Labels & splits
Make labels for your Inbox, have new email labelled for you by rules or AI, and give labelled email a tab of its own with split inboxes.
Labels file your Inbox threads under names you choose, like Commissions or Suppliers. You put them on by hand, or let a label go on new email by itself: by rules, or by a description AI reads each email against. Splits then give email with certain labels a tab of its own on the Email list.
Labels and splits belong to your organization, so everyone on your team sees the same ones. Find them under Inbox → Labels & splits in the sidebar. On a phone, open Inbox and select Labels & splits at the bottom of the list.
Start from the library
The library has ready-made splits and labels for the email most businesses get: people waiting on an answer, bookings, questions from customers, sponsors and press, and the noise you want out of the way, like newsletters, receipts and sales pitches.
Go to Inbox → Labels & splits and select Library next to New split or New label. On the Email list, Split (with the plus) after the tabs opens it too.
Pick Splits or Labels. Type in Search to find one by what it's for.
Select Add. A split adds the labels it needs along with it. Anything you already have shows Added.
What you add is an ordinary split or label. Select Edit on the message that confirms it to change it straight away, or change it later from its row. If nothing fits, Build your own at the bottom of the library starts a new one.
- A split uses a label you already have with the same name rather than making a second one.
- Splits for people, like Needs reply and Customers, keep their email in Important too. Splits for noise, like News and Pitches, take it out.
- VIP and Team need something only you know, so they show Set up…. Add the addresses of the people you never want to miss, or check your own email domain, then select Create label. From the Splits tab, this makes the split too.
- AI labels start on your email from the last 30 days as soon as you add them. Calendar works by rules, so it sorts all your email.
Make a label
Go to Inbox → Labels & splits and select New label.
Give it a name, like Commissions, and pick a color.
Under How does it get on a conversation?, pick By hand, Rules or AI.
Select Create label.
You can also make one from a thread: press L, type a name and pick Create label. Manage labels at the bottom of that list brings you here.
How a label gets on a thread
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| By hand | You put it on, with L on a thread. |
| Rules | Conditions you set decide, like who it's from or words in the subject. |
| AI | AI reads each email against a description you write. |
With Rules or AI, it's the first email a contact sends in a thread that's checked: when it fits, the thread gets the label.
Rules
Each rule reads one thing about the email:
| Rule | Matches when |
|---|---|
| From | The sender is one of the addresses you list, or writes from a domain like @northsidepottery.com. |
| Subject has | The subject has one of the words or phrases you list, in any case. |
| Sent to | The thread is in one of the connected mailboxes you pick. |
Type an address or word and press Enter to add it. Select Add a rule for another. With more than one rule, choose Match all to need every rule, or Match any to need just one.
When you save, the label also goes on the email already in your Inbox that matches. This takes a moment.
AI
Write what the label is for in a sentence or two, the way you'd tell a new teammate. For example, for Commissions: "Customers asking for a custom piece: a commission, a set made to order, a quote for one."
AI reads the first email of each new thread, who it's from, its subject and the start of its text, and labels the threads that fit the description. It reads a few moments after the email arrives.
When you save, AI also reads the threads active in the last 30 days, up to the 300 most recent, so the label starts out on the email you're working through now.
Good to know
- Replies in a thread don't change its labels. If you take a label off by hand, it stays off.
- When you change a label's rules or description, or switch it to By hand, the threads it labelled automatically lose it, and the threads that fit the new ones get it. Threads you labelled by hand keep it.
- Labels go on by themselves only on email. Chat and text threads are labelled by hand.
- An organization can have up to 50 labels.
Make a split
A split shows email with the labels you pick in a tab of its own, so you can work through, say, every commission request in one go.
Go to Inbox → Labels & splits and select New split. Or, on the Email list, select Split (with the plus) after the tabs, then Build your own split.
Name the split, then tap the labels it shows. Choose any to show email with at least one of them, or all to need every one. Under But not labeled, tap labels that keep email out. New label makes a label without leaving the split.
Check the sentence under the labels: it says what the tab will show.
Select Create split.
Email in a split leaves Important and Other, so they hold what's left. Turn on Keep in Important too to keep a split's email in both places. A thread whose labels match two splits shows in both.
Change, move or delete
- Edit a label or split by selecting its row, or Edit in its ⋯ menu.
- Reorder splits by dragging a row by its handle. The tabs on Email follow. You can also open a split's tab, select the arrow next to its name and pick Move left or Move right.
- Delete from the ⋯ menu, or with Delete label or Delete split in the editor.
Deleting a label takes it off every thread it was on, and the threads stay in your Inbox. If a split goes by the label, the confirmation names it: that split stops going by the label, so its tab may show different email.
Deleting a split sends its email back to Important or Other and leaves the labels on the threads.