Your inbox
The Inbox lists your conversations, newest first. All the emails between you and one person, or one group, are kept together in one conversation, whoever sent them, so there is no separate Sent folder.
- Bold conversations have emails you haven't read; the orange number is how many.
- The grey text is the start of the latest email; the time or date on the right is when it arrived.
- ★ means you starred an email in that conversation, and 📎 that it has files.
- A conversation where you started writing and didn't send shows Draft: and your text.
New emails appear by themselves while PhoneMail is open; you don't need to refresh the page.
The left menu​
| Item | Shows |
|---|---|
| Compose | Opens a new email (see Write an email) |
| Inbox | Every conversation, except archived and snoozed ones |
| Unread | Conversations with unread emails |
| With attachments | Conversations that include files |
| Starred | Conversations with an email you starred |
| Snoozed | Conversations you put away until later |
| All mail | Every conversation, including archived ones |
| Archived | Conversations you archived that aren't in one of your folders |
| Drafts | New emails you started but didn't send |
| Scheduled | Emails waiting to be sent at a time you chose |
| Spam | Emails you reported, and mail from people you blocked |
| Trash | Emails you deleted; they are deleted for good after 30 days. Empty Trash now does it at once |
| Folders | Your own folders (see below), with how many unread emails each holds, and New folder |
| Settings | Profile and settings |
| Keyboard shortcuts | The list of keys (see below) |
To bring an email back from Spam or Trash, click it and press Move to Inbox.
Doing things to several conversations​
Tick the boxes on the left of the conversations. A bar appears at the top with buttons to archive, delete, mark as read, mark as unread, snooze or move to a folder them all at once. The first box ticks every conversation in the list; Cancel clears your choice.
- Archive takes a conversation out of the Inbox without deleting it. You still find it under All mail, and it comes back to the Inbox by itself when a new email arrives.
- Snooze hides a conversation until a time you pick: Later today, Tomorrow, This weekend, Next week, or Pick date and time. At that time it comes back to the top of your Inbox, unread.
- After archiving or snoozing, the note at the bottom has an Undo button.
Your own folders​
Folders let you keep conversations together by topic, such as Family or Work. Only you see your folders; the people you write to don't.
- Make one: press New folder in the left menu, type a name (up to 40 characters) and press Save. You can have up to 50. Built-in names such as Inbox or Spam can't be used.
- Move conversations into it: tick them and press the folder button in the bar at the top, or open a conversation and choose ⋮ More → Move to folder…. New folder in that list makes one on the spot.
- A conversation you move into a folder leaves the Inbox, like archiving. When a new email arrives in it, it comes back to the Inbox and stays in its folder, so you find it in both places.
- Take it out: open the folder, tick it and press Move to Inbox (the Inbox button in the bar), or use ⋮ More → Remove from folder in the conversation. It goes back to the Inbox. Undo in the note at the bottom puts it back.
- Rename or delete a folder: open it and press Rename or Delete folder at the top. Deleting a folder never deletes email: its conversations stay under All mail and Archived.
Search​
Type in Search mail, people and groups at the top and press Enter. The results are split into People, Groups and Emails. Click a person to open your conversation with them (or to write to them if you have none yet).
Words need at least 2 letters. By default the search looks in your Inbox; to search elsewhere, or by sender, date and more, press the search options button at the right end of the search box:
| Option | What it finds |
|---|---|
| From, To | Emails from or to a name, number, address (or, for To, a group) |
| Has the words | Words in the subject or text |
| After, Before | Emails sent between two dates |
| Search in | Inbox; All mail, Spam and Trash; Sent by me; Archived; Spam; or Trash |
| Has attachment, Unread, Starred | Only those emails |
The options turn into words in the search box, such as from:ravi has:attachment after:2026-09-01. You can also type these yourself.
Keyboard shortcuts​
On a computer, PhoneMail understands Gmail's main keys. Press ? to see them all, or click Keyboard shortcuts at the bottom of the left menu.
The keys don't work while you're typing, and you can turn them off in Settings.