Disable Primary, Social and Promotions Tabs in Gmail



Disable Primary, Social and Promotions Tabs in Gmail


Recently, it came to my notice that the interface of my Gmail account has changed a bit. Earlier, I enjoyed the simplicity of accessing my emails by just logging in and quickly reading every new message with a single-click. However, now, it takes me few more clicks (also few more seconds of my life) to read recent emails in my mailbox.

primary social promotions tabs in gmail

This has happened so since my emails are now getting categorized or grouped under three new tabs namely;

  1. Primary,
  2. Social and
  3. Promotions.

This change is a result of Google regularly tweaking its free email service, the Gmail. In its recent update, they implemented some new tweaks and abruptly changed the default interface of Gmail.

Now when you login into your Gmail you'll see that, your recent emails are getting grouped under three new tabs called primary, social and promotions. These can be seen at the top of Gmail's interface without any need to scroll in your browser's window.

Click on screenshots given below to see before and after change to Gmail's default interface.

Earlier, before any change was made to Gmail, its default interface looked like this ↓

earlier no tabs in gmail

Later, when the update was made live Gmail's interface changed to this ↓

new tabs primary, social and promotions in gmail

First of all, I really appreciate Google for their hard work of regularly tweaking and enhancing the Gmail's interface. I sincerely adore them for continuously improving their web services.

However, the recent change of grouping new emails under primary, social and promotion's tabs somewhat annoyed me. It is taking few more seconds to read my emails than before. This is slightly affecting my productivity. I think this has also now set as a default setting. All I can remember is that I was not asked for any confirmation as Google usually does. It seems that this change was made default without a Gmail user's consent.

Right now, I still prefer the old good look and want to reset my Gmail's interface back to its earlier simple mode. Like me, if you also want to disable primary, social and promotion's tabs (now possibly default) from your Gmail's interface, then follow and try out instructions (or steps) given below:

settings in gmail

  1. First, open the Gmail.com. Now enter your username and password to login into your inbox.
  2. After logging in, now click on ‘Settings’ (look for a wheel-like icon) which is at the top-right corner of your Gmail's interface.
  3. Click on ‘Configure inbox’.
  4. Uncheck or deselect the social and promotion's choice options.
  5. Finally, click Save.

untick the social and promotions tabs

Viola! You have successfully disabled the primary, social and promotion's tab. Now you shall see your inbox is reverted back to its earlier simple mode. Your emails are no longer getting grouped, and all fall under one common category.

You may also see that Gmail is now displaying an alert-message at the top-right corner beside your account name. This message says something like this,

“Inbox tabs are switched off. Click the ‘Settings’ button and choose ‘Configure inbox’ to bring them back.”

gmail message

Note: To enable new tabs again, you can simply go back to configure inbox and check the same.

Alternate method to disable the primary, social and promotion's tabs in Gmail:

alternate method to disable primary, social and promotions tabs in gmail

  1. First, open the Gmail.com. Now enter your username and password to login into your inbox.
  2. After logging in, now click on ‘Settings’ (look for a wheel-like icon) which is at the top-right corner of your Gmail's interface.
  3. Click on Settings.
  4. Now under settings, click on ‘Inbox’.
  5. In ‘Categories’, uncheck the Social and Promotions choice.
  6. Finally, click on the ‘Save’ button to make changes effective.

Note: To enable new tabs again you can simply go back to inbox (under settings) and the tick or check the tabs you want.

I hope these instructions helped you to enhance your Gmail experience.







4 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...


    Fantastic - thank you so much for such a sensible and clear fix for such an annoying "update"!

  2. Anonymous said...


    This new email from Gmail is annoying the hell out of me. As a result of their "self perceived" clever changes I am missing emails when checking them on my phone. So annoying. I am seriously thinking of switching my email service as a result (business and pleasure.) Add to that their recent admission about the fact that Gmail is not private and again - more reasons to give Gmail a swerve. Google Drive is yet another un-trustable concept of theirs too. I love their search engine though :)

  3. Anonymous said...


    thank you!! That is such an annoying 'upgrade'!!

  4. Gaurav Akrani said...


    I am yet to try Google Drive so right now can't make a concrete comment on it.

    However, of all free email services out there I still love and prefer gmail over others.

    Before Gmail, I was hooked on Yahoo's mail. Gmail is now more feature rich and faster than Yahoo's mail.

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