Search and manage Gmail in Chat
Find and open Gmail messages in Chat, inspect matching threads, and request common message or label changes.
Find a message or thread#
Include the person or address, a subject or phrase, and a time range when you know them. For example: “Find the email from Morgan about the inspection last week” or “Search Sent for my message to Lee about the offer.” Ask Chat to open the matching message or thread to read it. To inspect an attachment, ask Chat to list the message’s attachments, then ask it to open a named file. Chat can provide a link to view or download the attachment in Gmail. Use Open in Gmail when you need the original message or file in Gmail.
If Chat shows numbered matches, choose one by clicking its option or replying with the number or a clear description. You can ask for more results when the list is incomplete. See When Chat asks you to choose.
Change a message or label#
Name the message and the change you want. Chat can archive a message, move it to Inbox, send it to Spam or Trash, mark it important or not important, mute or unmute a conversation, star or unstar it, change read status, and add or remove labels. For example: “Archive the second matching message” or “Add the Follow up label to that thread.”
Be clear whether you mean one message or its whole conversation. Chat may ask you to select a result when the target is ambiguous. Some actions apply immediately; others show a staged action and wait for your confirmation. Read the target and change in Chat’s response before confirming. If you do not see a confirmation request, check the message in Gmail before assuming a change is pending. See Understand Chat confirmations.
Ask Chat to list your Gmail labels or create a new label by name. If it needs to disambiguate a label, choose the intended result. Confirm a staged label change only after checking the label and message or conversation it names.
Check label automation#
You can ask Chat to check or change your email-label automation settings, or to run an email-label sync. Settings changes are staged for confirmation. A sync request starts the sync job; check the Email Labels area in the app for its result. See Change assistant settings in Chat.