 2 are the labels’ names. For instance, label:notes OR label:GT.

Step 3: Select all the emails that appear in the search results. Drag and drop to the new label or use the Move to option. Delete the original labels.

Tip: If your label name has space, replace it with dash -.

Tip 11: Automatically Add Labels to New Emails

With Gmail filters’ help, you can create a filter where received emails meeting the filter criteria would automatically apply a certain label. To do so, follow these steps:

Step 1: Click on the Settings icon in Gmail. Then select See all settings from the menu.

Step 2: Click on the Filters and blocked addresses tab. Then click on Create a new filter.

Step 3: Set the criteria of the filter in the pop-up window. You can use the email’s Subject or From address. Click on Create filter.

Step 4: You will be asked to choose an action for the filter. Check the box next to Apply the label and select the label from the list. Click on Create filter.

Tip 12: Show or Hide Labels

The left sidebar in Gmail can accommodate 500 labels. I’m sure you wouldn’t require those many labels. However, instead of deleting labels, you can hide labels from appearing in the left sidebar. You can display only the required labels.

Step 1: Click the label’s three-dot icon in the left sidebar.

Step 2: Check the box next to Show/hide wherever required, depending on your needs. Alternatively, go to Gmail Settings > Labels. Here, you will see all labels, including System labels. Hide or show them as you prefer.

Tip 13: Delete Label

You can delete it if you don’t require a label. Deleting a label will not delete the associated emails. They will continue appearing on other labels if added. However, if no label is added, you will find them under the All Mails folder, as shown above.

Note: Deleting a label will delete all its sub-labels.

Step 1: Open the menu from the label’s three-dot icon.

Step 2: Select Remove label. Alternatively, go to Gmail Settings > Label. Hit Remove next to your label.