Gmail's unsubscribe button

Gmail's Unsubscribe Button is coming to Android

Getting rid of unwanted newsletters is now a two-tap operation in many cases. Gmail for Android now has a prominent unsubscribe button at the top of emails, making it easier to opt out of unwanted mass emails. The unsubscribe button appears differently depending on how the publisher implemented it, either asking for confirmation or redirecting to the newsletter's unsubscribe website.  The unsubscribe button is rolling out gradually and may not be available for everyone, but the old route of using the top overflow menu and selecting the unsubscribe option is still accessible. Gmail has long offered a way to quickly unsubscribe from unwanted mass emails in its web app with a button right within the header. Just after this button underwent a design change to become more prominent, Google is finally giving that same option a prominent place in its Gmail Android app.

The feature makes it easier to unsubscribe from unwanted emails. Gmail’s super helpful unsubscribe button making its way to Android. Now when you get yet another Temu email you don’t want in your inbox, tap a button up top beside the sender’s name and unsubscribe without leaving the email. Tapping the button will either unsubscribe you automatically or direct you to the sender’s website to make the magic happen, depending on the publisher. The feature is currently slowly rolling out to users, so you may or may not have it yet. If you don’t see it, make sure the Gmail app is updated on your phone and then give it a few days.

Like in the web app, the new unsubscribe button is positioned right at the top of emails in Gmail for Android. Using the three-dot overflow menu at the very right of the header, it’s still possible to mark an email as spam or phishing, though you should only use this when you’re sure that the message you’ve received is spam. Otherwise, you might teach your spam filter to send legitimate messages to the purgatory more often than you’d like. In typical Google fashion, the unsubscribe button isn’t available for everyone just yet. Despite using a recent version of the app (2023.11.26) and the same Google account, we were able to see the Unsubscribe button on a Pixel 8 Pro while it wasn’t visible on an Honor phone. It’s likely that the button is rolling out as a server-side switch. If the button doesn’t show up for you just yet, you can use the old route: hit the top overflow menu in the app bar and tap the Unsubscribe option in it.

In December, Google already made Unsubscribe more visible in Gmail for the web. The option now features a blue font, making it instantly visible in the header. In the past, it was written in a smaller grey font, making it much harder to spot. Google was first spotted working on this more prominent placement back in November 2023. Back then, app expert showed in a post on X what the button looks like and how it works. As the button is now rolling out in stable, the tipster spotted another potential tweak coming to Gmail for Android soon. Two new options in Gmail app are as follows:-

1. Manage Subscriptions - No idea what it's about. Because tapping it opens an infinite loading screen. 

2. Report illegal content - In action bar of every email. It links to this page - https://t.co/m0v4DAgQx8 Hidden behind flags.#Google #Gmail pic.twitter.com/hoK4B4VFIC — AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) January 13, 2024. It’s likely that hamburger menu is supposed to list all active email subscriptions, allowing you to quickly choose which of them you’d like to keep and which to get rid of.

While it has never been this prominent, the unsubscribe option has long been available on both Gmail for the web and for Android. The technological foundation for an unsubscribe button within email clients was actually laid all the way back in 1998 with syntax detailed in RFC 2369, and Gmail added the option more than a decade ago. If you don’t have the option yet, you can still access unsubscribe the old-fashioned way by tapping the three-dot menu at the top of the page. That same menu also still has options to mark an email as spam or phishing. Doing that will also lead to an unsubscribe button, but will also let Google know that the sender might have had bad intentions.