Gmail Is Kind of a Mess. Here’s How to Fix It

There are 1.5 billion (with a b!) active Gmail users, which Google clearly sees as an asset it can leverage. You’ve probably noticed: Google continues to fill the interface with buttons for other services.

The left sidebar on desktop, and the bottom sidebar on mobile, now have large buttons for Chat, Space, and Meet, three services that Google would love to get you started.

A colorful sidebar with four buttons takes up a lot of space, seemingly just to remind Gmail users that Google offers video conferencing and chat services. It’s even worse on the mobile version, where the chonkbar is constantly at the bottom of the screen. It’s so messy, it’s tiring to look at and I don’t think I’m alone.

You can see this as an opportunity to replace Gmail with a privacy-first email provider, but I understand not everyone wants to convert email addresses. With that in mind, here’s how to keep your Gmail address without having to look at the complicated Gmail user interface—or, if you prefer, how to hide the chonkbar so you can get back to using Gmail.

Try an email client

It’s okay if you forget about the email client — we all do. However, it’s time to keep in mind because they will show your email and otherwise stay away from you. Here are a few things I like:

1. On Apple devices, the default Mail app is clean, fast, and uniform block email tracking by default.
2. On Windows, there’s the default Mail app, which is clean and untouched by you.
3. Outlook is really good now, and it’s included if you’re paying for Microsoft Office. In particular, the mobile version is much cleaner than Gmail in many ways, and it’s also a pretty nice calendar app.
4. Thunderbird still a very good open source email client for all desktop operating systems.
5. Canaries is a clean, fast, secure email client for Windows, Android and Apple devices. You can optionally use Gmail’s default keyboard shortcuts, which is a big deal if you’re a longtime Gmail user.

All of these apps make it easy to add a Gmail account once installed, so you can try a few out and see what you like best. And everything will sync between these clients and Gmail, so you can use both at the same time if that helps.