How to Forward an Individual Message From a Conversation in Gmail

Send a specific email from Gmail in a few easy steps

by Heinz Tschabitscher
A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
Updated November 25, 2019

Use Conversation View in Gmail to forward an entire conversation to another person. However, the entire thread does not need to be included in the forwarded message. If you prefer to send just one message in the thread, either copy the message and make a new email or forward just that part of the thread.

How to Forward Individual Messages in a Conversation

Conversation View groups emails of the same topic together into one easy-to-read thread. This makes it simple to see all the messages that were replied to under the same subject and with the same recipients.

To forward a message in a conversation thread:

  1. Select the conversation containing the email you want to forward to open the thread.

  2. Select the message you want to forward to expand it.

    If you don't see the message you want to send, display every message in the conversation. Look on the left side, below the first email, and select the circle that contains a number.

  3. Select More (the three vertically aligned dots).

    More button (three horizontal dots) in Gmail

  4. Choose Forward.

    Forward menu item from Gmail's More menu

  5. In the To field, enter the email address of the recipient.

  6. Edit the body of the email, if desired.

  7. To edit the subject field, select the arrow next to the To field and choose Edit subject. The email appears in a separate window.

  8. When you're finished, select Send.

    Forward the Last Message in a Thread

  9. Alternatively, select Forward to send the email message. This option only appears on the last email in a thread. To forward all other messages in the conversation, use the above steps.

    Forward button at the bottom of an email in Gmail

To make it easier to find and forward individual messages, turn off Conversation View in Gmail. Then, every email appears in your inbox separately.