Change the Style of Your Gmail Inbox to Make Finding Messages Easier

We all need help on keeping up with our email. The Gmail styles feature could help you more quickly see the messages that are most important to you.

Gmail has several built-in configurations or “styles” that change how your Inbox sorts messages. In the Classic style – the default Inbox style – messages are ordered chronologically by the date they arrived (newest first). The other styles present messages in slightly different ways. These are the other styles and what they do:

• Unread First – Unread mail stays at the top; everything else is at the bottom.
• Starred First – Starred mail stays at the top; everything else is at the bottom.
• Important First – This style brings mail from the contacts you email most often and other important mail to the top of the page. Everything else is in its own section at the bottom of your inbox. See this Google Support page for more information how Google flags “important” messages.
• Priority Inbox – Messages classified as important and unread are in the top section, then starred messages, then everything else. Each section can be customized further, so if you want more control over your inbox, Priority Inbox is for you. See this Google Support page for more info on Priority Inbox.

You can change the inbox style by clicking the arrow that appears when you hover over “Inbox” on the left side of your Gmail page. You can easily and instantly switch between inbox styles any time. Try the different styles out to see if something other than Classic helps you better manage and find the messages that are important to you.