Google announced the all-new Gmail last week and began rolling it out for all Android users this week. The update arrived in the Play Store on June 3rd and while it brought some notable changes, there are a few items that have been bugging us. The two that seem to be the most offending is the lack of a delete option and the sender images.

Anyway, as it turns out, both of these can be easily adjusted by heading into the settings. Specifically by heading to Settings -> General Settings. From here you will need to make a few additional taps depending on which item you are adjusting. Those looking to bring back the delete option should tap the first option — Archive & Delete actions.

From here you have a few options available, but those looking to have delete and archive should choose Show archive & delete. Once that has been completed you will then see an option to archive and also to delete when viewing an individual message. Additionally, a tap and hold of a message from the Inbox view will also present both the archive and delete options.

new-gmail-delete-540

Next up is the sender images. These, in theory are nice to see however when you seem to be getting messages from users that don’t have an image set, they seem rather silly. You can get a look at my current inbox from the image here, but we suspect others have a similar look. That said, this change is just as easy as the last. Again, you will need to head into the general settings. Once there just look for Sender image and make sure the button to the right is unchecked.

new-gmail-images-540

Of course, while there were some small annoyances, this update did bring some nice features. For example, the access to the labels (by tapping the menu icon in the upper left) seems convenient. Plus the swipe to clear seems to be a good way to quickly move through some messages.

One of the other differences that arrived with this update is with the multi-deleting (archiving). This latest release requires a tap and hold for each message you want to include. Not ideal, but we suspect it is something that we will get used to with time.

17 COMMENTS

  1. If you leave the sender images on they are treated like the old check boxes from the previous versions. You can tap on them and it selects them, tap multiple for multiple archives/deletes/etc.

    • tapping those always ended up opening them for me – but then again when
      it comes to “Tap this and rotate 36% to the left and swipe” I fail
      completely… Gesture Controls and myself do not get along. IDK what it is, but this “Natural Motion” thing is completely unnatural to me. Maybe I’m too ingrained in the need to be precise, but any time I use a gesture for one function I end up doing a completely different function… so they become more of a pain than anything.

  2. It only requires tap-and-hold to select the first message. Then you only need to tap to select each additional one. So this actually ends up better than the check box method, because you don’t have to aim at the check box, and can rapidly select multiple messages.

  3. You do not have to tap and hold if you have images on. You only need to click the image. Sadly you cannot create labels though yet or select all.

  4. Thanks for the guide. Was meaning to disable this stuff… the most annoying thing was the archive instead of delete… I don’t get why I’d want to archive to begin with tbh.

    • Delete should be reserved for emails that MUST be gone forever such as that incriminating shot of you getting high naked on you mom’s La-Z-Boy while they were out. Everything else should be archived so it can be searched for later. You probably wont, but it’s always there if needed. You never know you needed a deleted email until you need it.

  5. Tapping the picture icons selects them… There was a swipeable instruction pane explaining that when I updated. I don’t know why you keep saying you have to long press anything.

  6. I guess it will be easy getting used to having to select each item to delete individually over time, considering that it is going to take about an hour of time to delete all the emails from wowcher.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.