What Is Windows Phone 7 Diagnosis Menu & How To Tweak Your Phone With It?
Windows Phone 7 comes under heavy fire from its opponents for a variety of reasons. First there was the “copy/ paste” saga, then issues like MMS errors and Bluetooth file transfer plagued its progress. But to be fair, underneath all that, lies an operating system that is pretty neat and user friendly. If you use WP7 with an open mind, you might just fall in love with it. However, WP7 sure is a newer OS and thus, majority of users don’t know about many of the hidden features/functions present in there. For example it took me weeks to find out that you can select individual alphabets while typing by simply pressing and holding the empty text area. One such ignored feature is the Diagnosis menu in Windows Phone 7 devices. This is a hidden menu which can be accessed using a code (manufacturer dependent), providing you with a ton of options to tweak low-level settings and let you interact with the phone’s hardware directly. The Diagnosis menu is built into devices for the use of manufacturers during device testing. Also, when you send your device back for repairing, Diagnosis menu plays a major role in tracking down the problem.
Diagnostics of your WP7 let you change and configure settings without having a developer unlocked device, and that’s the biggest advantage. Let us discuss Diagnosis menu one by one related to different manufacturers. It should be noted though that most of these codes will work for any manufacturer, simply give it a try.
Samsung Devices
When discussing Windows Phone 7, the term Diagnosis menu strictly refers to Samsung devices. There are similar variations of this hidden menu in devices made by other manufacturers, but usually they are not called Diagnosis menu.
Accessing it is simple enough. Just remember the magic code, ##634#. Put this code in your phone’s dialer and congratulations! You have now entered the Diagnosis mode. In addition to that, an app named Diagnosis will start showing up in your app list. This is merely a shortcut to the menu, and if you want, you can even delete it, it won’t have any impact on the menu’s working.
Looking at your screen after entering the code, don’t worry that you have failed somehow. The new dialer screen you see is the coveted menu. To run diagnostics on your phone, you need to know the codes specified for each task. The list of these codes is not given anywhere in the menu, but that’s what we are here for.
Useful Tasks That Can Be Performed In The Diagnosis Menu
- Checking the remaining battery percentage of your phone: This might sound like an unimportant utility, but trust me, this does come in handy when you are in a pinch and battery life becomes important.
- Increasing the speaker volume of your device
- Increasing the headphone volume of your phone
- And of course, you can enable USB tethering on your Samsung (or even some other) WP7 phone. This functionality has long been clamored for by WP7 users, and Diagnosis menu endows your phone with it, finally!
- Find out the MAC address of your device and its Bluetooth
The list doesn’t end here by any means. There are so many codes that we don’t think any user knows the complete list. However, here are some of the codes that regular users might find useful. Some of these codes (especially the testing ones) might prove to be useful if you are buying a used WP7. The testing codes can ensure if the device’s components are all in working order or not. But first make sure that you enter Diagnosis before you start inputting these codes.
- General Hardware Test: Enter *#0*#
This will open up a new screen in which you can test each of the three base colors individually. The options to check all sensors (accelerometer, proximity, vibration, touch, etc.) are also present in this menu. - Automatic Hardware Test: Enter *#05#
This covers pretty much all the functionality of the previous code, but this time, everything is automated. The diagnosis menu guides you through each step of testing. - Bluetooth Test: Enter *#232333#
But first make sure there is an active Bluetooth device in the vicinity. - See the EXE files on your device: *#914789#
Gives you a detailed, registry-level list of all the files present in your app launcher. - Check the lock status of your phone: *#7465625#
Gives you network lock status, subset lock, SP lock and CP lock. - Call timing log of your phone: *#22558463#
- Perform Factory Reset: *2767*3855#
Please note that this code will erase everything from your phone, including SMS, contacts, account, apps, media. Only apply this in extreme conditions. - Check brightness controls: *#3*#
This can be used to check the maximum and minimum brightness levels. And also to test if the auto bright feature is working properly or not. - Clock Settings: *#0782#
- Tune Sound: *#0002*28346#
- Location settings: *#1472365#
Helps in monitoring how the GPS and other related stuff are working.
This list is not even close to complete. There are a lot more codes out there, we just chose the most productive ones for normal, every day users.
LG Devices
LG Quantum and LG Optimus 7 are the major Windows Phone devices from LG, with a few more expected to be released soon for Mango. In LG devices, the Diagnosis menu serves pretty much the same functionality as its Samsung counterpart, but under a different name. On LG phones this useful, hidden menu assumes the name of MFG (acronym for Manufacturing) menu.
How To Access The MFG Menu?
The code to open up MFG menu is the same as Samsung and Dell. Simply go to your LG phone’s dialer and enter ##634#. But here comes the big difference. For LG, you need to input a token password (which is not really a secret pass) before you can access the MFG app. When asked for the password, enter 277634#*#
This, by the way, stands for APPMFG (just to help you memorize it). Once you have done that, you will get the diagnostic menu screen which lists all the options available to you without having to enter or memorize any codes, unlike Samsung Diagnosis. The most relevant and useful settings are present in the Engineering menu, which can be accessed by tapping 7 from the MFG main screen.
So What Can You Accomplish With MFG Menu?
LG’s hidden menu can be used to configure a lot of settings according to the need of users. For starters, you can de-brand your LG phone using MFG. This means you will be freed of all the restrictions put on you by your service provider (carrier) and your phone will receive OS updates as soon as Windows officially releases them (no wait for carrier release).
As MFG is a diagnosis menu, it can help you diagnose most problems with your device hardware. But that’s not all, you can resolve WP7’s long-standing MMS issue with MFG too. The method described in our guide simply tells you how to turn on MMS by editing the hardware’s settings according to your carrier settings.
Apart from these two tasks, you can perform all Samsung tasks with MFG too, and it’s even simpler. Just browse through the menu’s options until you find what you’re looking for. It’s all listed there, without the need to remember any secret code.
HTC Devices
HTC phones running Windows Phone 7 present a unique case with regard to the diagnosis menu. Officially there is no Diagnostics tool available in HTC phones for WP7. However, there is a similar app (menu) which should do the trick for you. It’s named Field Test, and is once again, a hidden menu in WP7 devices manufactured by HTC.
Accessing The Field Test Menu
Go to your phone’s dialer and input ##3282#. An LG MFG-like menu will appear on your screen. Through this menu you can perform a variety of tasks including the following.
- Testing GSM settings
- Checking out GPRS and AMR configuration
- WCDMA
- Test options related to 3G
While these settings are already clearly visible in Field Test, there is one other very special setting which isn’t as easy to find. Here it is.
Limit SMS Storage On Your Phone
You might have noticed that WP7 puts no limit on SMS storage memory. This is a good feature, but there are scenarios when this can become an unnecessary burden. With the upcoming Mango update having picture and video integration with the stock messaging app, limiting your SMS memory storage might be a good idea. This can be done by accessing the Field Test menu as described above and then instead of selecting any of the listed options, navigating to the settings screen by tapping the three dots present at the bottom of the screen. A “Limit SMS Memory” option will be there. Simply toggle it on and you are done.
Dell Venue Pro
Almost all WP7 phones have some sort of hidden menu that can be accessed and then used for diagnostic purposes. The name might vary from one manufacturer to another, but the basics and functionality remain unchanged. One example of this is the Dell Venue Pro. It is Dell’s first (and for now, only) Windows Phone 7 device. The diagnosis menu is called EM in Venue Pro. The access code remains the same as that of LG and Samsung, that is ##634#. No password is needed (unlike LG) and you can perform tasks like gaining USB tethering on your Dell Venue Pro. Besides that, EM performs all other diagnosis tasks using an interface similar to LG’s MFG.
Diagnosis menu can prove to be your ultimate friend when it comes to checking if your device is in full working order or not. And that’s not all, it comes with some pretty handy extra features that can help you get the most out of your phone.
That is it for now. We hope to make this a dynamic post and will keep updating it with the release of newer WP7 devices. Stay tuned!
The AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Is Dead…..
As we heard earlier today that AT&T and T-Mobile couldn’t find buyers for assets that could help make their merger a reality, but now there’s no need to worry about it: AT&T has just announced that the deal is officially dead.
In a recent release (reproduced in full below), AT&T points at the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice, and states that the actions of the two parties “do not change the realities of the U.S. wireles industry.”
They go on to say the the merger would have been an interim solution to the spectrum allocation issue that plagues the industry, and that without the merger, “customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.” Harsh words from AT&T, and ones that may not be true if the contents of an FCC staff report are to be believed.
Released shortly after AT&T and T-Mobile withdrew their merger application, the staff report called into question the claims that the merger “would serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity.” In their investigation, the FCC determined among other things that approving the merger would drastically reduce competition and investment in the wireless space, contrary to AT&T’s claims of jobs and mobile broadband for all.
As far as the FCC is concerned, today’s is a big win for consumers a big blow to AT&T. And I mean a big blow —with the merger in ruins, AT&T must shell out $4 billion to T-Mobile USA parent company Deutsche Telekom in the form of money and spectrum access. What’s more, the death of the merger will also see AT&T and T-Mobile entering into a roaming agreement, the fruits of which we may have already started to see.
AT&T Ends Bid To Add Network Capacity Through T-Mobile USA Purchase Company Reaffirms Its Commitment to Mobile Broadband Leadership Dallas, Texas, December 19, 2011
ShareThis AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) said today that after a thorough review of options it has agreed with Deutsche Telekom AG to end its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA, which began in March of this year.
The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.
“AT&T will continue to be aggressive in leading the mobile Internet revolution,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “Over the past four years we have invested more in our networks than any other U.S. company. As a result, today we deliver best-in-class mobile broadband speeds –connecting smartphones, tablets and emerging devices at a record pace –and we are well under way with our nationwide 4G LTE deployment.
“To meet the needs of our customers, we will continue to invest,” Stephenson said. “However, adding capacity to meet these needs will require policymakers to do two things. First, in the near term, they should allow the free markets to work so that additional spectrum is available to meet the immediate needs of the U.S. wireless industry, including expeditiously approving our acquisition of unused Qualcomm spectrum currently pending before the FCC. Second, policymakers should enact legislation to meet our nation’s longer-term spectrum needs.
“The mobile Internet is a dynamic industry that can be a critical driver in restoring American economic growth and job creation, but only if companies are allowed to react quickly to customer needs and market forces,” Stephenson said.
To reflect the break-up considerations due Deutsche Telekom, AT&T will recognize a pretax accounting charge of $4 billion in the 4th quarter of 2011. Additionally, AT&T will enter a mutually beneficial roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom
HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio review
Hardware
Just like the original Sensation, the XE is well-built and beautiful to behold. Its tapered edges and smooth wraparound aluminum case conspire to make it feel thinner than the 11.4mm statistic might suggest. Of course, the XE differs in its coloring and when we first heard about the red accents we were worried they might look cheesy, like a Qosimo gaming laptopor something, but our fears were misplaced. The coloring of the navigation button back-lights, the speaker grill and the ring around the camera lens all helped to lift this phone above the plain black and silver hordes. The speaker grill and front-facing camera both have glinting chrome borders which make them look extra special. Add in the bold red headphones with the Beats logo on the back of each bud and it’s an all-round good look — unless you prefer your gadgets to be more discreet.
Processor
Battery Life
Camera
Software
Beats Audio
- “Beats by Dr Dre and HTC will work together to reengineer how sound is delivered so that the consumer feels the music the way that the artist intended.
- “When it comes to doing music justice, you’re way ahead of the crowd with… Beats Audio™”
- “The tailor-made headset is specially engineered to deliver extraordinary sound. Finally, hear what you’ve been missing.”
We know that the Beats Audio EQ can sound great with the right type of music, but we need something more objective than that. So, with EQs as our starting point, we decided to test out HTC’s claims about Beats Audio with help from the friendly chaps at AMS Acousticsin North London. Thanks to their input, we now have a ton of objective information about exactly what Beats Audio does. Indulge us with your patience and we’ll do our best to explain.
Round One
The first thing our tests revealed was that the Sensation XE and packaged headphones form a bass-heavy system, even before you activate Beats Audio. Looking at the raw data with BA disabled, we see that the lowest frequencies still have the highest amplitude, while the higher frequencies get steadily quieter. This EQ is the equivalent of old-school “bass boost” and we’ve listened to enough music with BA off to know it sounds just about as boring.
In addition to the treble boost, most of the other frequencies are also amplified to a greater or lesser extent, delivering an overall jump in loudness that screams “Beats Audio ON!” in the language of pure decibels. This is supported by the frequency response curve below: the BA-enabled curve follows the BA-disabled curve very tightly, but is significantly higher (i.e., louder) all the way along — with the extra boost at the bass, upper mid-range, and highest trebles that we’ve already observed.
But we have another question to answer before we call it a match: HTC’s second claim about Beats Audio being tailored to the packaged Beats headphone. Does the same Beats Audio EQ get activated regardless of which headphone is plugged in? If the answer is “yes,” then the consumer is simply being duped into thinking a dumb EQ is more than it is. If the answer is “no,” then the marketing spiel has some justification.
Round Two
We should also clarify at this point that our XE allowed us to activate Beats Audio with whatever headphones we liked. However, it only explicitly acknowledged the YourBeats headphones, which triggered a popup message on the XE’s screen when we plugged them in. We’re not sure this is how HTC intended the software to behave — in fact, we’ve been told that Beats Audio should not be available with the third-party headphones. But this is how the review device worked for us — and a good thing too, because it allowed us to learn a lot more about Beats Audio.
So, starting with Beat Audio disabled, we noticed that the same excessive bass was apparent with the CX300 in-ears. However, when we moved on to the more expensive and more balanced over-ear headphones, the bass boost was matched by a similar boost to the lower trebles. This suggests that XE has been designed with a relatively common S-shaped sound profile already, even without Beats Audio enabled, but this treble amplification is largely lost with the in-ear Senn CX300, just as it was with the packaged YourBeats.
What happened when we activated Beats Audio in these tests? Well, this is where it got interesting. With the Senn CX300, Beats Audio further boosted the bass as well as some mid-range frequencies, but it totally failed to remedy the lack of treble. In other words, the EQ it applied was clearly different to that with the YourBeats, and the end result was nothing like Dr Dre’s S-curve we discovered in the last round. The same can be said of both the over-ear headphones we tried: they generally displayed the same pattern, with a bass and mid-range boost, but the end result was nothing like with the YourBeats. This is illustrated in the graph below, which compares the Beats Audio EQ with the YourBeats, versus the average Beats Audio EQ with the other headphones. The shapes are totally different, and the key difference is the treble.
This leaves us at a 1-1 draw between HTC and the skeptics. The skeptics won a point when the Beats Audio power spectrum proved to be S-shaped and hence have nothing to do with “what the artist intended.” HTC drew level when it turned out that Beats Audio only delivers this particular S-shaped spectrum with the compatible headphones. So can we call it quits? Nope, we need a final round.
The decider
Wrap-up
The Beats Audio software isn’t complete marketing vapor, but it’s still inherently gimmicky and adds nothing in the XE’s favor: you could achieve a better result on the original Sensation simply by downloading a third-party music player that lets you play with the EQ settings yourself.
The only thing which might sway us to by the Sensation XE over its predecessor is the packaged YourBeats headphones, coupled with the red styling on the phone. But for us to opt for the XE, it’d have to by priced similarly to the original Sensation, such that we’re not paying much extra for these headphones. They’re only good if they’re a bargain — otherwise we’d prefer to take matters into our own hands and spend $80 to $100 on some Etymotics, which would be even better.
Master the New Gmail with These Tips, Shortcuts, and Add-Ons
Gmail is the best email client around, and chances are you use it all day, every day. It's also filled with tricks, shortcuts, and time-saving tools you can use to kick the crap out of your email. Today, we're going into exhaustive overdrive, covering all our favorite Gmail tricks, both old and new. Even if you already consider yourself a Gmail ninja, there's bound to be something here you haven't yet discovered.
Photo remixed from an original by Katerinar-spb.
It's been a few years since we talked about our favorite advanced Gmail features, and with Google rolling out a new Gmail interface to everybody, now's the perfect time to get re-acquainted. Here's an overview of the tips we'll be covering (click on a link to jump ahead to that section):
- Tweaking Gmail's New Layout
- Mouse Shortcuts
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Advanced Searches and Filters
- Useful Settings You Should Enable
- Gmail Labs You Should Enable
- Extensions and Userscripts
- Manage All Your Email Accounts from Gmail
- Integrate Gmail with the Desktop
- Further Reading
Tweaking Gmail's New Layout
The new interface gives you a bit more control over the way your inbox looks, which means you can further customize Gmail to suit your preferences. Here are a few of the things you can do:
Change the Display Density: Upon first enabling the new look, you'll probably notice it isn't quite as space-efficient as the old layout. It's a bit easier to read, and if you have a big monitor, it might be fine—but if you prefer the density of the old layout, you can get it back by hitting the Settings cog in the upper right-hand corner of your Inbox (the one right above the Inbox, not on the grey toolbar at the top of the page) and choosing "Cozy" or "Compact" as your layout. "Compact" is very similar to the old layout, while "Cozy" is a happy medium between "Comfortable" and "Compact". Note that if you have a small screen and your browser isn't maximized, Gmail will automatically adjust the density accordingly.
Inbox Type: Google's added a new feature that splits you inbox up into a few different blocks, so you can see your most important emails at a glance (note that, while similar, this feature is still separate from the Multiple Inboxes Lab).. Head to the Inbox tab of Gmail's settings to change it. Under "Inbox Type", you have a few chioces, mainly deciding if any messages are shown above all your other messages in the inbox. You can choose to show starred, unread, or important messages in their own separate little box above everything else. You can also choose the Priority Inbox layout, which combines all the other options, putting Important and unread messages at the very top, with starred messages in their own box below that, with the rest of your inbox under that. You can tweak these inbox sections by clicking the "Options" or "Add Section" button next to the section in question.
Mouse Shortcuts
Sometimes, checking off messages and archiving, deleting, or applying labels can seem like it takes forever. Gmail has a few shortcuts built-in for making the inbox easier. Here are a few of our favorites.
Drag and Drop Labels: Applying labels has gotten a bit more difficult in the most recent version of Gmail. Now, you need to check a message, select the label from the "Labels" dropdown, and hit the "Apply" button at the bottom of the dropdown menu—which I always forget to do. A much easier way, if you're a mouse user, is to just drag the label from the left sidebar onto the message itself. Alternatively, if you have keyboard shortcuts enabled, just hit "l" on your keyboard, type the first few letters of the label you want, and hit Enter—it'll immediately apply that label to all checked messages.
Alternatively, you can drag a message—from the left edge of its row—to a label to remove it from your inbox and apply only that label, if you prefer to use labels more like folders.
Shift-Click to Select Multiple Messages: If you want to select a big block of messages, you don't need to check every box individually. Like a native program on your computer, you can check the topmost box, hold Shift, then check the box at the bottom to select a large chunk of messages in just a few clicks.
Keyboard Shortcuts
If you're a keyboard lover, you can navigate nearly the entire Gmail interface without ever touching the mouse. To enable them, head to the General tab of Gmail's settings and press "Enable Keyboard Shortcuts". There are a lot of keyboard shortcuts, but these are some of the most useful:
Navigate Messages with j and k: From the inbox view, you can cycle through messages with the "j" and "k" keys (j to go down, k to go up). Doing this won't select the messages with a checkbox, but it will highlight them with a thin blue line on the left side of its row, showing you that it's ready to be acted upon.
Open Messages with o: When a message is highlighted in the inbox, you can open it by hitting Enter or tapping "o" on the keyboard. Note that once messages are open, you can continue to cycle through them with j and k.
Move Through a Thread with n and p: If you want to view past messages in a longer thread, you can use n and p to highlight messages in a thread just like you use j and k to highlight messages in the inbox. Pressing the n key higlights the next message, while p highlights the previous message, and you can expand a highlighted message by pressing the "o" key—again, just like in the inbox view.
Select Messages with x: If you want to check that message's box—so you can add a label, move it to a new folder, or whatever—just hit the x key on your keyboard.
Apply Labels with l: As described above, you can apply a label to a message by hitting the "l" key, typing in the first few letters of the label you want, and pressing Enter. You can do this when you're viewing the message in question, or from the inbox if you've checked the message's box.
Star, Spam, Archive, and Trash Messages: You can star messages with the "s" key, mark them as spam with "!", archive it with "e", or delete it with "#". You can do this either from the message view or after highlighting a message in the inbox.
Compose, Reply, and Forward Messages: Similar to the above, you can compose a new message by hitting "c", reply to a message with "r" (or reply all with "a"), and forward it by pressing "f". If you hold Shift while pressing one of these keys, it'll open the compose view in a new window, which is handy if you want to consult another email while writing one.
Bring Up the More Actions Menu with the Period Key: For your lesser-used actions, you can hit "." to bring up the More Actions menu. This lets you mark all messages as read, or mark selected messages as unread, in addition to muting a specific conversation, adding it to tasks, or filtering messages just like it.
Mark Items as Important with the + and - Keys: If you use Priority Inbox, you can mark messages as important with the "+" key (or rather, the = key, since you don't need to hold shift when pressing it) and mark them as unimportant with the - key. This helps Gmail understand what is and isn't important to you, so Priority Inbox can have more accurate filters.
Jump to Different Views: To quickly jump to a different part of your inbox—such as Starred messages, Drafts, All Mail, Contacts, or more—you can hit the "g" key (for "Go") and one of the following keys immediately afterward:
- g then i goes to your inbox
- g then s goes to your starred messages
- g then t goes to Sent Messages
- g then d goes to Drafts
- g then a goes to All Mail
- g then c goes to Contacts
- g then k goes to Tasks
- g then l then the label name goes to that label
These are just a few of our favorite shortcuts. There are a ton of other keyboard shortcuts, and you can see them all in one handy cheat sheet by hitting Shift + / on your keyboard (also known as typing the "?" key). It might take a bit to get used to some of the keyboard shortcuts, but once you do, you'll be able to navigate the inbox a lot faster.
Advanced Searches and Filters That Help You Find Anything
While many of you may be used to traditional email folders—where you file away messages into categories for easy retreival—Gmail has opted for a more search-based philosophy, in which you can perform very advanced searches throughout your entire inbox using operators. For example, to search for a message from Adam with a subject containing the words "navigation app", you would type this in Gmail's search bar:
You can perform these searches on the spot, or create advanced filters that apply labels, archive, or otherwise act on email as soon as it comes in. I won't go into detail on how to create these advanced searches, since we've talked about it at length before—so check out our feature on building advanced Gmail searches for more info.
Useful Settings You Should Enable
Apart from mastering certain skills, you can enable a few settings in Gmail's preferences to really get the most out of your inbox. Here are some of our favorites (all of which are under the General tab of Gmail's settings):
Always Use HTTPS: Checking this ensures that Gmail always uses a secure connection, which protects you from people sniffing around your email. For more information, chck out our explainer on what HTTPS is and why you should care about it.
External Content: Gmail doesn't load images in email automatically, which can be kind of annoying—when you want to see them, you have to click "load images" every time. Marking this setting will automatically load images in messages from any address to whom you've sent email twice ("trusted senders"), somewhat negating this annoyance.
Superstars: Superstars lets you use multiple colors and types of stars to differentiate starred messages from each other. It's good if you want to mark multiple messages as important, but as having different kinds of importance—whether it's just "more important" or whether one means "follow up" and one means "to do". Just drag stars from the bottom row to the "In Use" row, and every time you star a message, you can cycle through the in use stars by clicking on the star icon next to the message.
Personal Level Indicators: This displays a small arrow next to messages sent to a mailing list, and a double arrow next to messages sent specifically to you. That way you can see, at a glance, which emails might be more important or personal because they were sent to you and not a group of people.
Experimental Labs that Power Up Gmail
If you head to the Labs section of Gmail's preferences, you can enable a bunch of new, experimental features created by members of the Gmail team. There are a ton of great labs in there, so we suggest you look through them yourself, but some of our favorites include:
Canned Responses: If you find yourself sending a certain type of message over and over again, you can put them into a "canned response" to save you typing. Just select one of your canned responses in the compose form and it'll fill out your email for you (and you can edit it as you please). Of course, you can also accomplish this with text expansion.
Quick Links: this adds a box to Gmail's left sidebar that lets you bookmark any URL in Gmail and quickly access it—whether it's a frequent search you run, individual messages, or anything else.
Multiple Inboxes: Gmail has a version of this set up in its preferences, but if you don't like the default inbox layouts it provides, you can make your own with Multiple Inboxes. You can list any label or search as its own block in your inbox view, which is good for all sorts of things—like using Gmail as your one-stop communication hub.
SmartLabels: Gmail's new SmartLabels lab automatically filters incoming email into "Bulk", "Notification", and "Forum" messages. You can modify the filters if need be, but it's a good way to see at a glance which messages might be spammy or notification-oriented without creating your own filters.
Unread Message Icon: This adds a small number to Gmail's favicon, so you can see how many unread messages you have even if you aren't currently looking at your Inbox—just check Gmail's tab. This only works in updated versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.
Undo Send: This gives you a period of anywhere between 5 and 30 seconds to undo the sending of any messages after you hit Send (you get to choose the window of time).
Gmail has a ton of other labs available for experimentation, so if this has got you curious, check out our lists of the best Gmail labs here and here.
Browser Extensions and Userscripts That Customize Gmail Even Further
While Gmail contains loads of customizations in its own settings panel, you can tweak it even further using extensions for your browser. We've mentioned most of these before, so we won't go into them too deeply here. Instead, check out these previous roundups of our favorite Gmail extensions:
Fix Gmail's Newest Annoyances with These Userstyles and Userscripts: This is a collection of userstyles and userscripts for the new Gmail layout, that fixes its little annoyances or powers it up even more. If you're just now switching to the new Gmail, definitely check all of these out. They'll work in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.
Better Gmail 2 and Its Associated Userscripts: These tweaks—which you can grab as a single Firefox extension or as individual userscripts that work in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari—add a number of features to Gmail to make your inbox easier to browse. Whether it's adding attachment icons to your inbox view, highlighting messages as you mouse over them, or hiding the Chat box, you're bound to find a tweak or two in here that you like.
Minimalist Everything for Chrome: This extension contains tweaks for all your favorite sites, including Gmail—and it's still the best Gmail tweaker we've seen yet. It can remove ads, hide the chat box, change the links at the top of the screen (that lead to other Google Services), display desktop notifications, and even set Gmail as your default mail client (so clicking on an email address in Chrome will open up Gmail instead of another service). If you use Chrome and Gmail, this is a must-have extension.
Manage All Your Email Accounts from Gmail
Gmail is an awesome mail client, and even if some of your accounts aren't Gmail accounts, you can still manage them from Gmail's powerful, configurable inbox. To do this, you just need to set up Gmail fetching and Gmail's "send as" feature—which we've detailed before, so we won't go into it here. But if you have multiple addresses, this makes managing them a bit easier. Plus, couple it with the Multiple Inboxes lab, and you've got yourself a powerful, multi-account inbox view.
Integrate Gmail with the Desktop
Gmail does almost everything it needs to right from the web, but it could use a few extra things for when you're not in the browser. Minimalist Everything for Chrome can send desktop notifications, as well as set Gmail as your default mail client. Similarly, Firefox's web protocol handler will do it automatically (by asking you if you want to use Gmail whenever you hit a mailto link). However, if you want a bit more system-wide coverage, you can install one of the following applications:
Google's Gmail Notifier: Google has created their own Google notifier for both Mac and Windows, which sends you notifications for new email, as well as letting set Gmail as your default mail client. It'll run in your system tray or menu bar, notify you of new messages, and take you to Gmail whenever you hit a "mailto" link.
Gmail Growl: If you use the Growl for Windows notification system, the Gmail Growl program will not only notify you of new messages, but also set Gmail as your system-wide mail client. Mac users with Growl can add the Google+Growl program to the above Google Notifier for Growl integration as well.
Further Reading
We've tried to cover as much as possible here, but we could honestly talk about Gmail forever. After you've gone through all the above tips and tricks, be sure to check out these posts for even more Gmail goodies:
- Top 10 Things You Forgot Gmail Can Do
- How to Set Up Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts (Properly) on iOS. Android users don't have to do much, but iOS users need to go through a process to get everything working swimmingly—though you could also check out the new Gmail app for iOS as well.
- Create Instant Disposable Gmail Addresses, whether for avoiding jumk mail or just filtering certain types of messages. A very cool trick.
- How to Free Up Space in Gmail, for when you start to run out of storage
- How to Access Gmail When Its Down, on those rare occasions. You might also want to check out How to Make Gmail Play Nicely With Your Desktop Client, since you'll be needing it when Gmail goes down.
- Turn Gmail Into Your Ultimate GTD Inbox, for you GTD fans out there.
- How to Add a Snooze Button to Gmail, No Extensions Required
- Boomerang Schedules Your Gmail Messages for if you're looking for more cool extensions. It's out of beta now, too, so no invite is required.
As always, for even more, you can check out our #Gmail tag for even more Gmail articles here on Lifehacker.
Gmail's a pretty powerful webapp, so it's nearly impossible to contain every tip, setting, and feature in one post—but this should take you pretty far. For more Gmail tips, you can always look through Gmail's support pages, peruse the settings, and check out their Become a Gmail Ninja page. Got any of your own favorite tips that we didn't mention? Share them with us in the comments below.