Google Meet and Chat tabs

Perhaps the most annoying change Google has ever made to Gmail was adding big buttons for Google Meet and Chat at the bottom of the screen. This happened five years ago when everyone was doing video calls, but it has persisted as the default layout ever since. Free up some screen real estate and remove these buttons by going to Settings > [Your Account] > Uncheck “Chat” and “Show Meet tab for video calling”.

Privacy invading “Smart Features”

Last year, Google added a cryptic but ominous-sounding feature in Gmail simply called “Smart Features.” The description states that, when enabled, Gmail, Chat, and Meet can use your content (a.k.a. emails and other activity) in these apps to “personalize your experience.” If you’d rather not let Google sift through your info any more than it already is, go to Settings > [Your Account] > Uncheck “Smart features”.

Adding an extra layer of annoyance, Google has bundled Smart Features with a number of other features—some of which you may want to use. That includes the handy “Manage subscriptions” tab, package tracking, and Smart Compose/Reply. Turning off Smart Features disables them as well.

Resurfacing old, unreplied emails

Similar to Google Messages, Gmail has a “Nudge” feature that brings old emails it thinks you forgot about back to the top of your inbox. If you’re able to handle emails on your own, it can feel like Google is babysitting you. Navigate to Settings > [Your Account] > Reply and follow-up. You’ll see two types of Nudge: emails to reply and emails to follow up on.

Smart Compose and Smart Reply

“Smart Compose” and “Smart Reply” are AI features that give suggestions for what it predicts you might want to say. They started out pretty mild, but Google is planning to drastically expand Gmail’s predictive suggestions this year. If you’d rather use words from your own brain, head over to Settings > [Your Account] > Uncheck “Smart Compose” and “Smart Reply.”

Threaded Conversation View

By default, Google groups emails with the same topic and sender into a “Conversation” view. They get nested into one long chain, as if they were replies, and the chain resurfaces every time a new email is added. This can make it difficult to browse for a specific email and stay organized. Plus, the chains can get pretty long. To revert to the standard view, go to Settings > [Your Account] > Uncheck “Conversation view”.

One important thing to note is that these settings do not apply to all the accounts in your Gmail app. You have to disable them separately for each one. Now that I’ve found all these settings, I think that might actually be the most annoying Gmail feature. Thankfully, the options for disabling these features do exist, but you might have to find them multiple times.