12 Amazing GMail Lab Features, You Should Enable

Gmail provides best services and features to the users with its amazing concept called as Gmail Lab.  Gmail Labs allows you to try out experimental new features in Gmail means this is testing ground for the creative Gmail engineers.

Gmail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may break at any time.Similarly, they may disappear temporarily or permanently.They may work so well that they graduate and become regular features.

Now coming to the main motto of this article to understand some essential features or services provided by the Gmail Lab.

1. Translation of Message

Why should you struggle to understand the mails which is in another language, when Gmail provides an amazing feature to translate message easily to your language. To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Message Translation Lab feature -> Save Changes

Once you enabled this feature, whenever a mail is not in your default language gmail detects it and displays ‘Translate message to’ link, there you can select your preferred translation language. You can give your default translation language in ‘Settings’ page and select language in ‘Default translation language’

2. Undo Sent Message

Undo sent messages is quite new and different features provided by Gmail Lab. Sometimes users may click on send button by mistake while typing a message, that time this features is beneficial. In which you can set the time in seconds after which the email sent to the recipient.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Undo Send Lab feature -> Save Changes

Now you could see a link “Undo” in every sent mail confirmation like “Your message has been sent. Undo”. If you click Undo link, gmail will grab the message before it is sent. This feature holds your message for some seconds (this number of seconds can be set by the normal user). So hurry up, if you want to undo a sent message.

3. Preview of Inbox

Gmail provides lab feature, that will show the preview of inbox which consists of number of unread message and then most recent messages when gmail is loading.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Inbox Preview Lab feature -> Save Changes

This saves your time, not to wait till your inbox completely loads. This can be very helpful if you have a very slow internet connection.

4. Use SuperStars to Star Important Emails

In this feature user can distinguish the individual email by assigning Priority symbol to the emails. Giving any one of the following suitable Stars for the messages or conversations will help you to separate important emails from many. One of best way to locate and find the emails in seconds.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Superstars Lab feature -> Save Changes

In General tab you can select Superstars which you want to use, and order of their rotation as shown below.

To assign star to a message ,

• Click on Star icon in the message or conversation
• Each click on the Star icon, will give you a different star as per your settings in General tab.

You can search messages based on the stars using search keyword “has:” with superstar’s name. (In General tab, tool tip text of each star shows its name). For Example: You can search for “has:green-check in:meeting” will give you the list of green-check messages in meeting folder.

5. Quick Google Search and Use Results in Email or Chat

This is an awesome feature. Once you’ve enabled it, you cannot live without it. When your friends ask questions over chat or email, you may want to do a fast search in Google and respond to them with your findings. Traditionally you have to open a new tab/window and search in google. Get back to gmail and discuss with your friends, if need be copy and paste the searched URL over chat window. To solve such difficulties, Gmail provides you a salient lab feature called “Google Search”.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Google Search Lab feature -> Save Changes

Google search results inside Gmail Once you enabled this you will see a “Web Search” window on left side of the window. Do your searchs as like you will do in google, press enter. Search window appears at the bottom of your screen like a chat window. Now if you place the mouse over the link in the search windows, you could notice a drop down button, which shows a menu. This menu changes depends on what you are doing in gmail currently.

6. Inserting Images into message

This lab feature enables you to insert images into your messages.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Insert Images Lab feature -> Save Changes

Once you enable this lab feature, you will notice a small icon with tip text as “Insert image” in a tool window. Click that icon, and you can upload the image from your system. You can even adjust the size of the image by clicking “Small-Medium-Large” in the pop up on the image.

7. Extra Emoticons

Adding extra emotions to use.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Extra Emoji Lab feature -> Save Changes

8. Sending Mails Only During Working Hours

This feature provides you a quick visual cue that shows whether it is working time for the person you are sending emails to. Sometime you may want to respond to emails only during their working hours.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Sender Timezone Lab feature -> Save Changes

If you enable this, you will see a green phone icon next to your clients name who are awake and readily reachable now (between 9am and 6pm for them now). You will see a red phone icon next to the name during their non working hours. Pressing “Show Details” in a message window shows, their timezone info details. (i.e Current time in their timezone)

9. Multiple Inboxes

If you have filters setup, messages will directly go to the filters without going through the inbox. When new mail arrives in labels, you have to click the label and view the message. In gmail it is possible to view all at once.

To Enable :

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Multiple Inboxes Lab feature -> Save Changes

Configure Multiple Inboxes:

• Click on Settings link ->Multiple Inboxes tab
• You can configure search query to display all at once.
• You can define options like “Lable:Reviewed” “is:starred”

10. Suggestion on Recipients Names

When you send a mail to most of your friends, there is a chance you may miss one of your friend in that list. Gmail will suggest people you might include based on the groups of people you email most often.

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Suggest More Recipient Lab feature -> Save Changes

Now when you compose a message, once you enter at least two recipients, any suggestion will show up like “Also include: Fritz, Torwalds” If you click on the suggested names, they will get added to your email.

11. YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Yelp Previews

When your friends are sharing through YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Yelp, you don’t have to open a separate tab, to watch these videos, or pictures, or previews. Now gmail detects these automatically and shows you albums, videos in the message itself, whenever you receive a mail with these links.

To Enable :

To watch YouTube videos inside your email:

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable YouTube Preview in Mail Lab feature -> Save Changes

To view Picasa album inside your email:

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Picasa Preview in Mail Lab feature -> Save Changes

To view Flickr photos inside your email:

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Flickr Preview in Mail Lab feature -> Save Changes

To view Yelp previews inside your email:

• Click on Settings link -> Labs
• Enable Yelp Preview in Mail Lab feature -> Save Changes

12. Use Gmail without Internet Connection

Use Gmail even without internet connection. Here is how it functions:

1. From your inbox, click the Settings link at the top of the Gmail page.
2. Select the ‘Offline’ tab in your Gmail Settings and select the ‘Enable Offline Mail for this computer’ radio button. Adjust any other offline settings on the ‘Offline’ tab before installing Offline. Click Save changes.
3. You’ll see a prompt from Gears to start downloading your messages onto your computer. If you don’t have Gears installed, Gmail will help you install it (you can also download it here). You may need to restart your browser after installing Gears. If you already have Gears installed (for example, to use Google Docs offline), you won’t need to install it again, but you’ll be prompted to allow permission for Gmail to access Gears. Click the allow link.
4. Your messages will be downloaded to your computer. Depending on the size of your account, this may take a while the first time, but you can check on your progress in the status box near the Settings link.

You can use Gmail normally while syncing. You don’t have to wait for synchronization to finish before disconnecting from the internet. If you’d like, you can click the pause sync button to temporarily stop the sync process (it’ll resume automatically if it’s been paused for an hour). When you disconnect from the internet, the messages you’ve synchronized will be available immediately. Gmail will automatically continue syncing in the background whenever you reconnect to the internet. Now you can access Gmail, even when you are in Offline.

Credit: Google Help

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