How to Delete Gmail Emails Faster on Android

Delete in bulk and swipe to delete for quicker email management

Emails coming out of a smartphone

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by Jordan Baranowski
Jordan Baranowski is technology writer with experience writing for SVG, The Nerd Stash, and Feast Magazine. Jordan is also a professional educator.
Updated May 07, 2019

Deleting Gmail messages one by one takes time. Remove emails from the Gmail app for Android faster by deleting them in bulk or by setting up a special swipe motion to remove them in seconds.

When you delete more than one Gmail message at once, space in your Gmail account is freed up and your phone or tablet performs better. Emails with attachments take up storage space in your Google account, and if downloaded, use up phone storage, too.

Instructions in this article apply to the official Gmail app for Android.

How to Quickly Delete Gmail Emails

There are two methods to delete messages in Gmail. The first is to delete multiple emails at once, which is an efficient way to delete all Gmail emails. The other method is useful for everyday email management.

If your Gmail account is set up to use IMAP, removing Gmail emails from your Android also deletes them from other devices that are connected to the same Gmail account using IMAP.

Delete All Gmail Emails

Follow these steps to delete more than one email at a time or to delete all of your Gmail emails in bulk.

  1. Open the folder that contains the emails you want to remove in Gmail.

    In order to select multiple email messages, you must display all the emails in a folder.

  2. Tap the icon to the left of an email you want to delete in Gmail. Or, press and hold the message to select it.

  3. Select the icon next to any other emails you want to remove from Gmail.

    There isn't a way to select every message in a folder using the Android app. To remove every email in Gmail, you'll need to access your account from a web browser.

  4. Tap the Delete icon.

    Checkbox for emails, Delete button in Gmail app on Android

  5. The selected messages are deleted.

Quickly Delete Single Gmail Emails

Using swipe to delete in Gmail makes it a breeze to remove messages because you can swipe one email after the other to quickly remove several messages. You don't have open an email to press the Delete icon.

To delete Gmail messages by setting up a swipe action:

  1. Tap the three-lined menu at the top left of Gmail, and then select Settings.

  2. Go to General settings > Swipe actions.

  3. Tap Change for the Right swipe or Left swipe, and choose Delete.

    Change button, Delete checkbox, and right swipe to delete on Android Gmail app

  4. Tap the Back arrow to return to your email, and then swipe the correct direction to remove emails.