How to Mark Messages as Important in Gmail

Question

How do I mark messages in my inbox as Important in order to easily filter for important mail?

Environment

• Gmail

Information

Gmail will automatically mark messages as Important based on the sender, if the sender's email address is the same or similar to one you frequently communicate with, or if the message subject or content contains frequently detected text in messages you received that has been processed by Gmail message filtering.

Resolution

The symbol that Gmail uses for marking messages as important is  

Once this symbol is clicked, the icon will turn yellow to let you know the message was successfully marked as important 

You can show the Important message symbol in your Inbox by changing Inbox Settings.

1. Go to Gmail.
2. From your Gmail inbox, click on the gear in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Click See all settings
4. Click the Inbox tab.
5. Next to Importance markers: make sure that Show markers is selected.
   • There are also options to use or not use past actions for Gmail to predict which messages to automatically mark important.
6. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom to apply these settings.

You may also show/hide Important messages from the Label list on the left-hand side:

1. From your Gmail inbox, click on the gearin the upper right-hand corner.
2. Click See all settings
3. Click the Labels tab
4. You will see Important under the left-column named System Labels, and you may select either show or hide under the right-column named Show in label list.  
5. These settings will be automatically applied.