In today’s world, an email is a powerful tool. It’s used for a variety of things, including receiving messages from your school or university, keeping in touch with distant friends or family, sending digital files, and keeping track of your online accounts and purchases. Because email is so easy to send and so many people have multiple email addresses, your inbox(es) can quickly fill up with spam.
Even if you use Google to unsubscribe from mailing lists, you may still receive unwanted emails. Users of Gmail who want to silence this noise can do so with a few clicks. In Gmail, here’s how to block an email address.
When you block a specific email address in Gmail, you will no longer receive messages from that address in your inbox. It’s an all-or-nothing scenario. You’ll have to put up with deleting a few emails every now and then if you want to receive certain messages from that address but not others.
Read: Disposable Email Addresses – A Step-by-Step Guide
If you’re working on a computer,
Step 1: Go to your Gmail inbox and open an email from the sender you want to blacklist.
Step 2: An icon made up of three vertically stacked dots appears in the upper-right corner of the email, on the same horizontal plane as the sender’s name and address. To open a drop-down menu, click the Dots icon. Select Block [sender’s name] from this menu, which should be near the middle of the list.
It’s that simple! Any messages you receive from this address will now be automatically routed to your spam folder.
If you’re using a mobile device,
Step 1: The procedure is the same on smartphones, though the interface differs slightly. Open the email from the sender you’d like to block first.
Step 2: There will be a button marked with three vertical dots (horizontal dots if you’re on iOS) in the upper right corner (of the message, not the app itself). This button is also on the same horizontal plane as the email’s sender’s name. To access the drop-down menu, select the dots icon.
Read: The iPhone and iPad’s Best Email Apps
Step 3: Select Block [sender’s name]. Messages from that email address will no longer be sent to you.
Blocking is a great way to help reduce the chaos of unwanted messages in your inbox when unsubscribing from a mailing list isn’t enough.
When you unblock someone, you’ll use the same drop-down menu you used to block them. Choose Unblock [sender’s name] from either interface. A dark-gray banner appears at the top of an email from a blocked sender in both options. You can also unblock that address by clicking the Unblock Sender button on this banner.
Go to Filters and Blocked Addresses in Gmail settings to see all of the addresses you’ve blocked.
If you receive emails containing threats or harassing content, you should be aware that such emails are against Gmail’s Program Policies and may also be against cyber harassment laws.
Not only should you block these email addresses, but you should also file a harassment report with the police and inquire about your city’s cybersecurity laws.