If you haven’t heard yet, Gmail is rolling out a new tabbed interface for the inbox on both desktop and mobile.
Google describes the new tabs as a way to “put you back in control so that you can see what’s new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read and when.”
You get five optional tabs, described by Google below. Google automatically sorts your inbox into these tabs using its special algorithms (essentially matching many of Gmail’s existing Smart Labels, which automatically filter incoming messages):
Primary: person-to-person conversations and messages that don’t appear in other tabs
Social: messages from social networks, media-sharing sites, online dating services, and other social websites
Promotions: deals, offers, and other marketing emails
Updates: personal, auto-generated updates including confirmations, bills, receipts, bills, and statements
Forums: messages from online groups, discussion boards, and mailing lists
You can also choose to force starred emails from all tabs to display in the Primary tab (in addition to the other tab).
If you don’t like the new feature, it’s pretty easy to get a more traditional inbox back. Just click on the settings cog in the upper right-hand corner, go to “Configure Inbox,” and uncheck everything except “Primary.” This will remove the tabs and bring you back to the old, familiar, one-inboxed interface.
Thinking about Gmail’s new tabs, SmartLabels, regular labels, and filters can feel like you’re trying to solve an annoying circular reference error in Excel. However, the new tabbed view might come in handy if you know how to harness it.