Technologies

Top 10 Tips to Help You Get a Better Grip on Gmail

Stay on top of your Gmail inbox with these must-have tips and tricks that will turn you into an email pro.

Texting has likely alleviated some of your email traffic, but I’d wager your email inbox is still like mine — a bit chaotic and disorderly. If you use Gmail daily on a computer for work or personal use, are you making the most of Google’s free email client? Gmail has a host of features that can help you better manage the constant flow of messages to and from your inbox.

Here are the 10 tips that I have found most helpful in keeping on top of my email correspondence. You may already be using some of these, but hopefully you’ll find a few here that you can work into your routine to help manage the constant flow of messages to and from your Gmail inbox.

1. Mute annoyingly noisy email threads

Getting stuck on a group email thread can be as annoying on a laptop as a group text on your phone. You’ve got enough distractions during the workday that you certainly don’t need to see a group email continually calling out to you at the top of your inbox as new replies arrive.

If you have an active group email and no longer care to follow the back-and-forth chatter, you can opt out. Open the thread, click the triple-dot button at the top and click Mute. The conversation will be moved to your archive, where it will remain even when more replies arrive.

If you later get curious about what you missed, you can always find it in the All Mail view of Gmail, which includes your archived messages. You can then unmute the conversation if you so choose by opening the conversation and clicking the X button next to the Mute label at the top of the page. Once unmuted, the next time you receive a reply, it will show up at the top of your inbox.

2. Block unwanted messages

One step further than muting a message is blocking the sender. If you are getting needless and unwanted emails from someone, you can reroute their messages from your inbox directly to the spam folder. Open up a message from the unwanted sender, click the triple-dot button in the upper-right corner and select Block [Username].

3. Snooze so you don’t forget

Just like the snooze button on your alarm that you smash when you aren’t ready to get out of bed, Gmail has a snooze button for messages you aren’t ready to respond to but don’t want to lose track of in your inbox. Hover over a message in your inbox and click the little clock button on the right and pick a later time and date — later today, tomorrow, next week or a specific time you set — for it to appear back at the top of your inbox.

4. Schedule messages to send later

With the popularity of remote work, it’s likely you work with people in various locations and time zones. Instead of an email that will disrupt someone’s evening or early morning, you can easily schedule your message to be sent at a later time. To do so, click the little down-arrow next to the Send button at the bottom of the compose window and click Schedule send. You’ll be able to pick a time in the future for your missive to arrive. You can keep tabs on your scheduled emails in the Scheduled folder under the Sent folder — it gets created once you schedule your first email.

5. Enable auto-advance and thank me later

I spend a large chunk at the beginning and end of each workday deleting unwanted emails. I prefer to open most emails before deleting them so I can take at least a quick glance before discarding them. By default, Gmail sends you back to your inbox instead of the next message when you delete an opened message, which requires more clicks and time to clean out your inbox. You can change this behavior in settings, however, so you advance to the previous or next message after you delete an opened message.

In settings, click Advanced and you’ll see Auto-advance at the top. Click the radio dial on the right for Enable to turn on. And if you head back to Settings > General and scroll down to Auto-advance, you can choose to go to the next (newer) or previous (older) conversation. To save, scroll down and hit the Save Changes button.

gmail-auto-advance-setting — Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

6. Choose your tabs

Gmail does an admirable job of filtering your inbox so the messages you care about go to your inbox while the rest get relegated to the Social or Promotions tabs. Click the gear icon and then click See all settings. On the Settings page, select Inbox and in the Categories section at the top, you can choose which tabs you want at the top of your inbox. Or if you simply ignore all tabs other than your Primary inbox, then you can uncheck all but Primary for a streamlined, tab-less Gmail experience. To save, scroll down and hit the Save Changes button.

7. Reading pane for an Outlook-like look

If you’ve got a big display, I encourage you to make use of your luxurious screen real estate and use Gmail’s reading pane. It makes Gmail look and feel more like Outlook, where you can view and respond to messages without leaving the inbox. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner to open the Quick Settings panel, scroll down to Reading pane and select Right of inbox or Below inbox to split your view horizontally or vertically.

8. Save space by deleting messages with large attachments

Running out of space? If you are up against Gmail’s 15GB free storage cap (shared across Google Drive and Google Photos), then you can either pay Google for more storage or delete some messages and keep using the free plan. Search for size:5m or size:10m to see any messages that are larger than 5- or 10-megabytes. These are likely to have some big attachments. From this list, you can download the attachments you want to keep and then delete the message so it’s not taking up precious space with Google. Or just delete the old messages and attachments you no longer need.

9. Email large attachments via Google Drive

There’s a little Drive icon at the bottom of Gmail’s compose window. It lets you attach files you have stored in Drive or simply send a link. For Google Drive formats — Docs, Sheets, Slides and so on — your only option is to send a link to the file. For other file types — PDFs, Word docs, images — you have the option of sending them as an attachment or a Drive link, which lets you share files larger than Gmail’s 25MB size limit for attachments.

10. Hiding in plain sight: Advanced search

With Google behind Gmail, it’s no surprise that Gmail offers powerful search tools. You’ve likely used the search bar above your inbox to dig up an old email based on a keyword or sender, but it can do so much more. Click the little down-arrow button on the right of the search bar to open Gmail’s advanced search panel where you can search for date ranges and attachment sizes, by subject line and with other filters.

Need more Gmail help? Here are 15 Gmail shortcuts you should know and six Gmail tricks to minimize regret, frustration and spam. To stay safe, this is how you can secure your Gmail account in four easy steps.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #707

Hints and answers for Connections for May 18, #707.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle is a mix of difficult and easy. The purple category does what most purple categories do, and makes you really break down how you think about the words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: School days.

Green group hint: About there!

Blue group hint: Sure, let’s go.

Purple group hint: The Scarlett Letter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Tasks for a student.

Green group: Encouraging responses in a guessing game.

Blue group: Up for anything.

Purple group: What «A» might mean.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tasks for a student. The four answers are assignment, drill, exercise and lesson.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is encouraging responses in a guessing game. The four answers are almost, close, not quite and warm.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is up for anything. The four answers are easy, flexible, game and open.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is what «A» might mean. The four answers are area, athletic, excellent and one.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #441

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 441 for May 18.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands will probably be easier if you have some basic knowledge about a certain type of vessel. You don’t really need to have ever been on one, since the answers show up in books and movies all the time. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Riding the wind.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: famed song by Christopher Cross.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

DULL, TILE, TILER, SEER, GALE, GALES, HAIL, SAIL, LEEK, GLUE, HALL, TALL, HEAT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

HELM, HULL, KEEL, MAST, STERN, RIGGING, RUDDER, TILLER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is SAILBOAT. To find it, start with the S that’s four letters down on the farthest row to the left, then wind across, up and down.

Technologies

Google I/O 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect

With Android 16 out of the way, Google I/O will certainly be all about AI.

Google I/O 2025 takes place on May 20 and 21 with Google’s big keynote happening on day 1. We expect Big G to talk about its myriad innovations across its ever-expanding portfolio of products — almost certainly with a huge focus on AI every step of the way. If we collectively cross our fingers, promise to be good and eat all our vegetables then we may even be treated to a sneak peek at upcoming hardware.

Read more: Android 16: Everything Google Announced at the Android Show

Google also hosted a totally separate event that focused solely on Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition saw the wrappers come off Android 16, with insights into the new Material 3 Expressive interface, updates to security and a focus on Gemini and how it’ll work on a variety of other devices.

By breaking out Android news into its own virtual event, Google frees itself to spend more time during the I/O keynote to talk about Gemini, Deep Mind, Android XR and Project Astra. It’s going to be a jam-packed event, so here’s how you can watch I/O 2025 as it happens and what you can look forward to.

Google I/O: Where to watch

Google I/O proper kicks off with a keynote taking place on May 20, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. BST). It’ll almost certainly be available to stream online on Google’s own YouTube channel, although a holding video is yet to be available. There’s no live link on the I/O website yet, either, though you can use the handy links to add the event to your calendar of choice. Expect links to a livestream to be available closer to the day.

What to expect from Google I/O 2025

Little chat about Android 16: As Google gave Android 16 its own outing already, it’s likely that it won’t be mentioned all that much during I/O. In fact at last year’s event, Android was barely mentioned, while uses of the term «AI» went well over a hundred.

Android XR: Google didn’t talk much about Android XR during the Android show, focusing instead on the purely phone-based updates to the platform. We expected to hear more about the company’s latest foray into mixed-reality headsets in partnership with Samsung and its Project Moohan headset, so it’s possible that this is being saved for I/O proper.

Gemini: With Android being spun out into its own separate event, Google is evidently clearing the way for I/O to focus on everything else the company does. AI will continue to dominate the conversation at I/O, just as it did last year (though hopefully Google can make it more understandable) with updates to many of its AI platforms expected to be announced.

Gemini is expected to receive a variety of update announcements, including more information on its latest 2.5 Pro update which boasts various improvements to its reasoning abilities, and in particular to its helpfulness for coding applications. Expect lots of mentions of Google’s other AI-based products, too, including DeepMind, LearnLM and Project Astra. Let’s just hope Google has figured out how to make this information make any kind of sense.

Beyond AI, Google may talk about updates to its other products including GMail, Chrome and the Play Store, although whether these updates are big enough to be discussed during the keynote rather than as part of the developer-focused sessions following I/O’s opening remains to be seen.