New ‘Priority Inbox’ Feature Sorts Important Gmail Messages

Google will soon be rolling out an optional feature called Priority Inbox for Gmail users. Basically, it splits your inbox into three sections: the topmost section containing important and unread messages, the middle section containing messages you’ve starred, and the bottom section containing other less important messages to read later.

The system prioritizes messages by analyzing which ones you’ve opened, replied to, and which ones come from people you e-mail frequently. You can also manually prioritize certain messages that Gmail has misidentified, so the system learns from you over time.

According to a company blog post:

“As messages come in, Gmail automatically flags some of them as important. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most (if you email Bob a lot, a message from Bob is probably important) and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better at categorizing messages for you.”

The feature will be rolling out “over the next week or so.”