Gmail is awesome, it’s free, it works seamlessly, and it has all kinds of cool features. But unfortunately, one fairly common feature that Gmail actually doesn’t have is an obvious button that allows you to see only your unread emails without having to sift through heaps of read emails.
But don’t worry, if you want to see only your unread emails in Gmail, there is actually a fairly easy way that it can be done, it’s just not quite as obvious as it is in a lot of other email clients. So in this article, I’m going to show you how to see your unread emails in Gmail.
Prefer to watch a video about how to see your unread emails in Gmail? Click here.
First off, I’m going to show you how to see your unread emails on the Gmail website on a computer, but if you want to see your unread emails in the Gmail app on your phone, click here to skip down to where I show you how to do that.
How To See Your Unread Emails In Gmail
To see your unread emails in Gmail on your computer, you’ll actually need to do a special kind of search. To do that, when you’re in your inbox, click on the icon in the search bar at the top of the screen that looks like three switches.
Then, you will see a large menu with all kinds of different search options. And in that menu, you’ll need to click on the drop-down menu next to “Search” that is currently set to “All Mail”.
Now, in the small drop-down menu that appears within the larger menu, you’ll need to click on “Unread Mail”.
And now all the search parameters you need will be set, so all you have to do is click on the big blue “Search” button (even though you’re not actually searching anything).
And now, you will see a list of only your unread emails! Whether they’re in your inbox or any other folder, if they’re unread, they will appear in this list.
And that’s all there is to it, now you can look at your unread emails all together without any bother. And if a new email is sent to you, it will appear here, and if you read one of these emails, it will disappear from this list so that you only have to see the unread emails.
How To Go Back To All Your Emails
Once you’re done with looking at only your unread emails, if you want to go back to your regular inbox, all you need to do is either click on the cross icon on the right hand side of the search bar…
Or, simply click on “Inbox” in the left hand menu.
And then you’ll be back to your regular inbox with your read and unread emails all there together.
How To See Unread Emails In The Gmail App
If you want to see all your unread emails in the Gmail app on a phone or tablet, the process is actually fairly similar. All you need to do is tap on the search bar at the top of the screen as though you’re about to search for something.
And then, just above your recent searches, you’ll see some buttons for things like “From”, “To”, “Attachment”, etc…
And you’ll need to scroll horizontally across that list to find the “Is unread” button and tap on that button.
And that’s all there is to it, you’ll now see a list of all your unread emails, and none of the read ones! Weather they’re in the inbox or any other folder, if they’re unread they’ll show up in this list.
Now, if you read one of the emails in this list, it will disappear from the list because it will no longer be unread, and if you receive a new email while you’re looking at this list, it will appear here because it will be unread.
How To Go Back To All Your Emails In The App
So that’s all great, but once you’ve finished looking at only your unread emails, if you want to go back to normal and just look at all your emails, all you need to do is tap the back arrow in the top left hand corner…
And then you’ll be back to your regular inbox.
And that’s all there is to it. If you ever want to see only your unread emails in Gmail, whether you’re on a computer or a phone, you now know how it’s done.
