One of the newer features in Gmail is the ability to change up your inbox to meet your specific productivity needs. If you are familiar with the consumer version of Gmail you might have noticed that these options appear pretty pronounced as they initially are viewed as tabs in that interface. Within Google Apps the switch for this this information is a bit more out of the way, but still simple to find once you know what you’re looking for.

You’ll notice in your Gmail that there is a down arrow next to the “Inbox” menu. Go ahead and click there to see the available inbox styles.

Classic

The tried-and true model. This has been the interface that has been successful since Gmail’s inception in 2004. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t experiment with the following styles either…

Important First

This is a somewhat like the “Priority Inbox” option below. It will organize your email using an algorithm that determines which messages are most important to you.

“Gmail analyzes your new incoming messages to predict what’s important, considering things like how you’ve treated similar messages in the past, how directly the message is addressed to you, and many other factors.”

Unread First

This is a great way to clear out all of your unread, especially for those who simply cannot stand having outstanding unread messages in their inbox!

Starred First

This is a good one to switch to periodically in order to see those important starred emails. You can also use the “is:starred” search operator as well.

Priority Inbox

Unlike “Important FIrst”, Priority Inbox will only show you the most important messages. It will not display anything that is not determined to be a priority. This is great for users that suffer from email overload.

You can make further modifications to these inbox styles through your Gmail options that are located in the gear icon under the menu item “mail settings”. All you need to do from there is head over to the “Inbox” tab.

As you can see, you have a plethora of options when it comes to what you want to see in your Google Apps email web interface. So, this begs the question – what works best for your working style?