Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Inbox by Gmail: Evolving the inbox to save you time
August 9, 2016
Posted by Thijs van As, Product Manager
Staying on top of your to-do list can be a challenge. In order to get things done, you often need to hunt through your inbox to find what you’re looking for, whether it’s info about upcoming events, your next trip, or a news article you want to share with colleagues.
The team behind Inbox has made its mission to help you organize your email and save you time. Starting today, you'll discover more integrations that make it easier to see what's happening and then act with organized Trello and GitHub project updates and Google Alerts previews. You'll also see updates based on your feedback, including Google Drive integration.
Get organized Trello and GitHub project updates
The Inbox team has worked with
Trello
, a project management application, and
GitHub
, a software collaboration platform, to improve email notifications. If you use Trello, you'll get a summary of what's new with your Trello projects, so you can stay up-to-date on the latest updates. And for those of you who use GitHub, you’ll get a summary of code changes and filed issues for each repository.
Stay on top of your Google Alerts
To help you stay in the know on topics you care about, you can scan through your Google Alerts just like a newsletter. New alerts are summarized right in the inbox. If one of them catches your eye, you can click to read more. If not, you can quickly mark it as done.
Enjoy other updates based on your feedback
You'll also see a number of highly-requested features based on your feedback (thank you!):
If you use Google Drive, you can now insert Drive links into emails, check and fix permissions for those links, and save email attachments to Drive.
You can now drag-and-drop contacts between to, cc, and bcc in compose on web.
You can delete right from the inbox just as easily as you can mark as done.
What’s next?
If you're a company that sends emails, and are excited about our Trello and GitHub updates and want to make your emails more useful, contact us
here
-- we are excited to work with more email senders directly over the coming months.
This is just the beginning: The Gmail team will continue to improve the email experience so you can spend less time dealing with email and more time being productive.
Inbox by Gmail: a better way to keep track of events, newsletters and links
April 20, 2016
Posted by Pras Sarkar, Software Engineer
Life can get really busy. Inboxes too. Just think about everything inside your own inbox, from personal messages and
trip itineraries
to promotional offers and yes, even bills. It's all (mostly) important, but it can be overwhelming to stay on top of everything. And sometimes, you might miss something really important amidst all the rest.
Starting today, you'll discover three new experiences in Inbox—streamlined events, glanceable newsletters and saved links—that help you better keep track of things that matter to you and feel more in control.
Keep up with Google Calendar events
Events can be hard to keep track of in your inbox because details—and people’s plans—may change. Inbox now gathers emails from a single event together and shows you what's changed at a glance. When you tap on an event, you'll see a comprehensive overview, all in one place.
Stay on top of your favorite email newsletters
Similarly, it’s now easier to preview the newsletters you read often and click through to the articles that interest you most. And once you've taken a look at the latest, newsletters will minimize to save space in the inbox.
Store links to remember with "Save to Inbox"
Lastly, your inbox is much more than just the emails sent to you. Chances are you've emailed yourself a link or two (or three)—to an article you want to read later or a recipe you want to try. Now instead of sending yourself a bunch of separate emails, try the new "Save to Inbox" feature to easily save links for later.
Simply share the link to Inbox on Android or iOS, or use the new
Inbox by Gmail Chrome extension on web
. When you check your email, you'll see your saved links grouped together in one place.
With these updates, Inbox helps you organize and access the information that matters most, saving time and reducing email overload. Take these new features for a spin by sharing to Inbox on mobile,
installing the Chrome extension
, subscribing to an email newsletter or scheduling an event.
Express yo'self with emoji in Smart Reply
March 31, 2016
Posted by Balint Miklos, Software Engineer
When someone emails you asking to schedule a meeting, there's a good chance you're thinking, "Aw 💩 ." Or, when you get that 17th update on that topic you stopped caring about 10 emails ago, you just wanna say 💤 . Or maybe your friend just emailed you photos from Vegas, and you get inspired to stand up and 👏 . Whatever you want to say, emoji can say it better (obvs). So we figured we'd take the deep neural network behind Smart Reply, and make it more sassy.
The result is emoji suggestions in addition to (or instead of) really boring text replies. In our testing, we've also found that emoji do a better job of plumbing the emotional depths of one's soul, so we're optimistic that today's update will encourage more open and honest email conversations.
Looking ahead, Smart Reply will actually get better the more you use it, so you'll be able to strike just the right balance between written responses, and 😍 😱 🛀 🎉.
PS: Smart Reply is only suggesting emoji. We are investigating. Pardon our dust.
PPS: We are happy to report that our deep neural network had quickly learned that when given a choice, you, our users, always pick emoji. Smart Reply adapted so quickly that we thought it was a bug. Thankfully, Smart Reply will continue to show the three most perfect replies, which happen to always be emoji.
PPPS: 🚀🐍🎉🐱🍕💯
Smart Reply comes to Inbox by Gmail on the web
March 15, 2016
Posted by Taylor Kourim, Software Engineer
Today, we're bringing
Smart Reply
to
Inbox on the web
.
Just like in the Inbox mobile app, Smart Reply saves you precious time by suggesting up to three responses based on the emails you get. Selecting an option starts a reply, ready for you to either edit or send:
10% of all your replies
on mobile already use Smart Reply, so we’re excited to bring this same convenience to the web. It's particularly helpful when you're jamming through lots of emails on your laptop.
Keep the feedback coming using the "Help & Feedback" link in the app.
Inbox by Gmail: Saving time with Snooze
February 26, 2016
Posted by Michael Landry, Software Engineer
Snoozing emails is great because it helps you focus on what you need to do now instead of what you can put off until later. Starting today, Snooze is getting a new look and two time-saving improvements — all based on your feedback.
First, Snooze is getting two highly-requested snooze times:
Later this week
and
This weekend
. These new options should hopefully save you some time, and decrease the need to use custom snooze.
Snooze’s new look
Second, just like you can set your
preferred morning time
to receive emails, you can now choose the weekend days that work best for you.
New weekend setting
This feature is especially useful for people living in places where the
weekend spans different days of the week
.
Look for these new options in Inbox over the next week. And don’t forget to continue sharing your feedback, so we can keep working on your top requests. Enjoy your snoozing :)
Inbox by Gmail: find answers even faster
January 26, 2016
Posted by Govind Kaushal, Product Manager
Emails can contain all sorts of important information–from your friend's new address, to a flight confirmation number or a link to pay a bill. The challenge is, these bits of info are often buried inside larger conversations. Starting today, Inbox includes a number of improvements to help you find answers even faster.
Answers at a glance
Now when you're searching for a frequent flyer number or shipping status (for example), Inbox will show it at the top of search results–no more digging through individual emails to find what you're looking for.
Get addresses, phone numbers, membership numbers, flights, events, bills, package tracking and more in seconds.
Streamlined search results
Underneath any quick answers, you'll see a "Top results" section that orders emails by relevance. Below that is all the email results, ordered by date, but chances are you won't have to look here often.
Every second counts, so start saving time with Inbox, and spend it on what matters most.
Sharing travel plans and memories with Inbox by Gmail
December 14, 2015
Posted by Victor Anchidin, Software Engineer
The holidays are full of traveling, get-togethers and sharing memories. Now Inbox is making all of these things a bit easier, with an update to
Trip Bundles
and mobile attachments.
You've told us
how
much
you
love
that Trip Bundles summarize all of the important info about your trip. So, starting this week, you'll be able to share those summaries with friends and family with one tap.
You can also add emails to a trip (a top feature request!) using the
Move to...
menu, and view trips offline—perfect for when you're on a plane or using spotty WiFi.
While you're traveling, you might end up taking a lot of photos. Improved mobile attachments give you quick access to your recent photos, and let you attach multiple photos at once.
These new features will be rolling out over the next week. Happy holidays!
Computer, respond to this email: Introducing Smart Reply in Inbox by Gmail
November 3, 2015
Posted by Bálint Miklós, Software Engineer
With the holidays approaching and emails coming in at a furious pace, we can all use a little help. Inbox is already on hand
assisting you with the next step
,
organizing your trips
, and
even suggesting reminders
.
But when you're checking email on the go, it can be cumbersome and time-consuming to reply to all or even some of them. What if there was a way for your inbox to guess which emails can be answered with a short reply, prepare a few responses on your behalf and present them to you, one tap away?
Well, starting later this week, Inbox will do just that with Smart Reply.
Smart Reply suggests up to three responses based on the emails you get. For those emails that only need a quick response, it can take care of the thinking and save precious time spent typing. And for those emails that require a bit more thought, it gives you a jump start so you can respond right away.
There's actually a lot going on behind the scenes to make Smart Reply work. Inbox uses machine learning to recognize emails that need responses and to generate the natural language responses on the fly. If you're interested in how Smart Reply works, including how researchers got machine learning to work on a data set that they never saw, you can read more about it on the
Google Research Blog
.
And much like how Inbox gets better when you report spam, the responses you choose (or don't choose!) help improve future suggestions. For example, when Smart Reply was tested at Google, a common suggestion in the workplace was "I love you." Thanks to Googler feedback, Smart Reply is now SFW :)
Smart Reply will be rolling out later this week on both
Google Play
and the
App Store
in English. If you've got a lot of emails on your plate, now's a great time to try
Inbox
and get through them faster than ever.
Inbox by Gmail: Snooze to just the right time
July 16, 2015
Posted by Vijay Umapathy, Product Manager
Wouldn’t it be nice if your concert ticket appeared at the top of your inbox just before the event started, or your hotel confirmation came back right before you needed to check in?
Starting today, Snooze in Inbox is getting a bit more convenient—when you snooze an email that has dates and times (like event confirmations or shipping notifications), you’ll get a one-tap option to snooze to exactly the right time, like the day of your concert or the morning your package will arrive.
You'll see these new Snooze options on most of these types of emails:
Package tracking updates
Restaurant and event reservations
Calendar invites
Flight confirmations
Hotel reservations
Rental car reservations
So next time, try snoozing that email to the day before the event. Then sit back and relax, knowing your email will come back at just the right time.
Inbox by Gmail: Say adios to “Oops” with Undo Send
June 24, 2015
Posted by Phil Sharp, Product Manager
That moment when you press send and immediately realize you made a terrible mistake. But it's too late. We all need to travel back a few seconds every once in a while, so with Inbox you can take back an email right after sending. Undo Send in Inbox launched a
few weeks ago
, and now it’s available on
Android
,
iOS
and the
web
. So enjoy those second chances!
New ways to add Reminders in Inbox by Gmail
June 17, 2015
Posted by Dave Orr, Google Research Product Manager
(Cross-posted from the
Google Research Blog
)
Last week, Inbox by Gmail
opened up
and improved many of your favorite features, including two new ways to add Reminders.
First up, when someone emails you a to-do, Inbox can now suggest adding a Reminder so you don’t forget. Here's how it looks if your spouse emails you and asks you to buy milk on the way home:
To help you add Reminders, the Google Research team used natural
language understanding technology
to teach Inbox to recognize to-dos in email.
And much like Gmail and Inbox get better when you report spam, your feedback helps improve these suggested Reminders. You can accept or reject them with a single click:
The other new way to add Reminders in Inbox is to create Reminders in Google Keep—they will appear in Inbox with a link back to the full note in Google Keep.
Hopefully, this little extra help gets you back to what matters more quickly and easily. Try the new features out, and as always, let us know what you think using the feedback link in the app.
Trip Bundles in Inbox by Gmail
June 8, 2015
Posted by Thijs van As, Product Manager
I frequently travel to Mountain View and Seattle and always have a mess of related emails at the end of my trip. For example, last time the final tally was four about my flight purchase, five about my hotel reservations, one rental car confirmation and five check-in reminders. The challenge is: I often need an important bit of information quickly—a flight confirmation number or hotel address—but the details are buried in email, making them hard to find.
Just a
couple weeks ago
,
Inbox
added Trip Bundles to improve this experience—whether you’re traveling up and down the West Coast, or flying across the pond. Now, all of your emails about a trip are bundled together and available the instant you open Inbox.
When it's time to fly, Inbox will even update your flight status so you'll know if your trip is on time or if your gate has changed.
You can open the bundle to see all your emails related to that trip, with the most important information (like flight times) right at the top.
Each section in the bundle gives you all the details about your flight, rental car, hotel or restaurant reservation. And when there are multiple emails about the same reservation, Inbox is smart enough to only show you the most up-to-date information.
Finally, if you want to take a look at your upcoming trips or take a trip down memory lane, just tap on Trips in the app menu.
Safe travels!
Thanks to you, Inbox by Gmail is now open to everyone
May 28, 2015
Posted by Alex Gawley, Director of Product Management
Back in October we
introduced
a new type of inbox—one that works for you. Since then you’ve told us what you like best about Inbox by Gmail, as well as how we can make it better. And we want to say thank you.
Because of your feedback, we’re improving many of your favorite features, and launching your most highly-requested ones. So sit back, relax and enjoy all the updates.
More ways to stay organized with Trip Bundles
For starters, you’ve mentioned how much you like seeing key information at a glance, like when your package is arriving. So today Inbox is adding Trip Bundles: All of your emails about a trip will now be bundled together and the most important details (like flight times and hotel reservation numbers) will be available the instant you open Inbox.
More control with Undo Send, Swipe to Delete and Signatures
Being able to control your inbox, like
setting your custom Snooze times
, is also something you’ve told us matters. So today Inbox is helping you be more productive:
With Undo Send—now for the first time on your phone—you can take back an email right after sending in case you spotted a mistake, or have second thoughts
If you’d rather get rid of messages, you can make ‘Delete’ the default swiping action
If you want to personalize your sent messages, you can now add a custom signature
More ways that Inbox saves you time
You’ve also let us know how much you appreciate a little extra help every now and then—like when Inbox adds phone numbers to Reminders, or finds that flight time in under a second. Today Inbox is adding a few more ways it can be of service:
When you create Reminders in Keep, they’ll now appear in Inbox
When someone emails you a to-do, Inbox might suggest adding a Reminder so you don’t forget
When you get an email from HotelTonight or Eat24, you can now open your reservations and food orders within their app, directly from Inbox
Reminders created in Keep now appear in Inbox
Open your order or booking directly from Inbox
No more invites: Inbox is now open
Finally, you’ve asked for invites. And we’d like to say yes to all of you, all at once. So as of today, Inbox is open to everyone—no invitation required. All your Gmail messages are ready and waiting. So if you haven't tried Inbox yet,
download the app
today, and start getting back to what matters.
p.s. While we’re still in the early stages of bringing Inbox to work, today we’re also expanding the
Inbox early adopter program
so any Google Apps for Work customer who wants to join can do so.
Inbox by Gmail: now in more places
February 19, 2015
Posted by Taylor Kourim, Software Engineer
It’s always hard to know when it’s time to share a new product, because there’s always just a _few_ more things you want to do. Today we’re happy to check off some of these to-dos for Inbox, making it easier to use on more devices and browsers.
If you're a big fan of tablets, you'll be excited to learn that Inbox has come to iPad and Android tablets. Download the app from the
App Store
and
Google Play
.
In addition, Inbox now supports Firefox and Safari, as well as Chrome. You can sign in at
inbox.google.com
.
As always, if you aren't using Inbox yet, now's a perfect time to jump in. Email
inbox@google.com
to request an invite and we'll email you as soon as more invites are available.
Assists in Inbox: An extra helping hand for your Reminders
December 17, 2014
Posted by Tim Sohn, Software Engineer
During the busy holidays, who can say no to a little extra help? Inbox makes it easy to focus on your priorities by adding
Reminders
right to the top of your inbox, but we all know how easy it is to "save" to-dos for later. This is why Inbox provides over
twenty
different types of Assists–handy pieces of info to help you with the next step. Below are a few ways to give them a try, as well as a quick look behind the scenes.
To start, simply add an email address, phone number or link to a reminder.
Next, you could add a reminder to pick up your friend at the airport, pack for your trip to New York or watch a video. Assists may provide your friend's flight status, a weather report for the Big Apple or a link to that video.
There's actually a lot going on behind the scenes to make Assists work. For example, phone numbers and business hours come from Google Maps and customer support numbers from Google's
Knowledge Graph
. Your contacts and other emails (like flight confirmations, purchase receipts or bill notifications) also help Inbox provide Assists.
Some Assists even combine information from multiple sources to give you what you need. For example, when you create a reminder to return a product you purchased, the purchase date and business from your confirmation email, the business's return policy from the Knowledge Graph, and the current date all combine to give you a countdown of how many days you have left to return your purchase.
Another category of Assists are questions that, when answered, lead to another Assist. For example, if you want to call your dentist, Inbox will ask you who your dentist is and once answered, provide a link to call them.
And starting today, Assists are getting even better based on your requests to make them easier to discover. Assists now help you create Reminders faster by providing smart suggestions as you type (or tap!). If a suggestion has an icon next to it, that means you're guaranteed an assist.
We hope Assists will save you a bit of time over the holidays. As always, if you aren't using Inbox yet and would like an invite, email
inbox@google.com
and we'll email you as soon as more invites are available.
PS: In the spirit of saving time,
Inbox on Android
now works with Android Wear. You can now view messages, mark as done and reply without taking out your phone.
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