While instant messaging is a popular phenomenon, it is not without its problems. To start with, everyone can see whether or not you are online and reading your emails. Furthermore, everyone can ignore the latter channel of communication if they want to avoid a certain person for whatever reason. In this article we will explain how to send instant messages via email with your Gmail account.
We will show you how to distinguish your instant messages on email by creating a filter that sends all these special messages to a specific folder, where they don’t bother anyone and can still be accessed when necessary. We will also teach you how to turn off this function so that your regular emails are not sent to the same folder.
What is instant messaging?
Instant messaging is a form of telecommunication where users can send each other short text messages in real time. It has been popularized by Skype, which works on mobile devices and computers alike.
Instant messaging was used by Gmail from its earliest days, but it became somewhat obsolete when Google Hangouts replaced it as the primary communication system from 2020 onwards.
What distinguishes instant messaging on email?
We will create a filter that sends all these special messages to a specific folder, where they don’t bother anyone and can still be accessed when necessary. We will also teach you how to turn off this function so that your regular emails are not sent to the same folder. Google has a lot of useful features that can change your workflow, starting with a specific folder for instant messages.
To set it up, go to the Settings page and click on “Create new label”. This will bring up options to name this label, but we’ll get back to that later. For now you need to turn on the “Apply the label to incoming messages” option, and select a color for the label.
How to use it in your business
If you ever need to make a statement to a certain person at work, it’s best done by instant message.
You can use the option explained above and move all your personal communications
- including those from people you don’t know over to another folder, leaving your Inbox clear for business.
For example, after checking that no one else is around, you can shoot off a personal email to the person in question.
This will be more private than instant messaging, but won’t interfere with your work communication.
How to turn it off
To disable this function without deleting the Gmail label that we created for this purpose, go back to the Settings page and select “Use existing labels”.
Here you will see the label we created, so just turn off the “Apply the label to incoming messages” option and click “Save changes”.
The downsides of using it
This option is only available for Gmail users, so people with other email services will not be able to utilize this feature. Furthermore, the person you want to communicate with has to be online on Gmail in order to get the message via instant messaging.
You can always switch on your webcam and voice chat in case you don’t want to type the whole thing.
Conclusion:
The option to distinguish your instant messages on email is very helpful if you want to separate messages from people you know from other messages that can wait. This solution won’t work for everyone, but it will certainly save a lot of time and embarrassment when trying to have a personal conversation without being overheard.
In order to turn this feature off just follow the three easy steps mentioned above.
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