Recently, I needed to send a rather important email to someone. I was using Apple Mail and found a fairly easy way to prioritize an email. To test the function, I sent myself a sample email set to the highest priority.
When I received it in Apple Mail, the priority indication appeared after my name in the email. However, when I viewed this email in Gmail or Thunderbird, there was no indication of priority.
I decided to try this same function by sending an email with Thunderbird. To my surprise, no email client (not even Thunderbird) honored the priority setting.
It turns out that with Thunderbird you have to activate the column Priority in the view pane by right-clicking the header toolbar and selecting Priority in the list. Once you’ve done this, Thunderbird will display the priority set for any email, by any client (even Apple Mail).
Enabling the Priority column in Thunderbird. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET.
However, if you send those emails marked as priority to a Gmail account, the priority is not shown. Here’s what I’ve seen with the most popular email clients and priority:
- Apple Mail priority displays well on Thunderbird and Outlook.
- Thunderbird priority shows on Apple Mail and Outlook.
- Outlook priority displays on Thunderbird and Outlook.
The problem comes from Gmail. Given how many people use Gmail (according to Wikipedia, that number was around 1.5 billion in 2019), it’s mind-boggling to think that Google has decided that priority in an email isn’t necessary.
Yet she is!
Maybe not for all users, but anyone who has ever had to send an email that requires an immediate response understands the need for a priority setting. Unfortunately, Google has decided to rely on AI to help your Gmail account learn what’s important and what’s not.
Let me tell you, Gmail isn’t nearly as good as it thinks. I have missed many important letters because they ended up in the updates folder or were just buried in my inbox with no indication of their importance. There’s an add-on, add-on, for Gmail called Priority Matrix that lets you prioritize your emails, but it’s not free, and it’s not reliable or user-friendly enough to that I recommend it. And you can’t insist that your Gmail recipients install that same add-on…
So what if you are a Gmail user, or need to send emails to those who use this email service? I have some advice for you.
How do I mark an email as priority for a Gmail user?
When I need to send an important email from Gmail, I usually add something like this to the subject:
***URGENT :
I know, this solution is rather analog for a very digital problem. This does not guarantee that an email will be marked as important, but it is your best bet.
Other options to add to the object can be the following:
- ***Important :
- !!URGENT!! :
- ***REPLY ASAP:
- !!! :
- *!*!REQUIRED ANSWER:
I am in a situation where I interact with Gmail, Thunderbird and Apple Mail. When I need to mark an email with high priority, I make sure to use Thunderbird or Apple Mail. If the email I send is to a Gmail user, I change the subject line to indicate that the missive needs to be read ASAP.
Who knows, maybe one day Google will realize its mistake and allow users to mark and view an email as high priority. In the meantime, let’s do everything we can to ensure that recipients understand the importance of our messages.
Source: ZDNet.com