Bad stuff happens — and occasionally, it happens to your Google account. One nightmare for those who depend on their Gmail, Google Photos, and other Google apps is to lose access to all that data. This is what happened to a father who sent photos of his child to a doctor using his Android phone and found himself suddenly without access to the years of personal data — contacts, family photos, you name it — that were in his Google accounts.

There are other good reasons to have a local backup of your Google info. You may be switching jobs, or maybe you’ve decided to stop using a specific email account, or you just want a copy of all your emails just in case. Whatever your reasons, it’s not a bad idea to back up and export your Gmail and other Google accounts using Google’s Takeout feature. In fact, you can set your accounts to back up regularly, which is a good practice — especially if you’ve got several years of important stuff packed into them.

Note: if you’re backing up a company account, you may find that your company has disabled Takeout. There are third-party apps that say they can back up your Gmail, but you should check your company’s policies before you try them out.

How to back up your Gmail:

• Go to myaccount.google.com
• Under Privacy & personalization, click on Manage your data & privacy.
• Scroll down to Download or delete your data. Click on Download your data.

• This will take you to the Google Takeout page. If you only want to download the data of specific accounts — just your Gmail, say — first, click on Deselect all at the top of the page and then go through the list. If you want everything, then just go ahead. Note that the first choice, Access log activity, is not automatically checked; this can slow down your download considerably, so you may want to leave it unchecked.

• Scroll down to see all the various sources of data you’ll be downloading. It’s worth going slowly the first time and checking if you want everything — remember, the more that you ask to be downloaded, the longer it will take and the larger the file(s). You will also get format choices for many of the categories, and it’s worth checking those as well.

• Some categories will have a button reading All XX data included (“XX” being the name of the app). Click on that button to see if there are any categories that you don’t want to download — for example, you may not want a backup of all your promotional emails.

• Scroll down and click Next step.
• To decide how you want to receive your data, click the small arrow underneath Delivery method to see your options, including emailing a download link or adding the data to your Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box. (Note: if you’re concerned about losing access to your Google data, saving it to your Drive may not be the best solution.)
• You can also choose whether to export your data just this one time or every two months (for up to a year). You can choose the type of compression to use (.zip or .tgz) and the maximum file size. (If the file size is larger than your maximum, it will be separated into multiple files; and any files larger than 2GB will use the zip64 compression format.) After you’re done making your selections, click Create export.

• Your export will start, and its progress will be noted at the bottom of the Takeout page. Be prepared to wait; it might take days to finish. You can also click Cancel export or Create another export.

Update August 23rd, 2022, 4:30PM ET: This article was originally published on July 15th, 2020. The introduction, along with some of the directions and screenshots, has been updated.

If you, like me, find yourself writing the same email over and over again or copying and pasting the same message multiple times, Gmail gives you an easier option. By creating and saving email templates, you can insert them the next time you compose a message and save yourself some time.

You can store up to 50 templates at a time, so it’s easy to create different templates for different situations. Here’s how.

Create an email template:

• Click on the cog icon in the top right corner of your screen.
• Select “See all settings.”
• Open the “Advanced” tab.
• Scroll down to “Templates” and select “Enable.”

• Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the menu.
• This will take you back to your inbox. Click the “Compose” button.
• Now, start drafting your template. When you’re ready to save it, click on the three dots toward the bottom right-hand corner of the window.
• Select “Template” from the options.
• Click “Save draft as template.”
• Click “Save as new template.”

• Type in a name for your template in the window that pops up. That name will appear as the subject line in your email. Click “Save.”

• If you want to make changes to a template, you have to overwrite it. Write a corrected email, and then after clicking “Save draft as template,” click the name of the template you’d like to change under “Overwrite Template.”

• Click “Save” in the pop-up window.

• To delete a template, click on “Delete template” under the “Templates” options. Click “Delete” in the pop-up window.

Use a saved template

• Click “Compose” to start a new message.
• Select the three dots in the bottom right-hand corner.
• Open “Templates.”
• Choose the template.

• That template will now appear as your new message, and you can edit it before sending.
• Click “Send” when you’re ready!

Send templates automatically

You can set up filters that automatically send out a specific template as a reply when certain emails come in. You do this by creating a filter that specifies which emails you want to address and then assigning a particular template to that. Here’s how:

• Click the search icon in the right side of the search bar at the top of the screen.
• Fill in the fields. For example, if you want this template to be automatically sent to emails from certain contacts, enter those contacts in the “From” box. If you want it sent to anyone whose email asked you to subscribe to something, put the word “subscribe” in the field “Has the words.”
• Click “Create filter.”

• Check the box next to “Send template.” Click “Choose template” and select the template you want to use from the drop-down menu.

• Click “Create filter.”

If at any time you want to change the filter — or delete it — it’s simple.

• Click on the cog icon in the top right corner of your screen.
• Select “See all settings.”
• Click on the “Filters and Blocked Addresses” tab.
• You’ll see a list of all your filters. Find the one you want to change, and click on either “Edit” or “Delete” to the right of that filter.

Update February 15th, 2022, 4:00PM ET: This article was originally published on July 10th, 2020, and has been updated to add directions on editing or deleting a filter.

Gmail offers you several customizable formats — so many that you can have multiple Gmail accounts and they can all look completely different. For example, you can have all of your emails in one long list, you can separate your messages into multiple tabs, or you can have your inbox split into unread and read messages.

In addition to that, there are several other ways to organize your inbox, from adding a reading pane to coming up with your own categories for organizing emails. Here’s how you can customize your Gmail interface and explore all of the options.

How to change your inbox layout:

• Click on the cog icon in the top-right corner of the screen
• A “Quick settings” sidebar will open on the right side of your inbox, which will allow you to adjust some settings. For example, you can adjust display density, which controls how compact your messages appear. You can also choose the position for your reading pane and what inbox type you have. (We’ll go into those later.)

• Click “See all settings” at the top of this sidebar for more options
• Click the Inbox tab

Next to “Inbox type,” you have a number of options to choose from in the drop-down menu:

• “Default” puts your emails into the familiar separate vertical tabs
• “Important first,” “Unread first,” and “Starred first” each split the inbox into two sections horizontally: the section you choose as first (Important, Unread, or Starred) and then everything else
• “Priority Inbox” and “Multiple Inboxes” each create different sections within your email, and you can scroll down to view each section. (We’ll go into how to customize both setups later in this article.) Depending on which type of Inbox you choose, the next few steps will be a little different.

• If you select the Default inbox setup, underneath “Inbox type,” next to “Categories,” you can check the boxes to decide how your emails are sorted. You can hover over each category name to see examples of what kinds of emails will be sorted into which tab. If you want your email to show up all in one tab, you can uncheck all of the boxes. (But you can’t deselect Primary.) You also have the option to “Include starred in Primary” so that any email you star will also show up in Primary, no matter what other category it falls into. And if you’ve found yourself annoyed by ads that are sitting on top of your various Inbox tabs, you can uncheck “Bundling in Promotions.”

• The options for “Important first,” “Unread first,” and “Starred first” are similar. Under “Inbox sections,” you can click on the Options button to select how many emails you want to appear in each section.

• If you select “Important first” or “Priority Inbox,” you’ll see an additional option that lets you change how Gmail counts your unread emails: whether that number reflects just the important unread emails, all of your unread emails, or a ratio of the important ones compared to all of them.

• You also have the option to add a reading pane, unless you’re in the Multiple Inboxes layout. After checking the box next to “Enable reading pane,” you can use the options below it to select the placement for the pane.

• In the “Importance marker” section, you can choose whether Gmail displays yellow tabs (indicating an important message) next to emails and whether Gmail assigns them automatically based on your activity.

• At the bottom of the page, there’s an option to “Override filters” or “Don’t override filters.” You can adjust those filters in the “Filters & Blocked Addresses” tab in Settings.
• When you’re done, don’t forget to click “Save Changes.”

How to configure Priority Inbox:

If you choose to go with Priority Inbox, you can use the drop-down next to each option in “Inbox sections” to choose which categories to include and which to remove, how many messages from each section to include, and whether to hide a section when it’s empty.

• To add another section, go to the Label tab at the top of the Settings menu
• Click the “Create new label” button at the bottom of the menu
• Type in a name for your label in the pop-up window. Then click “Create.”

• Go to the “Inbox” tab and click “Options” next to an inbox section
• Select “More options” from the drop-down menu
• Select the label from the drop-down options that appear

• Click “Save changes” at the bottom of the menu

How to set up multiple inboxes:

• Select Multiple inboxes in Inbox type.
• To set up your inboxes, you’ll have to enter in each category as a search operator, such as is:starred or is:unread. You can create up to five sections.
• You can add a label for each category in Section Name
• Type in the number of emails you want displayed in each category, next to “Maximum page size”
• To change the placement of the sections, adjust it in “Multiple Inbox position”

Update February 10th, 2022, 9:40AM ET: This article was originally published on July 6th, 2020, and was updated to include the “Bundling in Promotions” option.

While Slack began as a workplace instant-messaging tool, over the last few years it has become popular as a way for anyone to keep in contact with a group of friends, colleagues, or family. It now even offers a way for groups to create in-the-moment “huddles,” in which two or more people can move from text to audio — if you’re on a paid plan.

Although Slack is largely intended for group collaboration, it also has tools if you just want to chat one-on-one with somebody. Here, we’re going to go over some of the ways you can have a private text, audio, or video conversation with one other person via the free version of Slack.

Text conversations

Using the Slack desktop app:

• If you’ve recently sent a personal message to someone, you’ll find their name in the left-hand sidebar under “Direct messages.” Click on their name, type your message in the box at the bottom and press enter / return to send.
• If the name is not in the sidebar, click the + next to “Direct messages.” Type in the name of the person you want to send a message to. As you type, the person’s name will come up in the results (assuming they’re in that Slack workspace) and you can click on it. Type your message in the box at the bottom and press enter / return to send.
• You can also start a message by clicking the pencil icon in the top left corner of the screen next to your workspace and username. Enter the name of the person you want to message in the bar at the top. Write the message in the box at the bottom of the screen and press enter or return to send.

Using the mobile app:

If you want to continue a previous conversation, or find someone you’ve already conversed with, tap on “DMs” on the bottom of the screen to find a history of your direct messages.

You can also tap the pencil symbol at the bottom of the Home screen. This will bring up the “New Message” screen with a list of people you’ve previously messaged with; either select one of those, or type in the name of a person you want to send a direct message to.

Voice conversations

Slack also has a built-in calling feature. On the free version, you can do voice and video calls, but only with one other person. If you have a subscription to one of Slack’s paid plans, you can also do group calls with up to 15 people and share your screen on a video call.

Using the Slack desktop app:

• Open up a direct message or a channel
• In the top right corner, click on the phone icon

• Click the camera icon to start video. If you’re on a paid plan, you can use the “Share Screen” icon as well.

Using a mobile app:

• Begin a direct message with the person you want to converse with
• If you’re using an Android device, tap on the information icon on the upper right. If you’re using an iPhone, tap on the person’s name at the top of the page.
• Tap the call icon to start a call (the person will get a notification that somebody is trying to call them)
• If you want to make it a video call, tap the camera icon

Huddles

Last spring, Slack introduced Huddles, which are meant to be audio conversations that you can immediately jump into during a text conversation with one or more people (as opposed to the audio calls, which are just a bit more formal). Unfortunately, they are only available if you have a paid account.

If you do, it’s very simple to start a Huddle. (Note: you can create a Huddle with a single person, a group of people, or a channel; for this particular article, we’ll concentrate on one-to-one conversations.)

Using the desktop app:

• Make sure you’re in a text conversation with the person you want to huddle with
• At the bottom of the left column, there will be the Huddle icon on the left of the person’s name (it will look like a broadcasting mic) and a toggle on the right. Use that to toggle the Huddle feature on, and you should immediately be able to converse.

If you’re using the desktop app, you can add running captions during a Huddle.

• While you’re talking, just above the Huddle icon, you will see text telling you who is speaking, and beneath that, text saying how many people are in the Huddle. Click on that second line.
• A pop-up will show you who is in the Huddle; the person speaking will be highlighted. Click on the three dots in the upper right corner.

• Click on “Turn on captions”

• You’ll get a larger pop-up box that will show captions for the conversation.

While there was an occasional hiccup when two people spoke simultaneously, we found the captions were largely accurate.

Finally, you can share your screen during a Huddle by clicking on the monitor icon to the left of the toggle.

Using the mobile app:

• Make sure you’re in a text conversation with the person you want to Huddle with
• Tap on the Huddle icon on the top line, to the right of the person’s name

And that’s it! Unfortunately, the captioning and screen-share features are not available on the mobile app.