Read, search & organize

Mail opens on your Inbox. Click any message to read it in the pane on the right, and it marks itself read as it opens. Every mailbox has the standard folders: Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam, Archive, and Trash, plus stars, labels, and bulk actions for working through a busy day. Search with operators like from: and has:attachment to find one message among thousands. On a phone the three panes collapse to one, with a Back button that returns you to the list.

Read a message

1. Open Mail from the app grid.
2. Click a folder on the left. Inbox is selected by default.
3. Click a message in the list. It opens on the right and is marked read.
4. Use Reply, Reply all, or Forward above the message to respond. See Compose & send.

An empty folder reads "Nothing here."

Follow a conversation

Opening a message loads the whole conversation as a stack of cards, oldest at the top. The newest card is expanded and marked read, and a count badge shows how many messages the thread holds. Click a collapsed card to expand it, which marks that message read too. Reply and Reply all target the newest message you received, so you never reply to yourself.

Move between folders

Each folder does one job. Inbox holds new mail. Sent keeps a copy of what you send. Drafts lists unsent messages that save themselves as you type (see Compose & send). Spam holds mail you move there, and Archive and Trash hold filed and deleted mail. Unread counts show next to each folder and on the envelope icon in the top bar.

Star and triage a message

Every row in the list has a star and a trash icon on hover. Open a message and the reader adds Archive, Mark unread, and a Move to… menu that lists your other folders. In Trash, Restore to Inbox brings a message back. Archiving takes a message out of the Inbox but keeps it; Trash marks it for deletion.

Triage many messages at once

1. Tick the checkbox on each row you want.
2. In the bar that appears (N selected), choose Read, Unread, Star, Archive, Trash, or Label….
3. Use the select-all checkbox to tick everything in the folder, or Cancel to clear the selection.

Label your mail

Labels are per-mailbox colored tags you can filter by.

1. In the sidebar, find Labels and click +.
2. Name the label (up to 40 characters) and save. It gets a colored dot.
3. Click a label to filter the open folder to messages that carry it.
4. Apply labels to selected messages with Label… in the bulk bar. Label chips show on each row.

Search your mail

Type in the search box (Search mail (Enter)) and press Enter to search the open folder. Press Escape to clear it. Combine the operators below with plain words; they all narrow the results together.

Operator	Finds
from:	messages from an address or name
to:	messages where an address is in To or Cc
subject:	words in the subject
has:attachment	messages with a file attached
is:unread / is:read	messages by read state
is:starred	starred messages

Quote multi-word values to keep the spaces: subject:"quarterly invoice". Any plain text you add matches the subject, the sender, and the message body. The star button next to the search box toggles is:starred without wiping your typed text, and the ? button shows this operator list inline. Searching inside Drafts searches your drafts by recipient, subject, and body.

Why are images blocked?

The reader blocks remote images by default and shows a bar that reads "Remote images are blocked to protect your privacy." Click Show images to load them for a message you trust. Pictures embedded in the message still display; nothing is fetched from outside servers until you ask, so a sender can't tell whether you opened their email. Message bodies render inside a sandbox, so a script hidden in an email never runs in your workspace. Files sent with a message show as paperclip chips you click to download.

Read on your phone

On a small screen the three panes stack into one. Tap a folder, tap a message to read it, and use Back (or your browser's back button) to return to the list.

Related

• Mail overview
• Compose & send
• Shared team inboxes
• Mail administration & deliverability
• Sending the same message to a whole list is a job for Email Marketing.