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- You can do email forwarding in Gmail one-by-one or en masse.
- To forward up to 50 emails at once, you can install the Multi Email Forward extension for the Chrome browser.
- You can set up automatic forwarding for all Gmail messages or only those that meet certain criteria in Gmail's Settings menu.
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Most email services allow you to forward messages in a variety of ways, and Gmail is no different. You can manually forward messages within Gmail in your browser as well as set up automatic forwarding if you want to receive your Gmail at another account.
No matter what kind of forwarding you want to do, there's likely a way to do it with Gmail.
How to manually forward an email in Gmail
You can forward a single email from your Gmail account to any other email address with just a couple clicks. The steps are the same for both Gmail in a browser and the Gmail app on your phone or tablet.
1. Go to the Gmail website in a browser or open the app on your mobile device.
2. Click or tap the email message you want to forward.
3. In the message window, click the three-dot icon to the right of the Reply button and click Forward.
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4. Type the email address to which you want to forward the message and then click Send (in the mobile app, the Send button is shaped like an arrow).
How to forward multiple emails at once
Though Gmail only lets you forward one email at a time (see the previous section in this article), there's a way around that: A Chrome browser extension called Multi Email Forward shatters that limitation by letting you select and forward up to 50 emails at once.
Before you can use Multi Email Forward, you have to install it to your Chrome browser. Go to the Multi Email Forward page in the Chrome web store and install it as you would any Chrome extension: Click Add to Chrome and then Add extension. Then go to Gmail in Chrome and follow the instructions to connect it to your Gmail account and set up Multi Email Forward.
After you've completed setup, you can start to forward multiple emails in Gmail:
1. Open your Gmail account in a browser.
2. Select two or more emails in the inbox by checking selection boxes on the left side of the screen. If you want to select all the messages on the page (up to 50 messages), click the selection box between the Search mail field and the list of email messages - that selects all the messages on the current page at once.
3. Click the Multi Email Forward button (shaped like an arrow) at the top of the screen.
4. In the Multi Email Forward drop-down, choose how you want to forward the messages. Options include sending each email as a separate message, combining the messages into a single email message or sending a single email with each message included as an attachment.
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5. Enter the recipient's email address and finish sending the message.
How to set up automatic email forwarding in Gmail
You can also set up automatic forwarding, which is convenient if you want to send all the incoming mail from your Gmail account to another email address (in case you want someone to monitor messages while you are out of office, for example).
1. Open your Gmail account in a browser.
2. Click the Gear icon at the top-right, and then click See all settings.
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3. At the top of the page, click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
4. In the Forwarding section, click Add a forwarding address.
5. Enter an email address to forward messages, and then click Next.
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6. In the Confirm forwarding address window, click Proceed.
7. In the Add a forwarding address window, click OK to acknowledge the message.
8. Close the Gmail Settings window by clicking Cancel.
9. Go to an email client where you can access the account to which you're forwarding the messages and look for the confirmation email that Google just sent. In the email, click the link to confirm the request, and then click Confirm in the final window. This prevents someone from spamming a third party with unwanted forwarded emails.
10. Return to your Gmail account. Click the Gear icon at the top-right, and then click See all settings.
11. At the top of the page, click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
12. In the Forwarding section, click Forward a copy of incoming mail to.
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13. Choose what happens to email that goes to the Gmail account in the drop-down menu. Your options include allowing messages to accumulate in the inbox, marking messages as read, archiving messages, or deleting them.
14. Click Save Changes.
How to create a filter and only forward certain kinds of Gmail messages
You might not want to forward all your messages to another account. If you want to only forward some messages, you can do that with a filter.
1. Open your Gmail account in a browser.
2. In the Search mail field at the top of the page, click the Show search options button at the far right.
3. Create your filter. You can filter email by recipient, subject line, or messages that contain certain words, for example. When you're done, click Create filter.
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4. On the next page, click the checkbox for Forward to and choose the email address you want to forward the message to.
5. Click Create filter.
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If the email address you want to forward messages to doesn't appear in the Forward to drop-down, use the steps in the previous section in this article to configure a forwarding address.
How to disable email forwarding in Gmail
When you no longer need your emails to be forwarded to another address, you can disable forwarding with a few clicks.
1. Open your Gmail account in a browser.
2. Click the Gear icon at the top-right, and then click See all settings.
3. At the top of the page, click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
4. In the Forwarding section, click Disable forwarding.
5. Click Save Changes.