Three Gmail features you should be using

Whether you love them or are afraid of them, you have to admit that Google's services are powerful and useful.

I use Gmail as my email client and I don’t ever see myself switching to anything else. One of the reasons why Gmail is so great are their labs. Labs are features that can be added on to Gmail, similar to apps, widgets, or plugins.

Here are 3 labs that I use to make sure that my emails make me look professional and prevent any mistakes.

Undo Send - Ever send out an email, and realize seconds later that you needed to add something or you should just scrap the whole email completely? Too bad you didn’t have the undo send feature enabled.

This lab doesn’t actually unsend an email, but it delays sending your email for 5 seconds so you have the opportunity to not send it out.  This has saved me many times, and my favorite feature that Gmail offers.

Forgotten Attachment Detector - How many times have you meant to attach a file to an email, and then you get an email back to the tune of “Wonderful, now where is that attachment??”. This lab scans your email and looks for phrases that indicate that you meant to attach something. If you did end up forgetting to attach something, Gmail will alert you of your mistake.

Got the wrong Bob? - Got the wrong Bob is what Gmail calls their wrong recipient detector. Based on the groups of people that you email the most, Gmail will notify you if you if you send an email to a group of people and accidentally include somebody that you don’t email often.

How do I turn on these labs?

These features are not the default settings; you need to turn them on before they work. At the top right of your Gmail screen you will see a green beaker. Click on this beaker and scan through the available labs and click enable to activate them.

There are many other available labs that you may make your emailing much easier and efficient. Check them out!