How to make a Gmail email screenshot that looks real

What you need

A subject, the names of the people on the thread, and two to four emails worth of text. Fakeconvo's Gmail generator draws the thread as it looks in the phone app, is free, needs no account and puts no watermark on the PNG. Your photos and text stay in your browser.

Five steps to a realistic Gmail thread

1. Set the subject and the people. Under People, type the subject in "Subject" and the name of the person you write with. Use full names like "Jordan Lee": each one gets a round letter avatar, or click the round button before a name to give them a profile photo. "+ Add person" puts more people on the thread.
2. Write the emails. Under Messages, use "+ From me" for yours and the "+ From" button with the other name for theirs. Line breaks stay as you type them, so start with a greeting, leave a blank line between paragraphs and end with a name.
3. Set the times. Every email except the last collapses into one row with the sender, the time and the first line as a snippet, so the times are on show. Type them in "Time", minutes or hours apart, or a date such as "Oct 28" for older emails.
4. Add a photo or a reaction. "+ Photo" adds an image to the thread, with an optional "Caption". Under "Reactions", tap an emoji to put a chip under the open email, the way Gmail shows emoji reactions.
5. Set the look and export. Choose light or "Dark mode", set the "Status bar time" a few minutes after the last email, and download the PNG at 2x or 3x, as the phone screen or the whole thread.

Details that make a Gmail thread look staged

The most common give-away is a chat dressed up as email: one-line messages sent a minute apart. Real threads have fewer, longer emails with a greeting and a sign-off, and replies that come hours later. The first line of each earlier email is what people read in the collapsed rows, so make it say something.

Check the frame too. An empty subject shows "(no subject)". The open email reads "to me" when someone else sent it and "to" plus their name when you did. "Reply all" only appears once three or more people are on the thread, so add a third person if your scene needs it. Times must run forward from top to bottom, and the status bar clock must come after the last email.

Use it the right way

Gmail screenshots are for films, books, comics, product and newsletter mock-ups, and lessons, such as training a team to spot a phishing email. Do not make an email that looks like it came from a real bank, company or person, do not pass a made-up email off as proof, and do not use one to scam, bully or embarrass anyone. Our acceptable use page has the details.