The Gmail app on your phone is smarter than you think and Google often sneaks in new features without you realising. You can now configure the Gmail inbox from your phone more easily.

Email inbox types

Not so long ago there was just one type of email inbox and all your messages were listed in it in chronological order. It was one long list of items lacking any organisation and there was no other way to view them.

In recent years email services have become smarter and they analyse incoming messages and try to determine what they contain and who they are from. They can then be categorised. Junk mail is an obvious category and triggers in the content and sender of messages can cause a message to be automatically moved to a Junk or Spam folder in your email account.

The next step in inbox evolution was to try to work out which messages were important, such as work and personal, and which were unimportant, such as email newsletters, updates, promotions, and similar topics.

Once messages are categorised, it is then possible to view your inbox in different ways, such as the important first or perhaps only the ones that are important or unread, so you have a cleaner view of your inbox without the clutter. Selecting the right view is an important configuration task.

Configure Gmail on Android

The Gmail app for mobile has fewer features than the desktop version, but it now supports five different inbox types. That is useful, but in addition to this, the changes you make on your phone are synced to your Gmail account and are available everywhere.

For example, change the inbox view on your phone and you also change the view in a web browser on your desktop computer.

This is interesting and it could be useful, although some people might prefer an option to view the inbox in different ways on the desktop and on mobile. For now, they are synced.

1 Your Gmail account settings

Open the Gmail app on your phone and press the menu button in the top left corner of the screen to open the side panel. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and press Settings. Select your account to configure its settings.

Settings are for specific accounts and you could have different settings in different accounts.

2 Set the inbox type

Press Inbox type in your account settings and there is a choice of Default, Important, Unread or Starred first, or Priority inbox. Select one and then return to your inbox.

Which is the best inbox type? This is all down to personal preference and different people will prefer different views. My own preference is for showing unread emails first so I can deal with them.

3 How to use different inbox types

In Gmail, open the menu at the side and at the top is the regular inbox and selecting this shows all your emails in chronological order with the newest first. Directly below it is the inbox type you selected. For example, if you selected Unread first, then only unread emails are listed. This enables you to deal with incoming messages and clear the inbox.

If you selected Important first for the inbox type then Important is listed under Inbox in the menu.

Here a Priority inbox was selected and now there is an Important and unread view under Inbox. Selecting it shows messages Gmail considers to be important to you or unread.

If Gmail considers all your emails to be important then the Important view will look like the regular inbox! Usually there is a difference and it can be useful to select one of these extra inbox views. You can easily select the default inbox through the menu if you want to return to the old view.

4 Configure the notification

The inbox type you choose affects how notifications work. Choose the Default inbox and your phone will notify you about every email that arrives. Select the Important first inbox and you will be notified only when important emails arrive, unless you change the default.

In your account settings, select Important First and then press Notification level to choose what notifications you want.