How to customize Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts to be more productive

Create your own custom shortcuts and become a Gmail master

Gmail is a powerful tool that keeps track of the emails we get from our online accounts. Since we spend so much time viewing and sorting through our inboxes, making this process as smooth as possible is crucial. Getting an external keyboard for your Chromebook or Android tablet is one thing you can do to give more flexibility and control over your inbox. When you combine that with the top Gmail keyboard shortcuts, you can improve your Gmail experience by creating custom shortcut actions.

Setting up custom shortcut actions can be seen as an advanced feature for power users, but everyone can benefit from them. Regardless of your proficiency level with Gmail, you’ll be able to make shortcuts that fit your specific needs. This guide walks you through the process so that you can incorporate these custom shortcut actions into your daily email routine.

How to enable custom keyboard shortcuts in Gmail

Before creating unique keyboard shortcuts, you’ll need to enable the custom keyboard shortcuts setting for your Gmail account. It’s disabled by default, but you can’t set up custom keyboard shortcut actions without it. Once that’s finished, you’ll be ready to move on to the next part of this guide.

To turn on the custom keyboard shortcuts setting for your Gmail account, do the following:

1. Open the desktop version of Gmail, then go to Settings > See all settings.
2. Click the Advanced tab near the upper-right corner.
3. Locate the Custom keyboard shortcuts section, then click Enable.

4. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom to return to your inbox.

How to set up custom keyboard shortcuts in Gmail

Now that you’ve enabled the custom keyboard shortcuts option for your Gmail account, it’s time to tweak them to fit your needs. To find the section where you set up custom keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, check out the following steps:

1. From the main Gmail screen, go to Settings > See all settings.
2. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab toward the upper-right corner.
3. Look over the list and replace one or multiple actions with your new custom keyboard shortcuts. The Key(s) section shows the default action, and the blank boxes on the right are where you press a key to assign new shortcuts.

4. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom to finalize your settings.

If you assign a shortcut using the same key more than once, Gmail gives an error message that states One action per key. If this happens, determine which shortcut was duplicated and change it to something else. Alternatively, you can delete the default action from the Key(s) section to avoid deciding on a different shortcut. You can change as many keyboard shortcuts as you need, so feel free to experiment with them to find the perfect combination.

How to restore your Gmail keyboard shortcuts to the default settings

We can sometimes customize something so much that the result turns out different than we thought it would. But what happens when you don’t like the combination of Gmail keyboard shortcuts you assigned to specific actions? If you’re unhappy with your custom shortcuts and want to return to the default settings, do the following:

1. From the main Gmail screen, go to Settings > See all settings.
2. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab near the upper-right corner.
3. Scroll down and click the Restore Defaults option in the lower-right corner.

4. Click the Save Changes button to continue.
5. Your Gmail keyboard shortcuts are now restored to their default settings, which means you can start fresh with your custom actions.

Creating custom Gmail keyboard shortcuts gives your more control over your inbox

Rather than relying on your mouse for everything, tap into some handy keyboard shortcuts for an enhanced Gmail experience. These keyboard shortcuts allow you to customize your inbox in a way that most never think about. Some of us might want more than the default shortcuts, which is where custom Gmail keyboard actions come into play. Once you find the right key combinations, they’ll help you become more efficient at managing your emails. And swapping out a handful of the default shortcut keys with your own can make them easier to remember.

Some mechanical keyboards have extra macro keys you can use, allowing for more custom Gmail shortcut combinations. Learning about the different types of mechanical keyboard switches can help you understand what to expect if you want to try one.