How to Create and Manage Labels in the Gmail Android App

Gmail labels are used to organize emails. They are like tags or categories. For example, a label can be created with the name family, work, or any preferred name. It is possible to assign more than one label to emails. Although creating new labels was possible using the iOS Gmail app, the Android version lacked this feature until recently.

How to create labels in the Gmail Android app

To create a new label:

1. Open the Gmail app.
2. Activate the “Open navigation drawer” button. It is found near the top of the screen on the left. The Gmail navigation drawer includes sections like Sent, Spam, and Trash, as well as already created labels.
3. Find “Create label” and activate it.
4. A text box is shown where the label name can be typed. Usually, typing can start immediately without activating the text box, as the keyboard is already shown on the screen.
5. When finished, press Save to save the new label.
6. Gmail opens the newly created label after it is created.

How to add emails to labels

Although Gmail has filters that can be created and applied automatically to new emails as they are received, creating and managing filters is still not possible using the Gmail Android app. This means that it is only possible to assign labels manually.

To move conversations to a specific label, double-tap and hold the messages that need to be moved to select them, then press More options near the top right of the screen and select Move to. Then select the label where the messages should be moved.

If only adding labels without moving the emails, use the “Label as” option instead of Move to. The list of labels appears as checkboxes. Select the labels and press OK. To remove the message from the Inbox, clear the Inbox checkbox. The Label as and Move to options can also be used for emails that are already assigned to labels, even if they are not in the Inbox.

Another way to access these two options is by pressing More options after opening an email.

Manage label settings

After opening Settings from the navigation drawer and selecting the account name, activate the Manage labels section. Any label can be selected to access its settings. The label can be renamed or deleted, and it can be decided whether messages should be automatically downloaded and whether notifications should be received for new messages.

Note that it is not possible to assign different notification tones to different labels, as Google removed this feature several years ago.