Methods to Separate Email Threads in Gmail: Manual vs. Automated
Emails discussing the same subject are typically under a single inbox entry in Gmail. These messages form an email thread, with grouped emails appearing with a count beside the sender and recipient’s names. The numeral stands for the number of emails shared in that discussion.
By default, Gmail arranges threaded emails from the oldest message on top to the newest one at the bottom. The email service provider refers to this sequence as Conversation View.
If you wish to split emails in Gmail conversations, you can change your account's settings to break up this grouping. At the same time, you can use Clean Email to view your emails separately without making any changes to your Gmail account.
This app also uses powerful algorithms to sort messages according to date, recipient, sender, and more, making it easy to find the reply you're searching for.
Separating Emails in Gmail Conversations
Here's how you can read messages from various recipients in separate emails instead of combined emails or threads:
Disabling Conversations in Gmail
To detach the components of your email chain, you must disable Gmail’s Conversations View by doing the following:
- Go to the gear icon at the top right of your screen and click on See all settings to launch the Settings window.
- Under the General Tab, look for Conversation View and click Conversation view off.
- Go to the bottom of the page and tap Save Changes to apply the new setting.
Gmail will refresh your inbox, splitting that email into separate messages from each conversation member.
Keeping Emails Separate Without Disabling Conversations
As long as Gmail's Conversation View is on, responses to a group email will stay within the discussion chain. However, you can force a new thread by editing the subject line when you reply.
Auto-Separate All Emails Through Smart Folders and Auto Clean
Clean Email offers several ways to organize messages once you've split up email threads. These options include using Smart Folders and Auto Clean tools.
Smart Folders
Smart Folders are filters that classify your emails into 33 predefined folders (“labels”). After analyzing your mailbox, you can go to the Smart Folders section of your Clean Email dashboard to find related messages based on the folder's name.
Although related messages appear together on each Smart Folder, Clean Email doesn't reorganize your regular Gmail inbox. Your emails and existing folders remain unchanged when you return to Gmail.
Auto Clean
Auto Clean lets you create rules for managing emails so that Clean Email can sort and tidy up incoming emails automatically.
When setting up Auto Clean:
- You must specify the criteria—the folder, sender/recipient, and the message type (read or unread, size in MB, age in days, weeks, or months)—to which the rule will apply. You can also use the filter options(funnel button) to refine the scope of messages for “cleaning” (for example, starred emails or messages labeled/not labeled as x). You can also filter messages based on the subject line.
- Then choose the cleaning action, such as mark as read or unread, “Keep Newest,” place or remove a star, move to “Read Later,” move to a folder, delete/send to Trash, change labels, mark as spam, or archive.
Moving Unthreaded Emails to Custom Folders
You can keep split email threads separate by organizing them into “folders” also known as “labels”, which you must first create on Gmail.
Transferring Emails to a Folder Using Gmail Filter
You can separate Gmail emails from the same sender and move them to folders through this process:
- Open the sender’s message and click on the three dots above the email. Select Filter messages like this.
- Click the Search button.
- Select emails by checking the box at the top. If you have more than 50 (or 100) messages, click the Select all conversations that match this search link.
- Right-click on any email to view various action options, then choose Move to.
- Choose your preferred destination folder to move the emails to that Gmail folder.
Transferring Emails to a Folder Using Clean Email
Clean Email can automatically transfer a specific sender's email/emails to a designated folder when you do the following:
- Log in to your Clean Email account.
- Use the Senders tool to find the sender you want to create a rule for.
- When the sender's settings window appears, select the Create Rule button.
- In the new window, choose Move to under the Apply Action section, select your preferred Gmail folder or type a new folder name and click Create [folder name].
- Turn on the Apply to existing messages toggle if you want this automation to apply to this sender’s past messages.
- Finally, tap the Create Rule button to automate the rule and display it under the Auto Clean tab on your dashboard.
💡 Note: The custom folders you create in Gmail don't automatically reflect in Clean Email. To view them in your dashboard, click All Mail from the app's left-hand menu and tap the filter funnel icon at the top. In the new pop-up window, go to the Labeled as option to find your desired custom folder in Gmail. Click on this folder, then hit the heart icon at the top of the screen to save this filter.
Separating Incoming Emails from Unknown Senders
In Clean Email, you don’t have to manually separate emails from unknown senders. The app’s Screener feature intercepts all emails from unknown senders—those who have never emailed you before—and holds them in quarantine for your review. Instead of delivering these emails directly to your inbox, Screener allows you to decide whether to accept or block these senders.
- If you accept a sender, their future emails will go directly to your inbox.
- If you block a sender, their future emails will be automatically moved to the trash.
Separating Promotional and Social Emails from Your Primary Emails
Gmail category tabs enable you to separate promotional emails and social messages from your primary ones. Make these tabs visible in your Inbox:
- Tapping the gear icon on your screen’s top right corner, and hit the See all settings button.
- Choose the Inbox tab.
- Under Categories, tick the items you want to show up, particularly Promotions and Social.
- After choosing your desired tabs, tap the Save Changes button. You’ll find these tabs in your Inbox when you refresh Gmail.
- To move promotional and social media emails to their respective tabs, tick the messages you want to transfer, then click the Move to icon above your email list.
- On the drop-down box, scroll down to find Promotions or Social(or type the folder name on the blank) to complete the action.
