Google is making it a bit easier to rid your inbox of spam. It’s beginning to add an unsubscribe button to Gmail that will automatically appear in the header of emails that it detects might be unwanted messages from marketers. IDG News Service reports that Google announced the new feature at an event last week, and that the unsubscribe option began to roll out thereafter. Clicking the button won’t lead you through the marketers’ standard unsubscribe dialogue though — it will instead have Google send an automated email to the marketer requesting that it remove you from future mailings.
Gmail adds unsubscribe button to rid your inbox of promotions
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
An unsubscribe button appears directly beside the sender's email address.
The change effectively streamlines a feature that Google rolled out in 2009, which would offer users an unsubscribe button, but only after they had first reported an email as spam. At the time, Google said that its automated unsubscribe emails didn’t always work, and that likely holds true now as well. The button also won’t appear on genuine spam — just marketers’ promotions — as sending an unsubscribe message to a spammer may only lead to more emails. But even if it only works some of the time, the new button may still make unsubscribing easier than hunting for a tiny link hidden at the bottom of an email.
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