Archive or mute Gmail messages

To clean up your inbox without deleting your Gmail messages, you can archive or mute the messages.

Learn how archive and mute work

The 'All mail' section displays messages that you archive or mute.

• Archive:
  • The message comes back to your inbox when someone replies to it.
• Mute:
  • The message is labelled as Muted.
  • New messages in the thread skip your inbox.
  • You still receive the message in your inbox if:
    • The message is sent to you and no one else.
    • The message is sent to a Google Group where you're a member.
    • Someone adds you to the 'To' or 'Cc' fields in the message.

Archive a message

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
2. On the left of the message, tap the sender's profile image.
3. At the top, tap Archive .

Tip: To archive multiple messages, tap and hold each message that you want to archive, then tap Archive .

Add 'Archive' as a swipe action

To quickly archive messages in your inbox with a swipe to the left or right, you can add 'Archive' as a swipe action.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
2. In the top left, tap Menu Settings.
3. Tap General settings Mail swipe actions.
4. Next to 'Right swipe' or 'Left swipe', tap Change.
5. Tap Archive.

Find archived messages

Important: When you search in Gmail, your results include archived messages. Learn more about search in Gmail.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
2. In the top left, tap Menu All mail.

Move archived messages to your inbox

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
2. In the top left, tap Menu All mail.
3. On the left of the archived message, tap the sender's profile image.
4. In the top right, tap More Move to Inbox.

Mute messages

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
2. Open a message.
   • If you want it to stay in your inbox, tap the sender's profile image.
3. In the top right, tap More Mute.

Tip: At the top of the Gmail search box, to find all messages with the 'Muted' label, enter is:muted.

Related resources

• Search in Gmail
• Search operators that you can use with Gmail