How to specify “OR” conditions for gmail filter

Question

How can I filter messages in GMail using boolean OR conditions. For example, I can specify addresses in the To: or From: fields, but this only matches emails that meet both criteria. How can I match emails that meet one or both criteria?

Answer 1

Type into the search field of Gmail:

from:xyz OR to:uvw

see also here.

Answer 2

If you are talking about searching, then @akira's question is correct. However, it sounds like you are asking about how to use this condition in a filter.

The trick is that you can put whatever search criteria you want in the filter's Has the words field. For any other field it will prefix your criteria with the field name. For example, if you type user@example.com in the To field, it'll create the filter condition to:(user@example.com). The reason it works in the Has the words field, is because it doesn't prefix it with anything. This is because it acts as a normal search on the content of the email.

1. Create or modify a filter.
2. In the Has the words field, enter your OR condition. For example: to:user@example.com OR from:user@example.com

This is also the place to put any other attributes you want to match (e.g. label:, in:, etc.).

This will also work in the Show search options page, however it's easier to just use a normal search instead.

Answer 3

To my surprise, the solution to me was using the vertical bar | between emails instead of the comma , in the TO filed during filter creation.

Example:

name1@domain.com | name2@domain.com | name3@domain.com`

The search box would look like:

to:(name1@domain.com | name2@domain.com | name3@domain.com)

I got a popup message from Gmail saying that using special characters may give unexpected results. Just clicked on continue and it worked perfectly.