Table of Contents
Highlights
- Gmail for Android now lets users create, edit, and delete labels directly in the app.
- The update improves feature parity with the desktop and iOS Gmail experiences.
- Rollout is gradual by account, so availability may vary across devices.
- Some limits remain, including no label color customization on Android yet.
This article explains what Gmail Android labels are, how to use this new feature on Android, why it’s so important for users of Gmail on an Android device, and what is in store for those who use Gmail on a mobile device.
Checklist for Gmail Labels
Create a new label directly in the Gmail app for Android without having to go to the web. A major problem has been solved for Gmail’s mobile app users due to this change, because now Android’s functionality with regard to the organizing of email through the Gmail application is the same as that of users on desktop and iOS. Rollout of this capability is gradual, so not everyone will see this feature at the same time.
Limitations of this feature include: you cannot modify the color of the labels.
Gmail Labels: What They Are?
In Gmail, labels (like tags) make it easy for you to classify your messages throughout your entire email account.
Labels help you keep your Gmail Inbox organized. While folders can contain multiple copies of a message, you can have as many labels as you want on one email to help you organize if your organization method is more complex. Labels also help you to keep your Gmail account organized in general. Users can create labels to categorize their messages; color-code labels for visual representation; create filters for filtering by labels; and, in many cases, users can choose whether to display a label in the Gmail interface when logged into the account.
How Labels Are Created in the Old Way
Back in the day, creating a new label or editing an existing label required you to log onto your Gmail account through the desktop website and manage your labels from there. The Gmail app on the Android OS (operating system) does allow you to apply or add an existing label to a message, but up until now, you could not create a new label or edit or delete an existing one through the app. This lack of functionality has been referenced as a disparity between the Gmail app on Android OS and iOS, as the iOS app had supported creating and managing labels for some time.
The New Way to Create Labels on the Android Gmail App
The newest Android Gmail app version 2026.1.26 and higher enables users to create, edit, and delete labels from the app. Here’s how you can create a new label:
- To get your first label created in Gmail on your Android device:
- Launch Gmail on your Android.
- Click the hamburger icon in the top-left to access the menu in your email client.
- Find ‘Create label’ between ‘Manage subscriptions’ and other existing labels.
- Select this option and type in the name of your new label.
- Managing Labels
- To delete a label, I go to Settings > email> Manage labels.
Unfortunately there are no options for customizing the colour of your labels yet on Android.
Availability
Google is rolling this feature out by account; it may take longer before it appears for every user on this Android device.
Technical Significance of the Update
From a technical perspective, adding label creation to Android is part of what Google is trying to do to improve parity between mobile and desktop versions of Gmail. In the previous version of Gmail, labels were metadata tags used extensively for relationships between multiple messages and labels that could connect to the same tagged message; this was supported through Gmail’s API and desktop interface.
By adding label creation for Android, Google has improved:
Workflow continuity for users as they no longer have to switch back to their desktop browser to manage their labels.
Mobile productivity of both individual users and teams because the ability to create labels while receiving email enables these users to categorize the emails they receive via email on their mobile devices.
Feature parity of their mobile and desktop products
The introduction of native support for label creation in Gmail for Android represents an important evolution in the product’s evolution toward providing users with equal capabilities across all platforms.
Previously, users needed to switch to a desktop computer in order to create or update their labels when using Gmail on their mobile device. Now, they can do all of these actions directly from within Gmail for Android. This change is particularly relevant for users of Gmail on mobile who do most of their correspondence via email.
While several advanced options for creating and customising labels remain available only through a web interface or desktop computer for the time being, Google has taken the first step toward achieving its goal of providing users with equal capabilities across these different platforms through the rollout of label creation in Gmail’s mobile application. This has almost certainly been a welcome addition to the app for millions of mobile users who will now have access to the same capabilities as those who use desktop or iOS devices.
