No one is happy to get spam emails. Unfortunately, spammers don’t care about that. If you use Gmail, you can try the two simple ways we going to cover below.
Gmail has actually some default features that you can use to prevent spammers from sending you spam emails. However, we bet that not all users — especially new users — already know about them. Here are 2 simplest ways that you can try to stop spam emails from getting into your inbox.
1. Create filters
Gmail allows you to create filters to put together emails by certain criteria such as keyword, sender, file attachment size, and so on. When creating a filter, you can specify an action to be applied to the filtered emails. One of the actions you can apply is to automatically delete the emails.
To create a new filter in Gmail, click the tiny arrow icon on the search bar.
Add the criteria you want to add. For instance, if you want to filter emails by a sender, you can type the email address of the sender on the From field. You can add multiple criteria for a single filter. Once done adding the criteria, click the Create filter button.
On the next step, select an action you want to apply to the filtered emails. For instance, if you want to automatically delete the filtered emails, you can select the Delete it option. Click the Create filter button to create the filter.
You can edit the filter you have created. To do so, go the Gmail settings page by clicking the gear icon on the upper-right corner and click See all settings.
Open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab. Specify a filter you want to edit and click the edit link to edit it. If you want to delete the filter, simply click the delete link.
2. Block senders
If you block someone on Gmail, her/his email will be automatically sent to the spam folder by Gmail every time she/he is trying to send you a new email. You can do this if you often get emails from someone you don’t know about and get annoyed by her/his emails.
To block someone on Gmail, first, open the email of someone you want to block just like usual. Once the email opens, click the three-dot icon on the right side and select Block “sender”.
To unblock someone you have blocked, you can open the Gmail settings page. Open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab. Specify someone you want to unblock and click the unblock link.
The bottom line
Two simple tips to prevent your inbox from being overflowed by emails. First, never use your main email address — work email in particular — when subscribing to a newsletter. Or, if you have to use your main email address, you can create a folder and create a new filter to automatically send newsletter emails to the folder.
Second, you can enable the Forums and Updates tabs (these tabs are not enabled by default). If you enable these tabs, Gmail will automatically place email types based on the criteria. For instance, all emails from online groups will be placed to the Forums tab while emails like bills, receipts, and statements will be placed to the Updates tab. To enable these tabs, go to the Gmail settings page and open the Inbox tab. Enable the Updates and Forums options.
If you use the free version of Gmail and want to get rid of ads, you can install a third-party extension like AdLock to block ads. AdLock can block ads in Gmail inbox so that you can focus on your emails without any distractions from ads. In addition, AdLock has the capability to block annoying ads in the forms of pop-ups. You don’t need make any setting. Once the AdLock extension installed, it automatically works to block the ads. Not just on your Gmail dashboard, the extension also blocks ads on any website you visit.