Tip: Turn Off Conversation View in Gmail Mobile

Google has long allowed its Gmail users to disable Conversation View in the web version of its app. But now you can do so on mobile as well.

“You can choose whether replies to emails are grouped in conversations, or if each email shows up in your inbox separately,” the Gmail Help website explains.

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The ability to disable Conversation View in the Android and iOS versions of Gmail arrived last week and was noted only on Google’s G Suite Updates blog for some reason.

“In Gmail, replies to emails are grouped together as ‘conversations,’ to make them easier to digest and follow,” Google explains. “Some users, however, prefer to see each of their emails listed individually in their inbox.”

Indeed they do.

What Google doesn’t note is that this change applies to all Gmail users. You don’t need to have a G Suite account for this new feature to appear. Better still, if you disable Conversation View on the web, that setting will be applied on mobile, too.

To make the change manually, open the Gmail mobile app, tap the Menu button, and choose Settings. Then, under General Settings, ensure that the option “Conversation view” is unchecked (disabled).

Thanks to everyone who wrote in about this. I’m a bit surprised by how much interest there is in this change. Note, too, that is feature is not available in Google Inbox, the company’s more streamlined interface for Gmail.

 

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Conversation 5 comments

  • Walter Parker

    13 August, 2018 - 3:37 pm

    <p>Conversation mode is the first thing I turn on in a mail client. </p><p><br></p><p>Question to those that have it off: why do you have it off?</p>

    • ericgharrison

      Premium Member
      14 August, 2018 - 9:20 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#301320">In reply to Walter_Parker:</a></em></blockquote><p>Strong preference. When I look at an email, I want to see *that* email, not everything else that ever happened. It adds a ton of clutter that isn't relevant, especially since the email itself usually has the history right in it. I find it unusable. Maybe it's because I've been using email since, oh, late 80's / early 90's and that's the way I think it "should" be.</p><p><br></p><p>I guess the same question could go the other way: why do you have it on?</p>

    • Silversee

      14 August, 2018 - 2:40 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#301320">In reply to Walter_Parker:</a></em></blockquote><p>Virtually all email clients automatically include the prior conversation when you forward or reply to an email message, so conversation view is redundant. It's also highly confusing because it mixes messages from different folders together. I don't want to accidentally delete a message in my Sent mail folder because it shows up unexpectedly in my Inbox.</p><p><br></p><p>I get it's a personal preference, but for me it is annoying.</p>

  • ericgharrison

    Premium Member
    14 August, 2018 - 9:18 am

    <p>This is one thing that frustrated me every time I tried Android devices. So happy to know that this is now an option. Maybe that OnePlus 5T in my drawer will get some use now!</p>

  • glucero0

    16 August, 2018 - 7:49 am

    <p>Disabling Conversation View disables Snooze, a much loved feature. There might be a way to have one off and the other on, but when I re-enabled Conversation View, Snooze came back, so that's where the setting will stay for now.</p>

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