Blogs on Gmail and Google Accounts

The original blog entry on ways to find your way around Google's email service and to perform the basic email tasks can be found here - https://blogs-on-gmail.blogspot.com/2019/02/gmail101.html .  This is a supplemental blog entry because recently, Google decided to expand Chat access to consumer users, thereby causing changes to the Gmail web and mobile apps UI. Here, we shall highlight the changes made in the Gmail standard view web UI and also answer some of the frequently asked questions related to this topic. A bit of history to begin with.  This used to be the Gmail web UI prior to its redesign in 2019: After the redesign in 2019, Gmail used to look like as shown below. Two very prominent sections in the left panel - Gmail labels (#1) on top and Hangouts (#2) below it. Thereafter, sometime in 2020, Meet was introduced in Gmail and the UI was changed again. Here, we find a third section in the left panel, for Meet (#1). Additionally, a new Support icon “?” was added (#2)...

In my blog on  Adding Image Hyperlinks in Gmail signature , I had discussed ways to insert an image to your Gmail signature from your computer or via a web URL. Soon thereafter, I became aware of an issue where images were inserted into the Gmail signature from Google Drive via web URL. To better explain, here are the steps: An image in Google Drive is set to " Anyone with the link " and the sharing URL copied. The Insert image icon in the Gmail signature area clicked, the Web URL tab chosen and the copied Drive URL pasted and the image is previewed correctly. The blue Select button is clicked. It is then the issue is noted. The image element is inserted, but as a placeholder and the image is not visible. The steps to resolve this issue are included below: The Insert image icon in the Gmail signature area clicked, the Web URL tab chosen and the copied Drive URL pasted and the image is previewed correctly. Now, instead of clicking on the blue Select button, right click on the ...

These days people have multiple email accounts, so, one of the common questions posed in the Gmail Help Community is often about "How did this email, that was intended for my account X, reached my Gmail account?"  The common reasons which can cause this to happen are: Emails are forwarded from the account X to the Gmail account Emails are fetched via POP3 from account X by the Gmail account Emails are fetched via the Gmailify option from account X by the Gmail account Emails are fetched via the ShuttleCloud API from account X by the Gmail account The Gmail address is listed as a Reply-to address in account X The Gmail address is included as a BCC recipient in the email For anyone inconvenienced by this issue, the most accurate way is to analyze the header of the message they received in their Gmail address. The header lists the machines (or servers) that a message had to pass through before reaching the recipient’s mailbox thereby providing a log of how it ended up...