- Archive: Removes emails from inbox but keeps them accessible for search. Replies bring them back to the inbox.
- Mute: Silences a conversation thread. New messages go to All Mail without notifications.
- Snooze: Temporarily hides an email and brings it back to your inbox at a chosen time.
What Happens When You Archive?
When you archive an email, Gmail removes it from your Inbox but doesn’t delete it. Instead, Gmail stores it in a separate location which is not easily visible from the Inbox and Labels. You can unarchive those emails at any time.
However, when a new message arrives in an archived thread, the thread will be unarchived automatically. The new emails will typically appear in your inbox.
Visibility
Even though the archived emails go away from your inbox view, there is no dedicated section for them. Gmail stacks them under the All Mail label. You will find all emails here, you have to look for the archived email manually.
The All Mail label is accessible from the left panel under the More option on the website.
On the Gmail mobile app, you will find it in the navigation drawer.
When to Use Archive
If you want to clean your inbox but at the same time don’t want to delete the email, the archive function can be of good use. Similarly, if you’re going to hide emails temporarily, you can archive them instead.
How to Archive
On the mobile apps, open the email and tap on the Archive icon .
On the website, select the email and click on the Archive option from the top bar.
Unarchive Emails
To unarchive an email, go to the All Mails label and locate the archived email. Alternatively, search for the archived email using its name or subject.
Once you have found it, open it and tap/click on the Move to Inbox option.
What Happens When You Mute?
When you mute a conversation, you will not see any new emails from that thread in your inbox. While you will still receive emails, they will be archived automatically, and you won’t get any notifications for that.
Visibility
If you mute an email thread, it disappears from your inbox altogether. Similar to the Archive, there is no dedicated section for it. The muted emails are kept in the All Mails label.
When to Use Mute
Suppose you are part of an email thread whose replies are no longer important, but you continue receiving notifications. To avoid such notifications, you can mute the conversation.
How to Mute
On the mobile apps, tap and hold to select the email that you want to mute. From the three-dot icon at the top-right corner, select Mute .
On the website, select the email and click on the three-dot icon . Then select Mute .
Unmute Emails
Since there is no dedicated section for muted emails, you need to look for them manually. To do so, search for is:muted in the Gmail search. You will find all your muted emails here.
Open the email that you want to unmute. Then move it back to the inbox using the Move to Inbox option.
What Happens When You Snooze
When you snooze an email, it will resurface later after the specified time. Gmail will notify you about it like any other email. You can snooze read and unread emails both.
Visibility
Snoozed emails are temporarily removed from your Primary Inbox and stashed under the Snoozed label. Thankfully, it has a special place in Gmail.
You can access it under the navigation drawer in the mobile apps and from the left menu in the case of the website.
When to Use Snooze
When an important emails arrive, you can snooze it to let Gmail notify you again at your preferred time. You can snooze it for days or even weeks.
How to Snooze an Email
On Mobile
Step 1 : Tap and hold the email that you want to snooze on the mobile apps.
Step 2 : After selecting the email, tap the three-dot icon at the top-right corner and select Snooze .
Then choose the time for which you want to snooze the mail.
On Desktop
Step 1 : Select the email that you want to snooze and then click on the Snooze icon .
Step 2 : Select the date and time as per your need.
Remove Snooze
To disable snooze, go to the Snoozed label and open the email. Then tap/click on Unsnooze .
The three features perform entirely different functions. While archive is used to clean the inbox, mute is to avoid distraction from random email threads. Snooze, on the other hand, reminds us about emails at a later time.
