Do you ever wish you could mark an email as read right from a notification on Android? If so, we have some good news. While Google’s been testing a “mark as read” button on mobile for a while now, it’s finally ready to roll out for everyone.
When you get a new email on Gmail for Android, you can tap reply right from the notification, making it quick and easy to respond to an email. Additionally, the app has another choice to either “delete” or “archive” the email, which is an option in settings. Google uses the Archive option by default, but many choose to swap it for an easy delete button.
However, starting back in May and again in June of this year, reports started to emerge about a third option. As noted by9to5Google, Google started toying with a “Mark as Read” in Android’s expandable notifications. This is an extremely small change, but a huge quality-of-life upgrade users have been asking about for years.
In fact, we wrote a guide in 2020 aboutusing a third-party tool to mark emails as read, and soon, you won’t have to. Starting in mid-August, Google released an update to Gmail version 2025-08-07.79381390 for Android, delivering the “Mark as Read” option for our phones. Instead of being on the right side of a notification, it’s now located in the middle, so users don’t accidentally tap on it.
Unfortunately, like everything Google does lately, this is a staggered release. By that, I mean that even if you’re on the latest app update for Gmail, you might not see it yet. That’s because Google slowly rolls features out to more and more users over the course of 1–2 weeks to ensure everything works properly. For example, I don’t see this on my Pixel 7a, but it’s available on my Galaxy S25+ smartphone. That said, it should arrive in the coming days.
Sometimes the smallest change can have the biggest impact, which I think will happen with this new Gmail feature for Android. Being able to easily handle an email right from the notification bar is a huge win, and it’s frustrating that it took this long to arrive.
While the new “Mark as Read” button for Gmail notifications on Android will likely be a welcome change and a great quality-of-life upgrade for some, it’s understandable if some people prefer not to have such an option. Interestingly enough, while Google will let you choose between “Archive” and “Delete” in the notification tray, the app doesn’t have a way to disable the new mark as read option. It’ll just randomly start appearing on your phone, and you won’t be able to change it. Well, at least not yet. Google could make it optional in future app updates.
In related news, Gmail added a new way to manage subscriptions and other junk earlier this summer, and now we’re getting this Mark as read feature. Clearly, the company is still trying to improve the world’s most popular email service. Plus, be on the lookout for design changes toMaterial 3 Expressivein the near future.
