Gmail: Including Sent Items In Your Inbox

Google can sometimes be frustrating.  It its efforts to simplify, it sometimes leaves out options we may like.  One example of this is Google's refusal to include an option that allows you to have your sent items shown in your inbox.  This is part of Google's strategy to keep your inbox as uncluttered as possible.  But it would be nice if users had the ability to opt out of this.

The only way a sent item will show up normally, is if you send a message and receive a response.  If your mail is set to "conversation mode" both the sent item and the reply are in your inbox.  You also have the option of selecting "all mail" instead of just sent items to see everything, including all emails you have sent, receive, or even filed away.

Some, however, would like all sent items to be in their inbox all the time as soon as they are sent, without having to move an item to inbox each time.  This could be done by sending a BCC to yourself each time you send a message.  It also has the unfortunate affect of doubling the amount of mail you are saving.

I found an interesting work around to this dilemma.  You can create a filter that will force Google to put all of your sent items going  forward into your inbox.  The filter should say that whenever an email is from your address, the action taken is "never send to spam".  The original purpose of this filter was to force emails from certain people to go always to your inbox, even if Google thinks it is spam.  Google does this by forcing such messages into the inbox.  This has the beneficial side effect of allowing you to create a rule that all mail sent by you should also go in your inbox.