How To Change Font in Gmail Emails: A Complete Guide

How to Change Font in Gmail on Your Android Phone

So, I finally figured out how to customize fonts directly in Gmail on an Android device—after much messing around. Honestly, it’s not straightforward. The options are kinda limited, and sometimes they’re buried under menus with vague labels like “Misc” or hidden away behind those tiny icons. If you’re looking to make your emails stand out a little or at least look less boring, here’s what I found works (and what definitely doesn’t).

Opening Gmail and Composing a New Email

First, open the Gmail app on your phone. Make sure you’re logged into the right account—because if you’re juggling more than one, you might accidentally start drafting from the wrong inbox, which can get confusing especially if you’re trying to add some style. Tap on the round “Compose” button (the pencil icon) in the bottom right corner to start a new email. This takes you to the blank message screen, ready for your message. Enter your recipient’s address, then hit “Subject”—don’t skip that, or the email might look sketchy or get ignored. Nothing worse than a blank subject line, right?

Type your message and highlight the part you want to style

Write your message, then press and hold on the text you want to change. It might be a sentence or just a few words. Usually, the app shows you a little menu to “Select all” or creepily drag tiny handles to highlight the exact part. Honestly, trying to get just the right bit highlighted can be frustrating—touch response isn’t always perfect, and if your screen protector is dirty or the touch is unresponsive, good luck. If “Select all” doesn’t work super smoothly, try tapping “Select” and then dragging the handles to cover your desired text. Once highlighted, that’s where the magic happens.

Accessing the formatting options

Right above the keyboard, look for that small “A” icon—sometimes with a few lines or symbols next to it. Tap it, and a menu should pop up with options for bold, italics, underline, font color, and sometimes font style. Just a heads up—Gmail’s mobile app isn’t as flexible as the desktop version. You typically get basic styles like bold, italics, underline, and some preset colors. The font types are super limited; you won’t find dozens of options. You mostly get what’s built-in.
*(Note: Sometimes, the “A” icon only appears after you tap it a second time to expand options, or it’s hidden until you do. It’s a bit inconsistent.)*

Changing font color and style

If you want to punch up your message with colors or highlight parts, tap on that “A” again, then look for the color circle or palette icon. Tap that, and you’ll see some colors to choose from. Pick a hue, and it’ll apply to the highlighted chunk of text. This is pretty basic—there’s no crazy font menu like on the desktop, just some preset colors. For background colors, sometimes there’s a “Highlight” or “Background color” option within that menu. But don’t get your hopes up—the options can be limited or hidden behind smaller menus.
*(Pro tip: Highlight what you want to change first, then apply the color—otherwise, it’ll just change the whole message.)*

Other tips and potential stumbling blocks

Now, if you’re thinking about really getting fancy with fonts beyond what Gmail offers, good luck. Google’s mobile app just isn’t that flexible. For serious customization, you’d probably need to use signatures with styled images or embed fonts as images, but that’s more complicated. Also, beware that some formatting might not save properly or might revert back after you send. Sometimes, it’s a glitch or just the app being finicky. To fix this, I’ve found updating the Gmail app helps—go to the Google Play Store and make sure you’re on the latest version (com.google.android.gm). Also, clearing cache in Settings > Apps > Gmail > Storage > Clear cache can help if things get bugged out or if formatting options are missing.

Finalizing and sending

When everything looks good, double-check your styling. If it’s OK, tap the “Send” button—the paper plane icon in the top right. And that’s it. Hopefully, your email looks a little more personalized or at least less bland. Just remember, this whole process can be a bit hit or miss, especially on Android. Sometimes you have to toggle menus or restart the app. I’ve had to restart Gmail several times just to get a formatting option to show up or to apply styles properly.

The long and short of it

This stuff isn’t perfect—Gmail on Android isn’t designed for heavy styling. It’s limited, clunky, and sometimes downright frustrating. Still, once you get the hang of it—highlight, tap the “A”, choose your color or style—it’s doable. But be prepared for trial and error, and maybe a few restart attempts. And if your formatting keeps vanishing, a quick app update or cache clear might do the trick.

Wrap-up & quick checklist

• Make sure your Gmail app is updated.
• Highlight the exact text you want to style before applying formatting.
• Use the “A” icon to access styling options—colors, bold, italics, underline.
• Be aware of the limited font styles—mostly just basic styles and colors.
• If formatting acts up, try restarting the app or clearing cache.
• And double-check styles before hitting send.

Hope this helped — it was a real pain to figure this stuff out sometimes. It took way longer than it should have, honestly. Anyway, hope this saves someone else a weekend of fiddling with menus and limited options.