Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why does Gmail still show threads oldest-first?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN

Print view View original

1–4 of 4 posts

Ask HN: Why does Gmail still show threads oldest-first?

Post by JaredCampbell » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

Why do you think Gmail still uses oldest-first thread ordering instead of a more natural reading order?

Is it actually better for most users, or just a legacy UX choice that stuck?

I ended up making an extension because of this, and a bunch of other Gmail frustrations.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Gmail still show threads oldest-first?

Post by JaredCampbell » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

There's also the "newest/oldest" option at the top of the reading pane, but it never works.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Gmail still show threads oldest-first?

Post by verdverm » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

This is how text messages, chat, reddit, and every threaded message medium works

They are ordered chronologically from start to end

Re: Ask HN: Why does Gmail still show threads oldest-first?

Post by JaredCampbell » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC

verdverm wrote: post #3

This is how text messages, chat, reddit, and every threaded message medium works They are ordered chronologically from start to end

I mean thats fair. The "entry" point though is usually at the newest message, for example WhatsApp, iMessage.

Post reply on HN