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Recently, I started receiving a number of harassing emails to my Gmail account. Although they weren’t threatening, they very quickly became bothersome, and clearly, the sender wasn’t getting the hint that I wanted nothing to do with their noise or their service. I realized my only recourse was to block the sender.
It took me a moment to realize the ability to block senders in Gmail is right there, staring me in the face the whole time… both on the web and mobile apps. Once that sender was blocked, all returned to its usual state of (relative) peace.
Blocking senders can come in very handy when you’re being harassed by an individual, when a company continues to send you spam, or when you suspect someone is targeting you for some nefarious reason. The feature is built into Gmail. Let me show you how it’s done.
Blocking a sender in web-based Gmail
What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need for this are a valid Gmail account and a sender to block. That’s it.
The first thing you must do is log into the web-based version of Gmail and select an email from the sender you wish to block.
To the right edge of the email, you’ll see a three-dot menu button. Click that button to reveal the context menu. From that menu, select Block X (Where X is the name of the sender).
A popup window will appear, where you must click Block to confirm.
If you ever change your mind about a sender, you can always unblock them. To do this, click the gear icon in Gmail and then, from the popup, click See all settings. In the resulting window, click the Filters and Blocked Addresses.
At the bottom of that page, you’ll see the sender you just blocked. Click unblock at the right of the listing for that sender to undo the blocking.
How to block a sender in the Gmail mobile app
It’s just as easy to block a sender with the Gmail mobile app. Here’s how.
1. Open Gmail on your phone
Log in to your phone and open the Gmail app.
2. Locate the email from a sender
Next, locate and open an email from the sender in question.
3. Block the sender
You’ll see two different three-dot menus. You want to tap the menu associated with the sender, not the email itself. In that menu, you’ll see an entry for Block user. Tap that entry and the sender is blocked.
Also: How to change Gmail notifications so you stop missing important emails
Do use caution with this, as there’s no confirmation for the blocking.
If you find you need to unblock users, your best bet is to do so from the web-based version of Gmail.
And that’s all there is to blocking unwanted senders in Gmail. Use this feature wisely and you won’t have to worry about that person or organization harassing you from the email address you’ve blocked.
