I read through my Gmail messages to keep up with the latest, but sometimes want to then mark the message as unread so I can be reminded later that I need to respond. In a thread, is there a way to mark a specific message, rather than the entire Gmail thread?
Google’s done a heck of a job with the interface and user experience with Google Mail, uh, Gmail, and there’s a remarkable level of power hiding under various buttons and links on the Web interface. And therein lies some of the challenge because if you don’t know where to look, and aren’t an explorer who likes to click around and see what features and capabilities are available, you might never realize just what you can do.
There are some limitations in the “mark as unread” feature that we should address up front, however. The biggest of which is that on the mobile interface — at least on the iPhone iOS 8 interface — you can only mark the entire discussion thread as unread, not a specific message in the thread. On the Web interface, you can mark from a certain point that the specific message and anything received subsequent is “unread”, but you can’t just single out a message from a thread and only mark that one.
I don’t find either a particularly egregious limitation, and hopefully you won’t either!
Let’s start on the iOS app “Gmail”, where a tap on the downward facing triangle on the top right of the window brings up a menu of icons when you’re reading a message (or message thread):
You can see “Mark as unread”, it’s the second option on the second line. Useful, but it only marks the entire thread, not an individual message.
Meanwhile, on the Web side, clicking on the “More” button at the top of a discussion thread or message pops up this choice:
You can do that if you want the entire thread affected, but if you just want the most recent message — or multiple messages starting at a particular message in the thread — then you want to click on the black triangle button just to the right of the message headers:
Lots of other neat things to be aware of on that menu too, including how to report spam or phishing, but it’s the last option you want. Choose Mark unread from here and you’re good to go, with the message and any subsequent all dutifully marked as never having been read.
Hope that helps you get lots out of Gmail!
The new gmail app for iOS appears to have no “mark as unread” button anymore! Which for me is quite disastrous since I use the important and unread view to manage my emails to do. Am I missing it somewhere??
Yes, I am super frustrated that they’ve dropped this feature too, and assume it’ll show up in an update any day now!
Dave,
Thanks for your great help on different questions on different OS and gadgets.
Well, Google gives the option of taking the conversations off, and I have done it for sometime now. Conversations can be a pain, especially when you forward or reply. You are not sure what all went with the message. Just my observation.
Thanks again for your help in so many ways.
Best
Hira