Google’s Gmail needs no introduction. It is the most used email service on the planet and there are a number of reasons for that. It brings a simple yet appealing interface, there are plethora of extensions that improve Gmail’s functionality and it packs in a lot of features. In fact, Gmail packs in a lot more than what meets the eye. Yes, there are certain great Gmail tricks that not many people are aware of. So, if you are a Gmail user, here are 12 cool Gmail tricks that you should know about.

1. Enable Preview Pane

Preview pane is a much loved feature in Outlook but not many people know that the feature is available in Gmail as well. Preview Pane brings an additional pane to your Inbox, so that you can view your emails right in the inbox. This is certainly handy because if you want to shuffle through multiple emails in Gmail, you will have to open an email, go back and then open the next one. Well, that changes with Preview Pane.

I think Gmail should allow this by default. However until it does that, it remains one of my most favorite Gmail tricks that one can use.

I’m sure you are aware of the ability to star emails in Gmail but chances are, you do not know the fact that there are more stars other than the yellow star. Yes, that’s right! To enable more stars in Gmail, you can head to Gmail Settings. Here, scroll down in the “General” tab to find the “Stars” section. Then, you can just drag and drop different stars to the “In Use” section to enable them. When you are done, just hit the “Save Changes” button at the bottom.

As you’d already know, Gmail allows you to undo sent emails which is a boon if you’re clumsy and tend to make typos quite often. The undo send option allows you to revert back a sent email for a set amount of time after you first send it, but did you know that you can customize the cancellation period as per your needs?

While you can set up email aliases to sign up to different services and websites, there’s an even simpler way to create disposable email addresses and make sure emails from sign ups land up in spam. Well, it’s easy, if your email id is “example@gmail.com“, you can just use “example+website@gmail.com” as your disposable email address. Gmail does not consider any text after “+” as email addresses, so when you get an email on example+website@gmail.com, it’ll land up in example@gmail.test.

All you need to do, is hit the drop-down button in the Gmail search bar. In the advanced search page, type in the example+website@gmail.com address in the “To” section and then, click on the “Create filter” option.

Alongside the redesign last year, Gmail rolled out a new Confidential Mode which allows you to send encrypted emails to prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. In order to use this feature, tap on the ‘Compose’ button to create a new mail and click on the new lock with a clock icon in the toolbar below to enter Confidential Mode.

In the pop-up Confidential Mode menu you’ll be able to set an expiration date for your email and choose whether the recipient would need a passcode to open your email. You can choose an expiration date anywhere from a day to 5 years for a mail, depending on when you want the sent email to automatically delete from the recipient’s inbox.

6. Set Up Canned Responses

Gmail also allows you to set up Canned Responses (templates) which can really come in handy if you’ve ever found yourself typing out the same response again and again for a number of different emails. To set up a canned response, navigate to Gmail settings and select the ‘Advanced’ tab in the settings menu.

Not many people know about Gmail’s Mail Delegation feature, which is shame because it’s really handy. The feature lets you grant access to your Gmail account to multiple people, without you having to share your password or other details. Plus, the delegates only get limited access to your account. A delegate can send or reply to emails sent by you, read your emails, delete emails and manage contacts. However, a delegate can’t change your Gmail password, account settings or chat with anyone.

Note: Gmail users can only add 10 delegates but if you are using a Google apps Gmail account, you can add 25 delegates but these delegates can be only from the same organization as you. Also, some companies disable the delegation feature.

There are times when you send out an important email but you’re worried if the email has been read or if it landed in spam. Well, worry no more, because there are several extensions for Gmail that let you track emails aka bring you read receipts.

The usual Gmail inbox interface can seem to be quite busy, especially the left side, which can really put you off. The left side of the inbox features the various labels and the chats below. However, you can move the chats to the right side, making up for a much more cleaner look.

Gmail, by default, does not let you forward multiple emails, which is a shame because there are times when you have to forward several emails to a person. Well, as you might have guessed, there are ways to forward multiple emails in Gmail. You can check out our detailed article on how to forward multiple emails in Gmail to know about the best ways to do it.

Gmail features some great search capabilities, which is certainly not a surprise, considering it’s a Google offering. You can search for emails in Gmail through size, date, file name of attachments, read or unread state, people, content etc. For instance, you can type “larger: 5 MB” to search for emails that more than 5 MB in size. You can type “filename:pdf” to search for PDF files with the entered file name. These search parameters even work on the Gmail app, which is great.

If you receive a lot of emails in a day, notifications from the Gmail app on your iPhone/iPad or Android device can be quite annoying. Thankfully, in the Gmail app, you can make sure to receive notifications from only specific labels. This way, you can make sure you can disable the notifications from labels like Promotions, Spam etc.

To do this on Android, head to the settings menu in the Gmail app and tap on the account you wish to manage. In the following menu, tap on ‘Manage labels’ and then select the label you wish to wish to modify. In the following menu, tap on the check box next to the ‘Label notifications’ option to enable or disable notifications for that particular label.