How do I send emails from one person straight to a folder in Gmail?

Last reviewed: October 22, 2026 · Markdown version

Gmail does this with two pieces: a label to act as the folder, and a filter on the sender's address that applies it. Google's inbox tips set it out as two steps, "Create a label" and then "Create a filter that automatically labels emails", and for one sender the instruction is "in the From: field, enter the email address" (Tips to optimize your Gmail inbox, Google Workspace Learning Center, read 22 October 2026). Add the skip-inbox box and the mail goes to the label without passing through the inbox at all.

On a computer

Make the label. "On the left, next to “Labels,” click Create new label", name it, and click Create (the tips page above).
Describe the sender. In the search box at the top, click Show search options and put the address in the From field. If one of their emails is in front of you, Google also offers "Filter messages like these": tick the email, click More, choose that option, then enter your criteria (Create rules to filter your emails, read 22 October 2026). Search first and read the results, so you know the address catches only that person.
Create the filter. "At the bottom of the search window, click Create filter", then tick "Apply the label" and pick yours.
Keep it out of the inbox. Tick "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)" as well; Google's tips use that box to "move response messages out of your inbox" and add that "you can still view them later if needed." Click Create filter.

Leave out step 4 if you want the mail labelled but still visible in the inbox. What that box does in detail is on making mail skip the inbox.

Mail you already have from them

Google's filter page does not say whether a new filter files the person's older mail; its only statement on timing is that a forwarding filter affects "only new messages" (the Create rules to filter your emails page above). Assume the backlog stays put. Search for the address, select the results, and apply the label to them by hand; gathering one sender's mail shows the search.

On iPhone and Android

The iPhone and iPad app has a version of its own. Under Menu, Settings, Inbox customizations, Labels, tap the label, tap Add, type the address in the "From" field and save; Google's note says "New messages that match your criteria are automatically labeled" (Create & manage labels in Gmail (iPhone & iPad), read 22 October 2026). Those steps label the mail; they do not mention skipping the inbox, so expect it to stay in the inbox as well.

Google's Android labels page lists creating, editing and applying labels by hand, and has no step for labelling new mail automatically (Create & manage labels in Gmail (Android), read 22 October 2026). On Android, build the filter in a browser on a computer. Google's filter page describes filters as a way to "manage your incoming mail", which as we read it means the label is applied in the account itself, so the Android app should show it under that label too.

Why it is a label and not a folder

Google's labels page puts it in one line: "Labels are different from folders" (the iPhone labels page above). The practical difference here is small but worth knowing. The iPhone steps for adding labels say "Check the boxes next to the labels you want to add", so a message can carry more than one and the same person's mail can also sit under a project label if another filter puts it there. And deleting one of those emails removes it from every label at once. More on that model: what labels are good for.