Gmail starts automatically sorting messages

Emails from your best friend and your mom will no longer be buried among bills and online shopping offers, if you use Gmail and you want your messages automatically sorted for you.

Google launched a new feature Wednesday for its popular email service, which now separates your emails into five different categories in an effort to keep them organized:

• Primary, for messages from family and friends.
• Social, for messages from social networks, media sharing sites, online dating services and gaming platforms.
• Promotions, for deals, offers and other promotional emails.
• Updates, for confirmations, bills, receipts and statements.
• Forums, for messages from online groups, discussion boards and mailing lists.

Users can move messages between tabs, or specify which senders should appear under which category.

Those who log in to Gmail from a desktop computer can decide which categories, if any, they want to appear as separate tabs when they log in.

Those who use Gmail's mobile apps for Android 4.0+, iPhone and iPad will see the primary category when logging in, but can easily switch between categories, Google said.

Users who prefer not to have their emails categorized and prefer Gmail's pre-existing inbox styles have the option to stick with those.