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Gmail Conversation View - like it or loathe it?

Google's Conversation View is a core feature of Gmail - what to expect when you turn it off if you loathe it, plus reasons why you should keep it.

In Gmail, replies to emails (and replies to those replies) are displayed in one place, in order, making it easier to understand the context of a message - or to follow the conversation. This feature is called Conversation View.

People either love or hate Conversation View - the gAppsTips team all love it. We understand it can take a little time to get used to, and there are dangers that important messages can be missed when emails are grouped together - but take it from us, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. You just need to get used to it.

However, if you just can't get on with threaded messages, you can switch Conversation View off. To do so go to Mail Settings and in the General tab set Conversation View to "off".

Why use Conversation view

• How much email do you receive each day? Conversation View groups email together and cleans up your inbox.
• When replying to a message, sometimes you don't want to send the whole conversation with your reply; with Conversation View you can choose which parts of a conversation to reply to. To see all conversations in an email, click the Expand icon (next to the Print icon).
• Take a look at your smart phone text, it's grouped together - doesn't it feel more natural? Why shouldn't email be the same.

What happens when you switch Conversation View off

• Gmail will reload your inbox; your email switches back to an unthreaded view
• You will have more email in your inbox and your replies to messages will no longer be grouped
• All your messages will have the entire contents of all replies in the body of the email

Comments/Feedback

Bob Omer

Conversation view for email must be set to off so the program is usable. Let's get this fixed for Android immediatey.

30 April at 22:11 • Reply to this comment • Edit

Selvan Poothamby

This is why I turn it off. I use filters to label email and it works great on the desktop where I have conversation view off. With it on, I can't easily depict which specific email is labeled.

10 April at 23:17 • Reply to this comment • Edit

Selvan Poothamby So much so that I can't conveniently rely on the app and am forced to wait till I have access to a desktop.

10 April at 23:19 • Edit

Mike Ellis

Most of the time, I love conversation view, however when searching for a specific email, it is a PAIN. Can we please have an EASY way (not buried in the settings menu) to turn it on and off?

20 February at 22:18 • Reply to this comment • Edit

Scott Beauchemin

I also hate it. At least you can shut it off on the web version of gmail. It really stinks google does not give you the option in the gmail app on android.

19 January at 03:02 • Reply to this comment • Edit

Ana Delgado

i absolutely loathe it. it is confusing, irritating and impractical to me. I prefer a simple interface, no frills, even on my email inbox i want things as they arrived, irregardless of their (star) or importance. I want things by date. It is infuriating that after I read an email, I try to find it again and is like looking for a damn needle in a haystack. How hard is just to leave things alone??? STOP trying to 'think for us on what is Best for us" and allow us users to decide what's best for ourselves. THANK YOU.

08 November at 20:12 • Reply to this comment • Edit