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How to Get Rid of the Sidebar in Gmail
The Google Hangouts app comes preinstalled on many operating systems
5 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
You are probably a big fan of Gmail. The email client, like most otherGoogle products, has an intuitive interface that gives you all the tools you need to manage your inbox, sent, and draft email folders.
But, becauseGooglekeeps adding new features toGmail, that interface sometimes feels too damn cluttered. You will be forgiven for wanting to clean or removeGmailsidebar to get a leaner, more minimalist look.
Should I remove the Gmail sidebar?
Among the things that you may want to delete from yourGmailin order to get that lean look and feel you desire is theGoogle Hangouts chat box.
Yes, the ability to access all yourapps– the entire Google suite, Twitter, and others – from your email client has some benefits.
Yet, those constant chat suggestions, ads, and app notifications can turn yourGmailinto a jungle and clutter things up.
There are tools you can use to remove or hide most of the non-essentialGmailfeatures, like the navigation bar, stars, theGmaillogo, and search bar, and some buttons to achieve a truly spartanGmail. But today we will cover the ways you can use to remove some elements of both sidebars.
Even when it does finally load, I will still get the pesky something is not right orOops, the system encountered a problemerror message as some of theapp‘s features fail to load.
How can I minimize or remove the Gmail sidebar?
1. Use an alternative email client
If like to keep things simple and minimalistic, even when it comes to mail clients, then maybe an alternative tool would be better for you.
You can find severalemail clients that let you manage multiple accountsfrom one central and minimalistic user interface.
Third-party email clients include advanced contact sorting tools, as well as some useful email templates and spellcheckers, so they may actually improve your overall experience.
2. Turn off Google Hangouts/Chat
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Log into yourGmail account.
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Click thesettingsicon. It’s the gear wheel in the top right corner, right under your profile picture will be.
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ChooseSettingson the drop-down menu.
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Click theChattab and check theChat Offoption.
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Press theSave Changesbutton at the bottom of the page.
You might have spotted something strange going on on the left of your screen since the latest Google updates. That is because Google has been replacing Hangouts with Google Chat, expecting to give it the traction it needs to be successful.
Google Chat is turned on by default in Gmail, both the website and the mobile app. If you wish to remove the Gmail sidebar, you can turn off Google Chat from your screen.
3. Delete the right sidebar on Gmail
For some people, theHangoutsChatbox is on the right-hand sidebar. This cramps yourGmaileven more as it shrinks the screen space for your emails, which is its primary purpose.
You probably don’t need to see a record of all your recent chats every time you open yourGmail.
Follow these steps to remove the right-side chat box and free up some space;
If you had already turned off Chat in theChatfolder referred above you may need to first turn it on to access the right sidebar chat lab. You can then go back to the Chat folder settings and turn off Chat again.
4. Remove unimportant labels to remove them from your left sidebar
Have you noticed how you almost never use some of the labels on the left sidebar of yourGmail?
Some of these includeAll mail, Starred, Personal, Travel, Drafts, [Imap]/Trash, [Imap]/Sent, andSpam.
The more permanent option will be to choose the ‘remove’ option, which will delete the label altogether.
We didn’t want to be that drastic and simply hid them. I can simply click the more button to bring up all the hidden labels.
We chose to hide all the categories and other labels likeDrafts,All Mail,Trash, andSpam. That instantly brought a lighter feel and minimalist look to ourGmail.
5. Use the Gmail Ad Remover to clear the right-hand sidebar
BeforeGoogleremoved the Gadgets feature, you had probably learned to live with images of your Facebook and Twitter feeds on yourGmailconstantly taunting you to check your notifications and get distracted from that important email you have to reply to.
But ads right inside yourGmailare just annoying. The worst thing is they compete for the same real estate on which your emails are supposed to display – the right-hand sidebar.
MaybeGoogleforesaw the irritation these ads would bring and developed theGmailAdblocker.
Consider other ways of improving your Gmail experience
Other than cleaning both your right and left sidebars, there is a lot more you can do to minimize or trim yourGmailto make it more manageable.
You can consider unsubscribing from any newsletters you no longer read anddelete junk mailor highlight them as spam as soon as you receive them.
There are also some good email management tools likeunroll me, which does a great job cleaning your inbox and rolling your favorite newsletters and regular emails into a single bundle.
If you want to be really drastic, you can also consider not publishing your email address and only sharing it with your important contacts.
We hope these few tricks will help clean your sidebars, reduce clutter, and minimize yourGmail.
A leanerGmail, with lesser distractions, will certainly help you to stay on top of your tasks and get more work done.
More about the topics:Gmail issues
Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He’s a PC enthusiast and he spends most of his time learning about computers and technology.
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s one of the Troubleshooting experts in our worldwide team, specializing in Windows errors & software issues.
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Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s specialized in Windows errors & software issues.
