Imagine that you go on vacation for a month and do not want that, when you return, you have 1,000 emails waiting for you in your inbox. Fortunately, we can avoid it. Gmail does not allow you as such to temporarily pause the arrival of new messages in your mail, but you can count on specific extensions that will add these functions. You can pause your mail or silence Gmail for a few hours (if you are going to take a nap, if you are going to sleep, if you are on vacation) and we will explain how to do it step by step.
Whether you want to pause the arrival of new emails or if you want to silence notifications in Gmail, so you can do it step by step on the web from the browser or from the mobile application. You cannot use it natively in Gmail but you can use some extensions that allow us to pause, block input, etc.
Pause the arrival of new emails
Free Pause Gmail
The Free Pause Gmail extension , which as its name suggests, is an extension developed to add to Google’s mail service the option of being able to temporarily pause the entry of new messages in our mailbox.
In this way, when we are overwhelmed or stressed with something on our PC, we can pause the arrival of emails to avoid distractions and greater stress . To do this, the first thing we have to do is go to the Chrome Web Store and add Free Pause Gmail to our Google Chrome browser. It is a free extension at no cost and will be added to the browser as part of its functions. When you get tired, there is always time to eliminate it.
Once you have installed the extension, it will ask you to create an account and accept the options to add the extension to our email in Google Chrome.
When you have created the account, you will see a new button appear in the menu on the left. Under the usual “Compose” button in Gmail now appears a button with a pause symbol and an inscription: Pause Inbox. It will appear as soon as you have downloaded and installed the Free Pause Gmail extension for Chrome.
Tap on “Free Pause” on the corresponding button. A window will automatically appear asking us how long we want to pause the arrival of emails: five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, two hours, five hours, ten hours or for a total of 24 hours . You just have to choose the time you want and confirm with the blue “Pause” button.
What about emails that don’t reach us during that time? They will come to us later. They do not disappear forever but the emails will end up reaching our mailbox but this tool allows us to avoid distractions during a specific time if you need two hours to concentrate or simply if you are cleaning the Gmail mailbox and you need nothing else to arrive in that time until get it completely clean.
Inbox Pause
Another extension that allows us the same is Inbox Pause by Boomerang Gmail . It allows you to eliminate interruptions so that you can focus on what you want for a while. The advantage is that it allows us to send an automatic response during the pause period that will notify that person that you are not available at that time. It is also more complete than Free Pause because it allows us to manage specific sections in which we will not be able to answer. For example, at lunchtime if you want no emails to arrive during this time. It allows adding it as an extension to Gmail in Google Chrome and not only gives us the possibility to pause the messages, but you also have many other options available.
You can pause it for an hour, two hours, or four hours. It also allows you to choose the specific time or the specific time you want the emails to be paused. You will be able to concentrate. In addition, it also allows you to send an email now and schedule it to be sent later or follow up for a specific period of time so that it is automatically remembered if no one responds.
Mute in Gmail
You can mute messages that don’t interest you. It is simple and neither the notifications nor the email will appear. What it does is that it silences messages that are not of your interest and that reach us regularly. Campaigns, newsletters, notifications …
- Open the email you want
- Mark the email you want in the check on the left side
- Go to the three dots at the top of the screen
- A drop-down menu will open
- Choose the option “Mute”
Delete notifications on mobile
Another alternative option is to silence Gmail notifications on your mobile or tablet. This will not stop emails from arriving or temporarily pause the arrival of emails. This will not prevent emails from arriving but it will disturb notifications and is especially useful in the case of advertising or spam emails that always arrive first thing in the morning or late at night, newsletters from services or stores in the one that you have ever bought and that they send you advertising messages.
The steps to mute notifications are as follows:
- Open the Gmail application on your mobile phone
- Tap on the upper left, on the three lines
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and open Settings
- All the accounts you have registered with Google will appear
- Choose the one you are going to configure
- Your account settings will open
- Find “Notifications”
- Choose from the three options: All / High Priority Only / None
You can choose to receive notifications from one account but not from the others, for example. This will allow you to choose which emails you receive notice and which you don’t, it depends on whether you have several emails from Google in the application and one of them you have for unimportant messages or for advertising, for example. In that case, it is especially useful.
You can also disable all email notifications in your email directly from the Gmail app. This is useful if you want to deactivate it for a specific time, for a couple of hours, during a day, on vacation.
- Press and hold the Gmail app icon
- Open the information section in the app
- Tap on notifications and open the dropdown
- Find the section “Allow notifications”
- Turn off the switch
