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!

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.