Gmail categories: using Promotions, Social and co. well
Gmail already sorts by itself if you let it: into the tabs Primary, Promotions, Social, Updates and Forums. For many private inboxes that is enough. In everyday business the limits show quickly.
The five categories
- Primary: personal emails and everything that fits no other category
- Promotions: offers, discounts, company newsletters
- Social: notifications from networks and platforms
- Updates: confirmations, bills, statements, notices
- Forums: mailing lists and discussion groups
Google decides which email goes where, based on sender and content. You can only switch tabs on and off and move single emails.
Wrongly sorted? Move it
When you drag an email to the right tab, Gmail asks whether future emails from this sender should go there too. That works per sender, not per kind of email. If a shop sends newsletters and invoices from the same address, both end up in the same tab.
Categories in filters and searches
Categories can be combined with labels. The search commands are:
category:primary,category:promotions,category:social,category:updates,category:forumscategory:promotions older_than:30d: promotions older than a month, for archiving in one gocategory:updates has:attachment filename:pdf: updates with a PDF, often invoices
Filters offer the action Categorise as to assign senders to a tab permanently.
Why categories are not enough in business
- No custom tabs. A trades business needs «Quotes», «Suppliers», «Invoices», not «Forums».
- Updates is a catch-all. Invoice, parcel tracking, password notice and appointment confirmation sit side by side.
- Important emails in Promotions. Now and then a new client's enquiry lands in Promotions because it comes from a contact form with a company layout.
- Only in Gmail on the web and in the app. Other email programs do not show the tabs.
For more than a rough split you need labels, applied by filters or by content-based filing. Categories and labels get along: many keep promotions in their tab and sort the rest into labels.
