Manage auto-apply labels

Labels are a powerful tool for organizing email that you're probably already familiar with from Gmail. Shortwave makes them even more powerful with new organizational features like delivery schedules, bundling, push notifications, and more, streamlining your email management.

To make it easier than ever to apply labels and get the most out of Shortwave's label-powered features, we introduced auto-apply rules that let you specify when labels should be automatically applied or removed from new emails from a specific sender. Auto-apply rules sync with your existing Gmail filters to ensure a seamless transition and consistent organization across platforms.

All label settings can be configured via Settings > Labels & Filters in Shortwave.

Create an auto-apply rule

Always apply

You can add an always apply rule to automatically apply a label to a specific sender by adding new labels to an email via the label picker. You will see a checkbox that reads "Apply changes to future messages." Selecting that checkbox and then clicking “Apply” will automatically add the label(s) to all new emails from the specific sender going forward.

Alternatively, on the web you can drag and drop an email thread onto a label bundle. After dropping the thread, you will see a toast appear. Click "Always apply" on the toast to create an auto-apply rule.

On mobile, you can add an always apply rule via the label picker. After selecting new labels, click the checkmark. Click "Always apply" on the following dialog to create an auto-apply rule.

Always remove

You can add an always remove rule to never automatically apply a label (like "Promotions" or "Updates") to a specific sender by deselecting labels via the label picker for a specific thread. Select the "Apply changes to future messages" checkbox to create an always remove rule which will prevent the deselected label(s) from being applied to new emails from the specific sender.

Alternatively, on the web you can remove a label chip. After clicking 'x' on a label chip, you will see a toast appear. Click "Always apply" on the toast to create an always remove rule.

On mobile, you can create an auto-remove rule via the label picker. After deselecting labels in the label picker, click the checkmark to "Apply changes to future messages." Click "Always apply" on the following dialog to create an always remove rule.

Manage auto-apply rules

You can create and remove auto-apply rules via Settings > Labels & Filters.

To add additional senders to auto-apply, scroll down to the label and click the respective # senders in the column Auto-apply rules. Click +Add at the bottom of the rule section and enter the email address you want the rule to apply to.

To remove existing auto-apply rules, scroll down to the label and click the respective # senders in the column Auto-apply rules. Click the ‘x’ to the right of the sender to remove the unwanted rule.

Edit label settings

You can manage settings for a label in one of three ways:

• From the Labels & Filters settings page click the ⚙️ label settings gear that appears to the right of the label
• From the search result page for a label click the ⚙️ label settings gear icon in the top corner
• By hovering over a label at the top of a thread and clicking the ⚙️ label settings gear icon

Once a label’s specific settings are visible, you can click the # senders text to add or modify auto-apply rules. You can also click on the label icon in the middle of the menu to select a label color.