How to Label Outgoing Emails While Composing Them in Gmail

Organize your messages before they get out of hand

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Updated on November 20, 2021

What to Know

Start a new message and choose More Options > Labels. Pick the label you want to use, select Create New, or add a star.
If you create a new label, give it a name and select Create.
Return to your message and compose and send it as normal.

Gmail makes it fast and easy to apply labels to the emails you get so that those belonging together stay together, even when their subjects and senders and conversations do not. What about the emails you send, though? Gmail also allows you to tag and apply stars as you compose. Here's how.

Label Outgoing Emails While Composing Them in Gmail

To add labels to an email you are composing in Gmail or star it (and have the labels or starring retained for all replies and other messages in the conversation):

Start with a new message in Gmail (Select Compose or press C on the keyboard).
Select the More options icon in the toolbar at the bottom of the compose window. It's three stacked dots toward the right side.
A new menu will open. Choose Labels from that menu.
Another menu will pop up with the available labels on your Gmail account. Check off the one that you want to use.
To start a new label, select Create new.
Enter a name for the label and click Create.
You can also choose to Star the message as well from the same menu.
When you are done, select the body of your message again to close the menus.
Write your message and send it the way you normally would. The label(s) that you applied will be applied to the message itself and the conversation that it spawns.

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