Gmail messages are grouped into 'conversations' so that all follow-ups and responses appear as a single line in your inbox. Here's how to interpret the columns in your inbox:
- Use the check boxes to select conversations, and then perform actions on those selected conversations.
- Add stars to important messages or conversations. You can view all your starred mail by clicking Starred.
- Names of message senders are listed on the left.
- Unread messages are bolded.
- The total number of messages is listed in parentheses.
- All labels appear in the bottom left corner.
- Gmail displays snippets -- a line of text next to each message that reveals a bit of the content of the most recent message.
- The time or date the most recent message in a conversation arrived is displayed on the far right of a conversation line. Dates appear when messages are older than 24 hours.
About Archive and All Mail
Since you have more than 2,500 megabytes of storage, we recommend that you archive messages rather than delete them. Once you delete a message, after all, it's gone for good. By archiving messages and conversations, you can take advantage of Gmail's powerful search functionality to retrieve later any message you've sent or received. Archived conversations will appear in All Mail, which is the holding place for all of the messages you've sent or received, but have not deleted.