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Gmail Category Labels and Inbox Category Tabs

Often we see threads in the Gmail Help Community where we are asked to explain the difference between the Category labels and the Inbox category tabs in Gmail. We begin the discussion by visually highlighting what we mean by the Inbox category tabs and the Category labels and where they are located. Now, we are going to take a look at the differences, with examples. So, let's begin. Commonly, if we click on one of the Category labels, say Promotions, we see a list of messages that Gmail internally categorizes as such, based on various signals such as how they are marked up, what they contain, the domain they are sent from, etc.  As shown in the screenshot above, it also generates a search query for our better understanding - category:promotions  and it is important to remember this little detail. Similarly, when we click on the Promotions tab in Gmail inbox, it also shows a list of messages, in fact, the same set of messages in this case. So, where's the difference? To demonstr

Explaining Gmail Categories in Message and Label lists

A few days ago, a peer of mine in the Gmail and Google Accounts help communities, shared with me a link to a thread where a user happened to mention seeing the Update category label in his messages even after he has deselected the categories in his default Gmail layout from the  Inbox tab under Gmail settings . The user also included screenshots which looked like the ones below: Given how most of our Gmail is set up, this appeared odd. The categories are not labels; so, how could they appear as such? Since the categories appeared as labels, it was apparent that the reason for this uncommon behavior should lie inside the Labels tab under Gmail settings . In there, scrolling down below the System labels section, under Categories, it appeared as seen below, and the highlighted section resolved the mystery. The click to show/hide in message list options, set to show, caused this unusual display of categories as labels in the user's inbox. When I cli