6 tricks for Gmail you never knew existed

There are many tricks and secrets for Gmail that can massively improve your email experience. For example, did you know that you can use it to find out which of your subscribed services are selling your information to other companies?

Here are 6 tips and tricks for Gmail that will change the way you email forever.

1. Find out if the services you’re subscribed to are selling your information

Want to find out if your favorite services are selling your email to other companies to spam you?  This trick will help you find out!

Imagine that you want to subscribe to Netflix. When you need to enter your email during the subscription process, add a “+” along with the name of the service (this will allow you to filter it). For example if your email address is: john.smith@gmail.com, the email you should register should be: john.smith+netflix@gmail.com.

By adding this suffix to your email – you’ll still receive the emails to your account, however when you receive a spam email from an unknown company – you’ll know which service sold your email address. Scandalous, huh?!

2. How to tell if somebody has broken into your Gmail account

One of our greatest concerns when it comes to our email accounts is security – and sadly Gmail can be just as vulnerable as other service providers. Here are two ways you can check to see if your account has been hacked or not:

Consult your latest account activity

Go down to the last email on the first page of you inbox. In the bottom right-hand corner, you’ll see the last time you connected to your account.

If you notice that the time doesn’t correspond to when you last use your account, there’s a chance someone may have accessed it without you realizing. You can click on Details for more information including the location of where it was accessed.

If you have noticed that something isn’t quite right, you can opt to sign out of ALL of your Gmail sessions currently open, and change your password just to be safe. You can also activate alerts that will warn you of any strange activity going on with your account. If you do receive a notification, it’s important that you change your password as soon as possible.

Have you ever noticed this option in your settings?

If someone has accessed your Gmail account, it’s possible that they may have activated an option that redirects all of you incoming mail to another address. To find out if this is happening to you, click the cogwheel within your Gmail account. Select the Settings tab and then Forwarding and POP/IMAP. If you see that this option contains an email address that you are not familiar with, it means that somebody has implemented it in order to spy on you.

3. Convert your Gmail into WhatsApp

Do you have an iPhone? Well, if you do, there’s a great app called Mailburn, which has the ability to turn your “chat” emails into a WhatsApp-style platform. It’s the perfect app if you’re having an important conversation on Gmail and wish to remain informed of it, even when you’re away from your computer.

4. Convert your emails into tasks

Every time you receive an email that requires you to do something, it’s easy to turn it into a task in the hope that you won’t forget to do it. When you receive an email, simply go to “More” and select “Add to Tasks”. A window will then appear in the bottom-right of the screen containing your new “to-do list” with all the tasks you’ve added to it so far! You can even edit them to create lists, deadline dates, etc.

5.Program your mails

Boomerang is an excellent application that allows you to program messages to be sent whenever you want them to be! This can be great for various professional reasons, but it can also be a lot of fun – how about sending yourself an email to arrive in one year’s time? What would you say to your future self?

6. This message will self-destruct in …..

Do you fear that messages containing confidential information may end up in the wrong hands? The extension Snapmail for Chrome allows you to add a new button alongside “Send” on Gmail. This button encrypts your message and sends the recipient a link to read it. Once clicked, SnapMail warns them that the message will self-destruct in 60 seconds.

Google’s secrets don’t just end there. Check out Five geeky secrets for Google that will change the way you search forever.