What is a label in Gmail?

The concept of a Gmail label refers to a designated category that you can assign to an email, be it one you’ve sent, received or even constructed in draft mode. Gmail labels offer the functionality to compartmentalize your inbox akin to subdividing your emails into separate sections. While seemingly similar to folders, Gmail labels stand apart in the sense that a single email can be tagged with multiple labels.

These Gmail labels are positioned on the left panel of your inbox within Gmail. What’s more, these labels are capable of being grouped under a single parent label, thereby establishing a well-organized hierarchy that’s particularly beneficial for organizing support-related emails. By assigning a Gmail label and subsequently clicking on it, you can access all the emails falling under that specified category. This serves as a practical approach for decluttering the seemingly overwhelming jumble of emails in your inbox, especially when you need to associate various customer support emails.

Why would you want to share labels

Gmail labels can be extraordinarily beneficial, serving as vital tools in organizing the sheer quantity of emails your agents receive on a daily basis. But what if you need to operate as a team and your labels aren’t shared?

Shared labels offer a collaborative platform for your team and establish a universal categorization system for your emails. Regardless of the email’s content, you can group related emails together, and even allocate the same agent to handle them.

Recognizing the similarity of emails simplifies managing your list of tasks. You can even formulate predefined responses for recurring customer issues, which streamlines your workflow and conserves crucial time and effort.

How does cloudHQ label sharing work?

CloudHQ label sharing service works roughly like this:

1. Setup: You install the cloudHQ extension for your browser. You then authenticate it with your Google account – this enables cloudHQ to monitor and manipulate labels on your email.

2. Sharing a label: In your Gmail, you create a label or choose an existing one. Then, using the cloudHQ dashboard or the Gmail interface (with the extension installed), you share the label with another Gmail user. This user gets an email invitation to share the label.

3. Accepting the shared label: The recipient must accept the invite and authenticate it with their Google account. Optionally, they can also install the Chrome extension (not required).

4. Syncing emails: Once the label is shared, cloudHQ will sync the label between you and the recipient’s Gmail. And whenever you apply that label to an email, cloudHQ copies the email into a similarly labeled section of the recipient’s Gmail. They can read the email, respond to it, and remove the label if they want. All these actions sync back to your view of the label as well, effectively allowing you both to manage a set of emails together.

In short, the cloudHQ label sharing service lets you share email labels with another Gmail user by installing a browser extension, authenticating it with your Google account, and sending the user an invitation to share the label. Once the label is shared, cloudHQ syncs the emails coming under that label between you and the recipient, allowing both of you to manage the set of emails together.

Admin-controlled and individual label sharing configurations

There are two types of label sharing configurations: sharing individual labels or setting up admin-controlled shared label structures (akin to Google Drive’s two forms of sharing: sharing individual folders or setting up Google Shared Drives).

1. You can share a label as an individual. For example, if you are working on a project and you would like to share that project’s emails with a set of your colleagues. This is similar to: sharing individual folders in Google Drive.
2. You can create shared labels across the organization for your team. For instance, establishing a shared label for all projects or cases within the company, or an organization-wide label for tasks. This is similar to setting up Google Shared Drives. The instructions on how to setup sharing an admin are here: IT Admin: How to set up a shared Gmail label for your Google Workspace domain.
   For an example of a setup like this, please check the support note: Best practices for cloudHQ Label and Email Sharing

Instructions on how share a Gmail label (individual user)

Here are the steps to share a Gmail label:

1. Install the cloudHQ Chrome extension called Label Sharing for Gmail by cloudHQ from this link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/label-sharing-for-gmail-b/pmmaemmobdmccnfepmkckendmealjapo:
   
2. After installing, you will be prompted to forward to your Gmail. Login into you Gmail (if not logged in). You will prompted create a cloudHQ account.
3. After creating an account, you will see Share Label when you right-click on your Gmail label:
   
4. Choose the Gmail label you want to share, and click Share Label. Pick your sharing options as explained here: Label Sharing Options:
   
5. Enter the email address of people you want to invite and an optional message, then click Share label:
   
   
6. The recipients will need to accept the share. You can find details on how to accept in this note: How to accept a share from an email invitation.
7. You can check if shares are accepted by visiting the share label dashboard:
   

Note: To share only sublabels, use our web interface with these instructions: Sharing sublabels only.

Instructions on how share a Gmail label (Workspace admin)

If you are a Workspace admin, then the easiest way is to share labels via the cloudHQ admin console.
The overview of steps is:

1. Authorize cloudHQ to access the Google Workspace domain
2. Set up a shared Gmail Label either owned by the admin or a team member

The instructions on how to share a label are in the support note How to set up a shared Gmail label for your Google Workspace