On average, professionals receive over 120 emails per day, leading to cognitive overload, slower response times, and reduced productivity. That’s when we turn to email labels. Often overlooked, labels are one of Gmail’s simplest yet most powerful tools to bring order to chaos.
This guide will walk you through how to create, apply, and automate labels in Gmail. You will also learn how Gmelius takes email organization a step further by making labels collaborative and automated across your team.
Let’s dive right in, then!
What is an Email Label?
Email labels are digital tags that let you organize your inbox without physically moving messages into folders.
They function similarly to folders but with greater flexibility: an email can have multiple labels, allowing you to categorize it under several topics or workflows simultaneously.
Unlike folders that hide emails away in one location, labels in Gmail allow for greater visibility and accessibility. You can apply labels to emails manually or automatically, assign colors to make them stand out, and even nest them to reflect a hierarchy—think “Clients > Acme Inc.” or “Projects > 2025 Launch.”
They also integrate into Gmail’s search functionality. For example, searching label: invoices will instantly bring up every email tagged under “invoices.”
More than just cosmetic, labels create a mental map of your inbox. They help reduce search time, enhance focus, and support faster triage of incoming mail. In professional contexts, they’re indispensable for organizing by client, priority level, department, or task status.
Employees spend about 2.6 hours a day reading and answering emails. Effective labeling can reduce this time by making it easier to locate and act on high-priority items.
How to Configure Email Labels in Gmail: Step-by-Step Guide
Here are five simple steps to master Gmail labels and streamline your inbox experience.
Step 1: Create a label
Creating a label is your first step toward inbox clarity.
- Go to Gmail from any browser.
- On the left panel, scroll down and click “More” > “Create new label.”
- Enter your desired label name. You can also nest it under a parent label.
- Click Create.
📌 ProTip: Nesting labels (e.g., “Clients > Tech” or “Invoices > 2025”) helps scale your labeling system as your workload grows.
Step 2: Apply labels to an mail manually
Sometimes you just want to quickly tag a few messages.
- Open Gmail and select one or more emails from your inbox.
- Click the Label icon at the top (it looks like a tag).
- Choose the label you want, or type to search.
This is ideal for one-off tagging or quick organization.
📌 ProTip: You can also right-click an email and choose “Label as” from the dropdown.
Step 3: Automatically apply labels using filters
Automating labels is where the real time savings kick in.
- In Gmail, click the search bar and then Show search options.
- Define your criteria—this could be a sender’s email address, a subject line, or a keyword.
- Click Create filter.
- Choose “Apply the label” and select or create your label.
- Click Create filter again to confirm.
This filter will now apply your chosen label to all matching incoming emails.
📌 ProTip: Example: Automatically label all emails from “[email protected]” as “Finance > Invoices.”
Step 4: Choose to show or hide labels
Gmail gives you control over which labels are visible in the sidebar.
- Go to Settings > See all settings > Labels.
- Choose to show or hide each label in the label list and in message view.
This option is useful when you have a large number of labels and want to declutter your workspace.
Step 5: Edit or delete a label from settings
Labels evolve as your work evolves.
- Go to Settings > Labels.
- Find the label you want to update.
- Click “Edit” to rename or nest it.
- Click “Remove” to delete the label (emails won’t be deleted).
So, can you share email labels with your co-workers? Or, is it a complex system that supports you, but also locks you in? Let’s find out.
Can You Share Email Labels with Teammates?
This is where Gmail’s native labeling system starts to fall short.
Gmail labels are built for individual use. While they’re excellent for organizing a personal inbox, they cannot be shared across users, and any filters or automations you create remain visible only to your account. So even if multiple teammates label similar emails—for instance, tagging client inquiries as “Support” or “Sales” on their end—there’s no unified, team-wide labeling system.
This becomes a serious limitation for modern teams:
- You can’t create a shared label that everyone sees or interacts with.
- You can’t assign responsibility or use labels to reflect task ownership.
- You can’t track progress collaboratively inside Gmail using native labels.
For businesses using Gmail to manage inboxes like support@, sales@, or info@, this lack of collaborative labeling creates operational silos, duplicated work, and a lack of accountability.
In hybrid and remote workplaces—where teams collaborate across time zones and rely on asynchronous communication—this limitation becomes even more pronounced. Without shared context, it’s easy for emails to fall through the cracks or get double-answered.
Gmelius transforms Gmail labels into shared, automated, and team-operable tools—creating clarity and cohesion where native Gmail simply cannot.
How to Configure Email Labels in Gmelius and Unlock Advanced Functionalities
Gmelius enhances Gmail’s labeling system by introducing shared labels, automated workflows, and Kanban-style collaboration. It’s ideal for teams who live in Gmail but need more than the basics.
Creating a shared label
To get started, open Gmail and navigate to the Gmelius sidebar. Click on “Shared Labels”, then select “Create a Shared Label.” You’ll be prompted to enter a label name, select users or teams you’d like to share it with, and configure visibility settings.
Once created, this shared label appears in every invited user’s Gmail sidebar and updates in real time. Any email tagged with this label is immediately visible to all participants—making this a powerful tool for managing shared inboxes like [email protected] or for collaborating on client threads.
Automatically apply shared labels using Gmelius automation
Navigate to your Gmelius dashboard, click on “Automations,” and choose to “Create Automation.” Set your triggers—these could be sender addresses, specific keywords in the subject or body, or even time-based rules. Once your conditions are defined, choose the action “Apply Shared Label” and select the appropriate label from the dropdown.
This means the right emails are routed to the right teammates instantly, without needing manual input. It’s especially useful in fast-paced environments where missing a message can mean missing a lead or letting down a customer.
Creating a board view for your shared labels
Gmelius takes shared labels a step further by letting you visualize them as boards. Head to your Gmelius dashboard, select “Boards,” and choose “Create a Board.” From here, pick a shared label as your board source.
Gmelius will transform all emails under that label into a Kanban-style board, where each email becomes a draggable card. You can create columns that represent stages like “New,” “In Progress,” or “Resolved”—perfect for support, recruitment, or client onboarding workflows.
This visual interface makes it easier to track status, assign owners, and move work along collaboratively—all within Gmail.
Gmail vs. Gmelius Labels
Here is a quick look at Gmelius's advanced label functionalities:
Conclusion: Save Time and Confusion Using Email Labels
Email labels are small, but mighty. According to McKinsey, employees spend 28% of their work week managing emails.² A thoughtful labeling system can reduce that time significantly, cutting through clutter and improving responsiveness.
When used correctly, Gmail labels bring clarity and control to chaotic inboxes. But for growing teams or customer-facing roles, Gmelius elevates this functionality to a whole new level—with shared visibility, team-based automations, and Kanban-style workflows.
Whether you're a solo founder or managing a team, mastering email labels is a no-brainer. Set them up once, and gain hours back each week.
Take Gmelius for a test drive today.
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