The efficient management of emails has become essential due to the large number of them that are received throughout the day. In this context, understanding how to create and edit filters and rules in Gmail becomes a skill that is going to help you a lot.
Mastering the tools that email services offer you is essential to staying organized and productive. Gmail is one of the most popular and versatile email providers, and that is why it has the opportunity for you to manage your inbox efficiently.
Among all the possibilities it offers, the creation and edition of filters and rules stand out, which allow you to automate and customize the flow of messages according to your own needs.
The ability to create filters in Gmail makes all the difference in the way you are going to interact with emails, while the rules are going to help you in many more facets, all in order to have a more meaningful organization. and better structured.
Today you are going to explore everything that Gmail filters and rules mean, aspects that will make your experience with Google’s software much more fluid and productive.
What are Gmail filters and rules
In order to be more productive in Gmail, you must use what are the filters and the rules of the program.
But it is clear that you cannot start using something that you do not understand what it is, that’s why the explanation that follows.
Filters in Gmail
Filters in Gmail are tools that allow you to automate the organization and management of your emails.
They work like search criteria that Gmail automatically applies to incoming and outgoing messages.
That is, when a message meets the defined conditions of a filter. Certain actions can be carried out, such as moving messages, filing them, applying a certain category to them or even deleting them.
Filters are configured as a series of conditions that can affect the sender of the email, the use of keywords in the subject, or even the body of the message itself, attachments, and more.
Rules in Gmail
Rules are a part of filters, that is, they are subsets of the filters in Gmail. Its main function is automate actions about messages that meet certain conditions.
Although there are users who consider Gmail rules and filters to be the same thing, the truth is that a rule usually refers to a filter that executes a specific action.
Rules allow you to define more advanced and custom actions compared to basic filters.
How to create filters in Gmail, in addition to rules
So much rules like Gmail filters are easier to implement than you might think.
To create filters in Gmail, in addition to rules, it is better that you do it on a computer, since the keyboard will make this task much easier.
- Open Gmail in the browser of your choice.
- go to your inbox from Gmail.
- Select the icon settings in the upper right corner (gear icon) and choose See all settings.
- Now go to the menu at the top of this section and navigate to the tab Filters and blocked addresses.
- You will then see the existing filters and rules, if any. You can edit or add more, as well as export or delete them.
- Choose create a filter.
- The filter menu opens a new form in which the first lines are Of and For, where you can specify a different address to treat. This is useful if you want to automatically sort emails into different folders, for example.
- You can specify the line Affair similarly or add specific words that may or may not appear anywhere in a document (Contains the words / It does not have).
- Emails over a certain size can be managed differently in the section Size.
- You can also search for two interesting specifications like contains attachments either Do not include chats.
- When you’re done, select the button create filter.
- You’ll see filter options to choose what your filter will do with an email.
- You can archive it immediately, mark it as read/unread without reading it first or delete it, as well as star it, mark an email as important, put it in a specific category and more options. Choose the one that best suits your needs and then click on create filter again.
- This is how to create filters in Gmail.
- When you generate a filter, it is applied to all existing and incoming emails.
How to filter a specific email in Gmail
Another of the facets that filters and rules offer you is to generate one for a specific email.
Creating filters in Gmail based on a specific message will save time if what you are looking for or want to manage is a specific message.
- Identify an email that you would like to filter in a specific way.
- From the main menu of the Gmail inbox, tap on the checkbox to the left of the email.
- Select the menu Further (three dots at the top of Gmail), next to the option tags.
- Now click on Filter similar messages.
- This opens the filter form.
- As you will see, the email address you marked appears automatically. From here each one generates the filter as best suits them.
The capacity of generating filters and rules in Gmail is an essential tool to optimize your email management experience. Whether it’s simplifying the organization of your inbox, prioritizing important messages, or automating repetitive actions, these features give you greater control over how you interact with your messages.
Now that you know how to create filters in Gmail, everything will be much easier for you and you will be able to keep better control of all the emails you send and receive.