Searching your emails on your mobile phone

What do I do?

I have a confession to make - I mainly use the native iphone mail app more than the gmail app but only because I get mail from a variety of different accounts and I keep them separated so I know what they are about.

You can get all of your emails sent into one gmail account but I don't because I make a rule for myself not to look at work emails when it is my day off.

So my regular email looks like this image to the left.  Lots of different inboxes and I only open one at a time.  However, I also use the gmail app which is native to most android phones for searching.

It mixes in all of the gmail accounts that I have, but once again this does not matter, because Google is the King of Search.  It allows me to search extensively through all my gmail accounts at once.

The search box allows you to search for a word.  Let me give you an example, I searched my gmail for the word "dog".  Apart from some very obvious ones, the results brought up a booking I have for the Indian Pacific Railway.  I wondered why that email had the word "dog" in it and after extensive searching through the email and then the attachments, I found small print in my booking contract that had information for people with guide dogs.


If that doesn't prove to you how Google is the King of Search, I don't know what will!  (The iphone mail search did not give the same results - only the obvious ones like "Dogo News.")

Searching in GMail Phone App

So how do you search in mobile Gmail?  Just open the app and write your word into the search bar at the top.  Or you can write in "from:_____" whoever it is from or "has:_________" for a word or attachment.  These are called operators and if you want to know more, you can find a list of these operators on this article (click here) about powerful search operators on gmail.  There are lots that you might find useful.

Once again, google is superior for searching.  If you get a lot of emails like I do and like to keep them all in one place, then gmail is definitely the mobile app for you.

Searching Your Email for that Elusive Message

I do not clear my email inbox like many people.  I usually delete commercial types of emails and keep all personal ones as well as informative ones.  The amount of space that the emails take up is so minimal that after 10 years of using gmail, I still have ample room.
A friend clears her inbox regularly and puts me to shame but only in a fleeting way because it is a hangover of how I used to be more organised when I used different platforms for email.  The reason why my shame is fleeting is that I can find any of my emails so easily, using the search function in the gmail inbox.
This blog post today is to show you how "Google is the King of Search" when it comes to finding an elusive email if you use gmail.

On your laptop or desktop computer, gmail has a search box at the top, like most email platforms.  But now for the amazing, fantabulous difference! The little down arrow in that box is the key to effective searching.

Once you click on that down arrow, it opens up a world of possibilities.

You can now search by who the email is from OR who it was to, OR what the subject line was, OR if the email included a word like "holiday" or "gemstone".  You can also eliminate words that it doesn't have so if you have narrowed down your search to a word like "sale" you can eliminate those emails that have "Briscoes" in them as well.
You can also search by size (I don't often use that one because I never know how big they are!) OR you can search by date (maybe it was in the last year or the last 5 years or maybe just yesterday) and you can search through all mail including your archives or just a selection of your emails in these places: -

Right at the bottom you can search by emails that have attachments - really useful if you know that it had a contract, a pdf or a document attached.  You can use any one of the search criteria or several of them if you like, but you will find it such a useful tool.  Don't forget, the down arrow in the search box - you will find it in Google Drive as well!

The search function in the mobile gmail app also works very well.  But we will cover that one next time.  Try out today's tips and see how you get on.  

You will really understand how Google is the King of Search!

More on the "Keep" Note Taking App for All Devices

Yesterday I posted about my choice of a note-taking app which is really useful for making lists and checking and that app is Keep.  You can google it to find out what it does but here is a short introductory video from me demonstrating how it can be used on your laptop, tablet or phone, no matter what device you chose.

It is quite a long video - 7 minutes but I hope you find it useful.  Give me a comment (on this blog or on the youtube.)

Going shopping?

"Keep" for Making Notes on Your Phone or Computer

You are sure to need a list from time to time.  One of the best list-making apps is Keep.  As we speak, my husband is at the supermarket looking at his phone, as he checks what I have put on the shopping list and ticks it off.  He's not that proficient on the computer or phone so I have pinned the shopping list to the top of all my notes so he can find it easily in the dozens of notes I have.  He knows he just has to open the Keep app when he goes shopping.

You can see, at the bottom right-hand side of this list, two circles in the screenshot.  This means that I have shared the "Groceries" note that I made with him and one other person (my granddaughter who lives with me) so that anyone of us can add to the shopping list at any time.  

• Because we have made it a checkbox list, every time that he buys an item he checks it and it drops off the top of the list.  
• Each time you go to the supermarket you can re-use the same list by unchecking the items that you need, or adding anything new as well.
• You can also add a time and date to the list so that it pops up on the phone, or, even better, you can add the address where you go shopping so that when you arrive there (if location is enabled on your phone), the list pops up on the phone as well.  
• You can change the colour of the list, but more importantly, add images to the list (which I sometimes do to make sure he gets the right brand), add drawings (which can be converted to text if you write text on the drawing pad) and many more things which I won't go into right now.  
• My husband often writes his own list in handwriting and so I just take a photo of it and add it to the Keep note.  That way it doesn't matter if he loses or forgets his paper list.
• Everything is saved in the cloud, so if you are sitting at home like I am at the moment, you can add things to the list and it will be seen straight away by the shopper with data on their smart phone.  
• You can get Keep for free from the App Store or from Google Play if you have an android phone, otherwise just search for it on your computer and when you sign in with your gmail you will be able to see the same lists that are on your phone.
• The coolest thing is that Keep integrates with your google docs and email as well but that is another story to tell on another day.  

Tomorrow, I will also share a video with you on how to use Keep.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Searching the Internet Using your Voice on your Phone

Do you need to search for something on your phone?

• Sometimes your eyes are tired. 
• Sometimes you are long-sighted and don't have your glasses at hand.  
• Sometimes your fingers are tired.  
• Sometimes your fingers feel too fat and make too many annoying mistakes in the text. 

If you need to search using your phone, you can try voice alternatives, for instance, you can use a voice search using the Google App (or a Chrome Voice Search App or even Siri on an iphone or Hey Google on your Android phone.)

This short video shows you how to search using the Google App using your voice.  It is quick so pause it if you need to, or restart it!

Voice Search Using the Google App

Make sure you have the free Google app installed on your phone. Android phones can get it from the playstore at this link.  Apple phones can get it from the app store at this link.  It's easy as.  Follow these instructions.  Speak clearly.  

The more times you use it, the better it becomes.

More about Google Photos

If you know me at all, you know I love science and nature.  I love to take photos of the natural world and I have thousands.  My phone would not work well if all of the space was used up by photos so I always upload my photos to Google Photos.  That way I can delete the photos on my phone without losing all of the memories. 

Google Photos has so many wonderful features.  You can search for your photos by date, location, faces, or words. For example, when I search my google photos for the random word "bike", it brings up all of these pics which are either taken of bikes or show a bike in the distance or up-close, it doesn't matter.  This amazing search facility is just one of the wonderful things that Google does so well.

You can also identify and name people in your photos and then search for that name and it will bring up every image in your photos with that person.  Amazing facial recognition! 

You can use Google Photos on your phone and also on your home computer or laptop.  You can also share the photos easily with friends and family, making albums if you wish.  You can choose whether others can add photos to these albums as well so if you have had a family function, everyone can upload to the same album.

I made a video three years ago about using Google Photos on your phone or your laptop, which I am sharing with you here today. One thing has changed since I made the video and that is that your photos are no longer stored in your Google Drive.  You can access them directly in the cloud by signing in to your google with your gmail and searching for photos.google.com.

If you have any questions about google photos, send me an email, or post a comment below.

  

Clean up some space on your phone

Maintaining your smartphone is a priority if you want to be able to use it to its full potential.

There are two things that I think you should be doing regularly

1. Updating your operating system whenever you are notified of new updates.  This helps with the security of your phone, and makes it more efficient as bugs get fixed in updates.  Very occasionally this will mean that some apps do not work straight away because the app designer (usually 3rd party)  hasn't kept up to date but generally speaking, they will start to work again straight away.  I have met people who won't update their phone operating system for fear of losing some data on their phone.  This is commonly known as cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Believe me, I update my phone every time and I have not lost any data yet.  You can back up your data if you have space (for example in the iCloud) but really you shouldn't have that much data saved on your phone anyway.   You can choose which apps you back up data on.  On my iphone, you do that in the settings, under iCloud. Here is a screenshot of my phone data saved in the cloud. You can see that I back up less than 1GB of my phone data. Apple charges for more than 5GB so I personally don't go for that option, and that brings me to the second point. 
2. Keeping as much data in the cloud as possible. I only back up my contacts, calendars and a few other apps using iCloud and that takes a lot less room than 5GB.  I also try to use apps that work in "the cloud" anyway, so there is no need to save data on my phone.   For example
   
   "Scrabble" is a free app but there is also a premium version for which I paid a minimal amount.  I don't remember exactly what I paid for it as it is a while ago, but it is listed as $US9.99 in the app store now, and that is a small price to pay for the pleasure of playing scrabble with people all over the world.  The data is all stored in the cloud, linked to my facebook profile.  Whenever there is an update, the app collects the data from there when it links to my profile.The other thing that I advise all smartphone users to do is to store all of their photos in Google Photos.  Download the Google Photos App, now before you use up all of your space.  Google Photos backs-up to the cloud that is absolutely free and must be one of the best apps you have ever used.  Once you have connected to wifi it will back up all your photos (thus saving your phone's data plan) in the cloud and you can delete all the photos on your phone, or just keep a few thus maximising the space on your phone.  I love Google Photos because there are so many features and I have thousands and thousands of photos stored in the cloud for free. 

 Tomorrow I will share a little video with you to highlight some of the features of Google Photos.  Until then, install the app because it will take a while for your photos to back up if you have quite a few on your phone.  All you need is a gmail account to sign in with and wifi to back up with. Open the app and start backing up your photos now!