Gmail labels become Front tags

When you connect a Gmail account to Front, Front will sync your Gmail labels with your Front tags, including nested labels, as long as the channel is set to Gmail threading mode. If you use a different threading mode, tag activity will not sync between Gmail and Front. The tag sync also works differently for shared inboxes and individual inboxes, explained more below.

When you connect a Gmail account with Front as an individual inbox, you can choose to import your labels as private tags. For a tag to be created, you must have applied the Gmail label at least once to a conversation that is being imported. 

When syncing, Front will add up to 500 tags in your personal sidebar and retains the original nesting structure. If you already have other tags added to your sidebar, then Front will show as many more as possible up to 500. The Gmail labels that don't get automatically added to your sidebar will be available in the tag menu for you to use.

When you connect a Gmail account with Front as a shared inbox, you can choose to import your Gmail labels as Front shared tags. The process is the same as for an individual inbox.

The following rules apply for tag sync with Gmail for both shared inboxes and individual inboxes:

For accounts on new sync: Adding and removing tags/labels on conversations will not be synced between Front and Gmail after the initial import.

• When you apply a label in Gmail, a tag will not be created for that label and applied to the message in Front.

• When you tag a message with a tag in Front, the message will not be labeled in Gmail with a matching label. 

• When you remove these labels or tags in one system, the corresponding label or tag will not sync between systems.

For accounts on legacy sync: Adding and removing tags/labels on conversations will sync between Front and Gmail after the initial import.

• For individual inboxes:

  • When you apply a label in Gmail, a private tag will be created for that label and applied to the message in Front.

  • When you tag a message with a private tag or a shared tag in Front, the message will be labeled in Gmail with a matching label. 

  • When you remove these labels or shared tags in one system, the corresponding label or shared tag will be removed in the other system.

• For shared inboxes: If you apply a private tag to a message in a shared inbox in Front, the message will not be labeled in Gmail. If you remove a label in Gmail that matches a private tag in Front, the private tag will not be removed.

For accounts on new sync: When you create a label in one system, the corresponding label is not created in the other. You will need to manually create the tag/label in both systems.

For accounts on legacy sync: If a Gmail label name matches a tag that already exists, Front will not create a duplicate tag. The Gmail label will map to the Front tag that already exists with the same name. The same is true in reverse — if a Front tag is applied that matches the name of a Gmail label, then a duplicate label will not be created.

If you have nested Gmail labels, this structure will carry over to Front, and we will create tags and nested tags accordingly. 

For accounts on new sync: If you move a conversation from your inbox into a label in Gmail, the matching tag will not be applied in Front and the status will not be synced.

For accounts on legacy sync: If you move a conversation from your inbox into a label in Gmail, we will apply the matching tag and archive the conversation. If you move the message between labels in Gmail, we will also update the tags in Front, and the message will remain archived.

Unfortunately there is no way to avoid archiving due to Gmail’s API. If this is an issue for your workflow, we recommend only applying the label in Gmail instead of moving the message out of your inbox into the label folder.

When you delete a label or tag in one system, the corresponding label or tag is not deleted in the other. You will need to delete both the label and tag manually.

The same applies for renaming tags and labels — you will need to update the name of the corresponding tag or label in the other system. Otherwise, you will end up with two separate tags or labels in the other system: one for the old name and one for the new name. 

For example, say you have an Urgent label with a matching Urgent tag in Front. If you rename Urgent to High Priority in Gmail and apply that label, you will create a new tag called High Priority in Front (in addition to the Urgent tag). To keep them in sync, you should update the Front tag to High Priority before using the renamed label.

If you need a backup, you can export tag information via Front's API.

The Starred section of your private Gmail inbox will sync to Front with a history import, but shared inboxes will not sync the Starred section. Learn more about the Starred section here.