Google Gmail

Show Unread Message Count as an Icon

SUMMARY: Glance at your web browser's Tab Bar to see how many new messages are in your Gmail Inbox.

Do you keep a web browser tab or window open all the time waiting for an important message in your Gmail Inbox?

One way to more easily see at-a-glance whether or not new mail has arrived inside your Inbox is to place the number of new messages directly in the browser / tab icon - see the below screenshot for an example:

While browsing MalekTips in one tab, you can see that two new messages have appeared in a Gmail account via its icon in another tab

To add this ability, access the Gmail Labs feature by doing the following:

1. Click the gears icon at the top right of the Gmail window, selecting "Labs".

If this option is not available, click "Mail settings", and then when the "Settings" page appears, click the "Labs" link.

2. When the Gmail Labs page appears, scroll down to the section "Unread message icon" and click the "Enable" radio button.

Enabling the Unread message icon feature in Gmail

3. Click the "Save Changes" button.

Note that this only counts mail marked as new in your Inbox. New mail that has been filtered away from your Inbox via archiving will not be counted.

This feature may not work on all web browsers. According to Google, it works on Google Chrome v6+, Firefox v2+, and Opera. Internet Explorer and Safari support was not tested for this tip.

This tip was written on October 4, 2011. Gmail's features and interface are subject to change. Screenshots may also differ depending on your web browser and operating system.

Return to the Google Gmail page.

Print this tip

Get the Newsletter

Thanks For Sharing!

Newest Tips:

Microsoft Word 2010
Make Sure Others Can See Your Fonts

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
Animations or Video Displaying Poorly?

Google Chrome
[MODIFIED] Report a Malfunctioning Web Page, Crash, or Other Issue

Google Gmail
Show Unread Message Count as an Icon

Follow Us!

Email Twitter RSS

About MalekTips and the Author