What is a Flagged Email?
A flagged email is one that is marked with a flag or star. In most cases, people flag an email so they can remember to follow up on a message or track it down later. Flagging is private: it doesn’t move the email or notify the sender, and only you see the flag in your mailbox. The exception is classic Outlook, where you can choose Follow Up → Custom → Flag for Recipients before sending to add the message to Outlook recipients’ to-do lists.
Email flags can be an important tool in your overall email management because they help you quickly identify important messages so you can respond promptly or create a to-do list based on significant emails you receive. This can make a huge difference in how you handle your inbox and can ultimately save you time and headaches caused by lost messages.
How To Flag An Email In Your Mail Service Provider
While there are lots of ways to sort emails in your inbox, flags can help the most time-sensitive messages stand out so they don’t get lost in the shuffle. Nearly every mail service provider offers some way to flag emails from the inbox, but the symbols they use and exact location of the flag varies between each mail service provider. In fact, some providers like Yahoo actually refer to them as a starred email, whereas Outlook uses traditional flags.
Luckily most of the most common mail service providers make it easy to flag emails — and most only require a few clicks.
How to Flag Email as Important in Gmail
Gmail allows users to flag a message as important, star it, or apply a label right from the inbox. If you want to know how to flag an email in Gmail because it’s an important message, follow these steps:
- Go to your Gmail inbox.
- Find the message in your inbox.
- Click the importance marker (the arrow-shaped icon next to the star) on the left side of the message row. If you don’t see it, go to Settings → See all settings → Inbox and turn on importance markers.
This will then flag the conversation as important, and you’ll be able to retrieve it by selecting Important in the left menu (under More if it’s hidden) or by searching for is:important. Gmail doesn’t use flags, so to mark an email for follow-up, click the star instead and find it later under Starred.
How to Flag an Email in Outlook
Users can apply email flags in Outlook to help them remember to follow up on important messages. To do this, simply:
- Open Outlook.
- Select the message you’d like to flag.
- Click the flag button on the right side of the message list.
What Does It Mean To Flag An Email On AOL?
Just like with Outlook, you can flag emails in AOL to help you remember to follow up on the message or check for responses by a certain date. To do this, you can:
- Open your AOL inbox.
- Scroll to the message you want to be flagged and hover over it.
- Click the flag icon when it appears on the right side of the message subject line.
How To Flag An Email On iPhone?
If you use an iPhone, you can easily flag an email in your Mail app by following these steps:
- In the Mail app, swipe left on the message you’d like to be flagged.
- Tap the Flag button.
- To pick a color, open the message, tap the Reply button, tap the flag, and choose a color.
Flagged emails stay in your inbox. To see all of them in one place, go back to Mailboxes, tap Edit, and select Flagged.
How The Clean Email App Can Help
When it comes time to organize your inbox, Clean Email can be a valuable asset. Even if you don’t know how to star an email directly in your native inbox, the app offers an easy solution to flag one or dozens of emails as important with just a few clicks.
If you want to save even more time, you can use the Auto Clean feature to star certain incoming emails automatically. To do this, find any emails you'd like to star, then check "Selected and future similar emails" before applying the action to the selected messages — it’s that simple!
Then, if you want to quickly glance at all of your starred messages using the app, you can simply click on the “Starred Emails” filter in the left side menu bar. This is a great way to filter emails so you can prioritize the messages that matter most.
In addition to the auto clean feature, Clean Email offers numerous tools that can help clear out the clutter and help you learn how to get organized. For example, the Unsubscriber tool helps you get rid of unnecessary promotional emails and newsletters by filtering them out of your inbox.
Additionally, Smart Folders can help you quickly categorize emails and sift through them based on parameters you set, like “Social Media Notifications” or “Emails over 1 year old.”
Whether your goal is to get to inbox zero or simply keep your messages more organized, Clean Email is here to help without compromising your internet security or filling your inbox with more messages.
What Happens When You Flag An Email - FAQs
What happens when you flag an email?
When you flag an email, it gets a visible marker and stays in its folder, but most mail service providers also list flagged or starred emails in a separate view, like Flagged or Starred, so you can easily find them and take action. Some apps, like Outlook, can also remind you about flagged messages. The sender isn’t notified.
How to star an email on iPhone?
The iPhone Mail app uses flags instead of stars. If you use the Gmail app on your iPhone, open the email and tap the star to the right of the subject line. This will turn the star yellow and mark the message as starred.
How do I see my flagged emails?
While the exact location varies based on your mail service provider, most inboxes have a tab or folder where you can view all of your flagged or starred emails.
Do flagged emails get deleted?
No. Flagging an email doesn’t delete or move it, and removing the flag doesn’t delete it either. A flagged email stays where it is until you, or a rule you set up, move or delete it.
