With more than 1.8 billion monthly active users, Gmail is the world’s most popular email service provider. That means Google has managed to get very good at identifying and dealing with spam emails. However, with so many spammers and newsletters blasting our inboxes every day, its automated spam filters may lag. So, you must be proactive in dealing with spam to ensure that your inbox isn’t overcrowded with spam emails. This guide shows several methods you can use to manage and reduce spam emails in Gmail.
What are spam emails?
Spam emails comprise several types of emails. They range from innocuous newsletters promoting a product to phishing emails containing malicious links that are aimed at stealing your personal information.
Here’s a broad categorization of spam emails you might see in your inbox:
- Newsletters or marketing emails: These emails generally promote or market a product.
- Phishing emails: These emails are online scams where the email sender impersonates legitimate organizations to get your personal information. We have an in-depth guide to protecting yourself against phishing emails you may want to check out.
- Malware or antivirus emails: These are scam emails that get your attention by warning you about a malware infection to get you to buy their cheap software or install a program that is malware.
- Coupon codes and deals: These emails generally promote a platform by showing you deals and coupons. These emails can also hide malicious links.
- Frauds and scams: Everyone knows the famous Nigerian prince’s spam email. These types of emails try to lure you by promising exponential rewards.
- An annoying friend: A spam email can be as simple as an annoying friend that sends you unsolicited emails every day.
There are different types of spam emails, and depending on the spam email you are dealing with, you can use different approaches. A good thing about Gmail is that it gives you access to several tools to deal with these spam emails. Whether you use a Windows PC or one of the top Chromebooks, you can use the methods below to reduce spam in Gmail.
But before you deal with spam emails, you should first ensure that you stop spam emails from reaching your inbox.
How to stop emails from entering your Gmail inbox
The best way to deal with spam is to ensure you never receive them. That’s why we recommend creating a second Gmail account and using it to sign up for all the apps, services, and websites. It will ensure that your primary email is not bombarded with newsletters and promotional emails.
Sometimes you have to sign up on a website for a single use, like downloading an e-book or PDF file. For such cases, we recommend using a temporary email service. You can learn how to generate and use temporary emails on your Android smartphone, Windows machines, and iPhones by reading the linked article. You can also use a free email service like Temp Mail to set up a throwaway email account.
How to reduce spam emails in Gmail
Now that you know how to stop spam emails from hitting your Gmail, let’s see how to deal with the spam emails in your inbox. Depending on the type of spam email, you can use different methods to deal with them.
Unsubscribe from newsletters and promotional emails
If you receive tons of newsletters and promotional emails, it means you signed up for those services without unchecking the box where they ask your permission to send you promotional emails. Most reputable companies allow you to unsubscribe from their emails with ease.
- Open the Gmail web app on your computer and open a newsletter you don’t want to receive in the future.
- Click the Unsubscribe button next to their email.
- Confirm that you want to unsubscribe in the pop-up window.
Report emails as spam email
While most companies let you unsubscribe from their emails, some don’t adhere to your request. It means you keep receiving promotional emails even if you unsubscribe from their email newsletter. You can report such emails as spam, and Gmail will automatically transfer these emails to your spam filter in the future.
- Open the email you want to mark as spam and click the three-dot menu.
- Click the Report spam option.
- Report this as spam or unsubscribe and report it as spam. We recommend using the Report spam & unsubscribe option if it’s available.
- To report multiple emails as spam, click to select the emails in your inbox and click the spam button.
- Click the Report spam or Report spam & unsubscribe button to report these emails as spam.
Report emails as phishing emails in Gmail
Phishing emails are dangerous, with millions of users falling prey to these scams every year. So, if you spot such an email, we recommend that you report such phishing emails as phishing emails, so Google can keep track of and get rid of these emails.
- Open an email and click the three-dot menu.
- Choose the Report phishing option and confirm by clicking the Report Phishing Message in the pop-up window.
Block annoying senders in Gmail
If someone keeps sending you annoying emails, block them to stop receiving emails from them.
- Open an email from the sender you want to block and click the three-dot menu.
- Choose the Block “their name” option.
- Click the Block button in the pop-up window to confirm blocking them.
Automatically filter emails to reduce spam in the inbox
Gmail also lets you create and use filters and labels to filter emails to reduce spam in your inbox automatically. These can be emails you want to keep but don’t want to see in your inbox. For example, you can automatically filter and archive your Uber ride receipts if you don’t want to delete them but don’t want them in your inbox.
- To automatically filter an email from a sender or multiple senders, select their email, click the three-dot icon, and choose the Filter messages like these option.
- Click the Create filter button.
- You can perform several actions, including archiving and deleting. Enable the option for Also apply filter to X matching conversations to ensure that all matching emails are filtered.
- Click the Create filter button to create your filter.
Get rid of spam emails and clean your Gmail inbox
Those are the steps you can take to reduce spam emails in Gmail. If you use Gmail as your primary email, check out our guide on advanced Gmail search filters to quickly find your important emails.
