How to See Gmail Emails in an RSS Reader

If you love your RSS feed reader, then why not stick your emails in there too? Below are instructions for finding the Gmail feed address for any label in your Gmail account.

What this means is that you can set up your feed reader to notify you when messages arrive in a specific label, like a custom one or any other label; it doesn't have to be your Inbox folder.

Gmail's Atom feeds, of course, require authentication, meaning you have to be able to login to your Google account through the feed reader in order to fetch the messages.

Not all RSS feed readers support this, but Feedbro is one example to get you started.

How to Find the Gmail RSS Feed URL

Getting the specific RSS feed URL for your Gmail messages can be tricky. You need to use very specific characters in the URL in order for it to work with labels.

RSS Feed for Gmail Inbox

To read your Gmail messages in an RSS feed reader can be accomplished by using the following URL:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/

That URL works with messages in your Inbox folder only.

RSS Feed for Gmail Labels

The structure of the Gmail Atom URL for other labels needs to be set up carefully. Below are different examples that you can adapt to fit your own labels:

• If your label is free from spaces, like Spam or a custom one such as Amazon, then this is the URL you'd use to read those Gmail messages in the RSS reader:
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/spam
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/amazon
  
  As you can see, just the label name needs to be added to the end of the same URL used for Inbox messages.

• However, if there are spaces in your label, like Amazon Emails, then structure it like this with the hyphen separating the words:
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/amazon-emails
  
  This works for multiple spaces too, like a label called Amazon Emails Are Here:
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/amazon-emails-are-here

• If you have special characters in your labels, like Amazon Emails (Shipping) or Amazon & Other Sites, just use them as-is. Be sure to put a hyphen in between any spaces:
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/amazon-emails-(shipping)
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/amazon-&-other-sites

• Slashes are a little different. If you have slashes in your label, such as Bank/Finances/Money/etc., then treat each slash as a space (and use a hyphen like the above examples):
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/bank-finances-money-etc.

• Is the label embedded in another label? For example, if you have a label folder in Gmail called James that's stored inside one called Family, just treat that separation with another hyphen:
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/family-james
  
  The same syntax rules apply in these multi-layer label circumstances too. If the label is really James Smith, and it's in the Family folder, then just use the same rules as above:
  
  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/feed/atom/family-james-smith