If you use Gmail on the desktop, Android or iOS, Google’s about to rock your inbox with new, customizable tabs that let you easily filter between messages from friends, your social notifications, your deals, your receipts, your tracking numbers, and much, much more.
Here’s what we’re looking at. Right now, your Gmail inbox is probably a mess, a morass of different sorts of messages, some of which are critical, some of which aren’t.
Gmail is already okay at letting you filter out the really important stuff with the Priority Mailbox, and with advanced Gmail options like labels. But the new tab system will take all of that functionality to the next level, and make it far more accessible to everyone.
How it works is pretty simple. At the top of your Gmail inbox, you’ll have a number of customizable tabs. For example, you could set-up a tab for your social network notifications, and another for your closest friends, and another for tracking numbers. Clicking a tab will filter to messages of that type. You can have up to five tabs, and dragging them around will re-arrange them.
The best thing about all of this is that the new tabs will work in the Gmail for iPhone and iPad apps, as well as Gmail for Android 4.0. And if you hate the new inbox, it’s a simple thing to just switch to another inbox style.
The new inbox isn’t out for everyone yet: it’ll be rolling out gradually over the next few weeks. If you’d like to try out the new inbox on Desktop sooner, keep an eye on the gear menu and select Configure inbox when it appears in the Settings options.
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