Archiving messages in Gmail

Google Mail (Gmail) has grown to be the most widely used mailing service ever since inception. The growth, massive upsurge in the usage and acceptance of Gmail could be attributed to some factors like how relatively easy to create a Gmail account, the verification process and security of a Gmail account, the ease of usage and (lightly) to the fact that it is owned and run by one of the best tech firms in the world.

Enough of the Gmail eulogy. Let’s get to business – Archiving messages in Gmail.

Gmail has tonnes (literally) of features embedded in any mail account, but the focus of this post is the “Archive” feature. So…

What does Archiving do?

Basically, the aim of the Archive feature is to give your Inbox a cleaner, less cluttered and organized look. In more basic terms, archiving is taking an email and placing it in a hidden folder where it will continue to exist without being deleted.

How is an Archived mail different from a Deleted mail?

When you delete a mail, it means only one thing​ – you don’t want or need that mail anymore… right? Well, the case isn’t the same with archiving a mail.

When you choose to Archive a mail, what you are basically telling Gmail is; “Hey Gmail, I do not want this particular mail cluttering my Inbox. I’m not sure I need it now, neither do I want to delete it. So just keep it in my Archive folder”.

Still don’t get it? Just read on.

Whenever you delete a mail in Gmail, Gmail doesn’t delete the mail immediately. Instead, it sends it to the Trash folder where it enjoys a 30-days trial period after which it gets permanently deleted if not restored.

When you archive a mail on the other hand, the mail is moved away from your Inbox and kept in the Archive folder; a hidden folder. Here, you can view your mail by doing a simple search. You can also un-archive a mail and send it back to your inbox (we’ll be covering that later on in a tutorial).

Why should you archive a mail?

Let’s say there’s​ a mail containing sensitive or personal information like credit card details, banking information etc that you don’t want every prying eyes to see, you can simply whisk it away from your Inbox by archiving it. That way, your mail isn’t deleted but hidden. And only you would know that such mail exists.

There you have it on Archiving messages in Gmail. Got any questions? Or any additions? Feel free to use the comments box below.