Here’s how to stop those annoying Gmail ‘Nudges’

Image: Jay Wennington/Unsplash

Listen, I get it, an inbox can be anxiety-inducing.

The last thing any user needs is a notification guilting you into replying to someone’s email. But with Gmail’s recent massive overhaul, Google snuck in little, nagging orange reminders to some emails, asking if you want to reply to an email that you may have received a few days prior.

Image: jake krol/mashable

Those annoying gremlins have a name: They’re called Nudges, and they’re automatically enabled with the Gmail update.

Maybe you love the Nudges, in which case, we’re not here to judge. But if you’re part of the #NeverNudge community, here’s how to turn them off.

Head over to Settings, click the General tab, and scroll down to the Nudges section. Uncheck the box. That’s all there is to it.

There are two types of Nudges: those that remind you to reply to someone’s email sent to you, and those that remind you to follow up on emails you’ve sent (to which you haven’t received a reply), and you can toggle either on or off. Gmail uses an algorithm to nudge these emails to the top of your inbox. 

You can also just revert back to classic Gmail, as Nudges aren’t available in that old-timey world, but if that’s too drastic for you, hopefully this solution fits your bill. 

Fingers crossed Google issues more customizable options to Nudges — like, why not let users select emails to be nudged if they’re sent from people in your organization, or if it’s marked high priority? Time will tell. For now, head over to settings and turn it off.