When using the Gmail preview pane lab, fastest way to get a direct link to a conversation?

Question

In vanilla Gmail, clicking on a conversation alters the fragment ID in the URL, allowing you to link back to that conversation. (It opens in its own Gmail interface.) I am using the preview pane, which is great, except that the URL no longer updates when viewing specific emails, so there appears to be no way to get the link to the currently-viewed conversation. (The 'open in new window' button doesn't help, since it pulls its contents in on the client side; it isn't a standalone link.)

The only solution I've found is to turn off the preview pane, find the message again in the list, open it, grab the link, go back to the message list, and turn preview pane back on. That's fairly onerous for something I do often though (to clip Gmail conversations to Evernote, where my GTD setup lives).

Answer 1

This is a major kludge, but will do the trick. First install the bookmarklet from this answer.

javascript:window.location="https://gmail.com/#search/rfc822msgid:"+encodeURIComponent(window.document.body.innerHTML.match(/Message-ID: <(.*)>/)[1])+"/"+encodeURIComponent(window.location.search.toString().slice(1).split('&').filter(function(x){return x.slice(0,3) == "th="})[0].slice(3));

Then follow these instructions.

1. Click the menu button to the right of the message's "reply-to" button and select Show original.
2. After the message's raw source is shown on a new tab (it will resemble the below screenshot), click the bookmarklet.
   
   
   
3. A new tab will now open with the regualrly formatted message. You can now bookmark or copy the message's URL.

Answer 2

press Shift+T (or More → Add to Tasks), it will create a task in Google Tasks *.

Task will include hyperlnk to mail thread in "All mail" label, so it will work no matter where thread currently is (if you copy plain link from Inbox, it won't open if thread is archived afterwards for example).

Though you cannot copy this link right from tasks, you can click it, and it will appear in addressbar even if you have split pane on (if I understand correctly, you meant split pane, not preview one, right? Maybe also it has been renamed some time ago.).

Answer 3

With the new version of gmail you can toggle the preview pane mode on or off. You can find the button in the top right corner.

Answer 4

This is a corrected code for glenviewjeff's answer but I'm not allowed to comment on it.

Desciption

Get the e-mail link with a bookmarklet.

Installation

Create a bookmark with the url below

javascript:window.open("https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/rfc822msgid%3A" + encodeURIComponent(document.getElementsByClassName('message_id')[0].innerHTML.slice(4, -4)), "_self");

Usage

1. Open the original message (see image below)
2. Click on the bookmark

Result

After clicking the bookmark you will see gmail with one conversation. Open the conversation and the message you are looking for will be expanded while the other messages are collapsed.

Opening original message

Changes

13-08-2018 I updated the code to work again.

Answer 5

The bookmarklet works fine, but kind of slow. I have a faster way for 2021

1. enable keyboard shortcuts in gmail settings
2. Shti + T to add to tasks
3. point to the newly created task and click the EDIT button (pencil icon)
4. right click on email link under "add subtask" and it lets you grab its URL
5. press delete button at the top

all 4 or 5 clicks, about the same as a bookmarklet, but that URL loads faster because it is not a "search message-id URL" but a direct to message

Answer 6

Here is a Chrome extension that does exactly this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gmail-message-url/bkdmmijcdflpcjchjglegcipjiabagei