Although Gmail for Android can function as a standalone email client, it still feels secondary, features-wise, to the web-based client. An obvious example is Labels that are quite useful to give some order to the chaos that Gmail Inbox can be. Sadly, it seems that you can’t create labels in the Gmail app but there is a workaround for this. Learn more below.
Why can’t I create a new Label in my Gmail app?
To go straight to the answer, no, it’s not possible to create a new label in the Gmail app for Android or iOS. That can only be done in the web client available through a browser. Which, conveniently enough, you can access it from your Android or iPhone. If you were wondering why is this the case, you’ll need to ask Google about it but, based on all reports, it doesn’t seem that this feature is coming to mobile apps any time soon.
As we already said, the workaround is to either use your PC or just use the desktop mode in a mobile browser and access the Gmail client that way. Once there, you can create labels and later manage them in the app. If you don’t have access to a PC or Mac, you might as well use any mobile browser to replicate the desktop site’s presentation on your phone.
Here’s how to create labels in Gmail on your phone:
- Open Chrome or any other browser.
- Tap on the 3-dots menu in the top right corner and check the Desktop site box.
- Navigate to Gmail and open the client in the browser. Navigating around might require zooming in on certain sections.
- Under Mail, you should see Labels at the bottom. Tap the plus (+) sign next to the Labels.
- Name the label. Optionally, you can “nest” the label under a “parent” label.
- Tap Create and you’re good to go.
After that, you can add emails to a newly-created label from the app or manage notifications and sync for all labels. You just can’t create them.
That should do it. Thank you for reading and we hope that the instructions provided here were useful. Make sure to tell us in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in May 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
