Inbox
Gatekeeper: approve new senders
Gatekeeper holds the first email from an unknown sender until you accept or block them.
On this page
Gatekeeper protects you from strangers. When someone writes to you for the first time, their email doesn’t show up in your inbox and doesn’t trigger a notification: it waits for your decision in New Senders.
Sign-in codes, receipts and other notifications always get through: Gatekeeper only holds personal emails.
Turn on Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper is off by default.
- On desktop: Settings → General → Inbox → Gatekeeper.
- On mobile: Settings → Inbox → Gatekeeper.
The setting is synced across all your devices.
Accept or block a sender
When emails are held, a banner appears at the top of the inbox, for example “2 new senders to review”. Click See to open New Senders.
For each sender, you see how many emails are waiting and when the last one arrived. Choose:
- Accept: their emails arrive in your inbox, now and in the future.
- Block: their emails go straight to junk. The sender won’t know.
Unblock a sender
Blocked someone by mistake?
- On desktop: Settings → Senders, Blocked senders section, then Unblock.
- On mobile: Settings → Inbox → Blocked senders.
Good to know: unblocking a sender doesn’t move emails already filed in junk. Move them back to the inbox if needed.