Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Smartbox by Inbox: the mailbox of tomorrow, today
April 1, 2015
Posted by Merrill Anovick, Project Manager
Mail is a wondrous thing. From the early days of the
homing pigeon
to the herculean efforts of the
Pony Express
, mail has connected us for generations. The advent of email brought the world even closer together. And yet, despite this leap forward, physical mail still just sits there. In a box. All day.
So today we’re excited to introduce Smartbox—a better, smarter mailbox that fuses physical mail with everything you love about the electronic kind:
Smartbox is currently in field trial—stuck in the ground, in a field—for
Inbox by Gmail
customers. If you’re not yet using Inbox, simply email
inbox@google.com
anytime before April 2 to be invited, and to reserve your spot on the Smartbox waitlist.
Custom Snooze in Inbox by Gmail: Rise and shine...on your time
March 31, 2015
Posted by Vijay Umapathy, Product Manager
As our lives change, so do our schedules. "Morning" probably means something different to a college kid than, say, a parent with a newborn baby. Whatever your schedule is, your inbox should adapt to your day (and not the other way around).
So starting later today, you'll be able to customize your morning, afternoon and evening Snooze times in
Inbox
. You don't even have to do any work: Inbox will adapt to your preferences. If you snooze to a custom time of 7:30AM, you'll see a prompt asking if you'd like to change your morning time to 7:30AM. One tap and you're all set!
When you update your morning, afternoon, or evening times, the rest of your snooze options will also adapt. ”This evening,” uses your evening time, while “Tomorrow” and “Next week” use your morning time. Of course, if you prefer, you can also manually change your snooze times using the new Snooze settings.
Custom snooze was one of your most highly requested features, but we’ve also been listening to the rest of your feedback. You've asked us for quick access to Contacts from Inbox on the web, and now it's just a click away:
We hope these small improvements help you tackle your email faster and get back to what matters. In the meantime, we’re also working to add easier access to delete as well as signature support in Inbox, two features you’ve told us you want. So stay tuned!
All your mail, together in one place
March 30, 2015
Posted by Régis Décamps, Software Engineer
These days, many of us have more than one email address. If you’re a student, you may have one account for school, one for a campus group you lead, and one for your blog. If you’re a parent, you might have one for family and one for your business. However many email addresses you have, today’s improvements to the Gmail app for Android make it easy to manage all your mail from all your accounts (yes, even @yahoo and @outlook) while you’re on the go.
All your inboxes in one place
Starting today you’ll be able to view all your mail at once, regardless of which account it’s from, using the new “All Inboxes” option. This way you can read and respond to all your messages without having to hop between accounts.
Conversation view
You’ve told us threaded conversations are one of your favorite Gmail features because they keep your messages organized and give you all the context you need to reply to those
long
email threads. Now messages from your Yahoo, Outlook.com and other IMAP/POP accounts will get the same special treatment, appearing neatly stacked as one conversation.
Smarter search
Search is the cornerstone of Google, and of Gmail. The new Gmail app for Android has better auto-complete, so you can find what you need even faster.
And a few other cool things…
Today’s update also includes more responsive animations (like when you open and close a conversation), larger attachment previews to help you see what’s inside, and the ability to save to Drive with a single tap.
We hope these updates make it a little bit easier to manage mail from all your accounts (Gmail or otherwise!). Look for the update on Google Play as it rolls out over the next few days.
Google Calendar for iPhone. It's about time.
March 10, 2015
Posted by Robin Züger, Product Manager
Today we’re bringing the
new Google Calendar
to iPhone.
Just like on Android, you’ll get the following features:
Events from Gmail
, which turn emails into Calendar events automatically
Assists
, which make suggestions that save you time creating events
Schedule View
, which makes your calendar easy to scan and lovely to look at
Plus,
Google Calendar for iPhone
works with all the calendars you've already set up on your phone.
Of course if you're on Android, then definitely check out the recent improvements we made to
Google Calendar for Android
. Either way you can now spend less time managing your day, and more time enjoying it.
The new Google Contacts: Bringing everyone together
March 3, 2015
Posted by Sean Purcell, Product Manager
From email to Hangouts to a good ol' fashioned phone call, you've got a lot of options to get in touch with someone. But keeping all those options organized for all your contacts...well, it can be a pain, especially when you need to find that information in a hurry!
So today we’re releasing a preview of the new Google Contacts that makes it easier to keep track of the people you know and get the info you need, fast. The new Google Contacts comes with a fresh look and feel, and conveniently pools together all your contacts, circles, and the people you talk to most in Gmail.
Easily get rid of duplicates
No one likes having duplicate contacts, but they inevitably crop up. So we’ve rebuilt our “Find duplicates” feature from the ground up to help give you a quick and painless way to clean up your duplicates.
Keep your contacts up to date automatically
As the people you know change jobs, cities, and names, it can be tough to stay up to date with their latest information. The new Contacts ensures that the info you see is still accurate and ready to use by blending your contact’s Google profile information with the stuff you already have.
See your recent emails & meetings
Finally, you can now see your most recent emails and meetings with a person directly in their contact card. So whether it’s been two days or two years since your last conversation, it’s easier than ever to pick up right where you left off.
For people looking to access the preview through Gmail, keep an eye out over the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can try the new Google Contacts today by visiting
contacts.google.com/preview.
P.S. The new Contacts isn’t yet available for Google Apps customers, but we’re working on it.
Gmail now available in Myanmar (Burmese)
February 25, 2015
Posted by Brian Kemler, Product Manager
In the summer of 2012 I travelled in Myanmar (Burma) and found inspiration in the
temples of Bagan
, the floating gardens of
Inle Lake
and the sweltering heat and teaming markets of Yangon. As a country of 53 million, Myanmar’s recent opening-up has triggered an explosion of people coming online. As recently as 2011, a mere 500,000 Myanmar citizens were able to access the internet, which was less than 1 percent of the population. That number has grown to 2.6 million people as the availability of mobile phones has made it easier to get online. As Myanmar speakers embrace online tools, our team has been working hard to ensure Google is ready to support this new community in their own language.
To capture the nuances of this language and make sure the translations were accurate, consistent and complete, we relied on an array of Myanmar speakers from within the country, and around the world. In April 2013 we launched Google Search in Myanmar, and today we’re excited to announce that Gmail now supports Myanmar (Burmese), our 74th language.
Myanma bhasa
(Burmese) is the official language of Myanmar, spoken by over 33 million people as a first language, and 10 million people as a second language. Although primarily spoken in Myanmar, there are also significant numbers of Myanmar speakers in Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Myanmar speakers can
switch their language in their Gmail settings
starting today, and we couldn’t be happier that Gmail can now greet them with a hearty “
Mingalaba
” (မင်္ဂလာပါ)!
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.
A look inside how you're using Inbox
January 29, 2015
Posted by Gill Ward, Senior Quantitative UX Researcher
A little over three months ago, we introduced something new called
Inbox
, and it’s been exhilarating to see how people have embraced the experience. In fact, we’ve received over 100,000 pieces of feedback already. Thank you!
As we keep working to evolve Inbox based on your feedback, we thought it’d be fun to share how people are currently using the product to get things done, and focus on what really matters. Enjoy!
And one more thing. We're opening up invites to Inbox for a 24 hour #InboxHappyHour! If you're interested in trying Inbox, send an email to
inbox@google.com
from an @gmail.com address before 9am Friday PST and you'll get an invite shortly.
Snooze in Inbox: Because not everything needs to be done right now
January 14, 2015
Posted by Xander Pollock, Interaction Designer
Snoozing the alarm in the morning is so satisfying. You get those extra few minutes of sleep without worrying you're going to miss anything. That's exactly what snoozing in Inbox is like. Whether you're in an inconvenient place or simply need to focus on something else first, you can snooze away emails and Reminders to a better time or place without worrying you're going to forget.
For example: maybe today’s crazy busy, but you still want to get back to your New Year's Resolution to clean the garage— whether that’s tonight, tomorrow, or next week. With Inbox you can either snooze using the convenient quick options or by setting a custom time. Inbox responds to your preferences, and adjusts its quick options to match.
Sometimes it makes more sense to snooze your emails to a place, instead of a time. For example, you might want to snooze your ticket to the game, a reminder to buy milk to the grocery store, or even the article Mom sent you to when you get home.
Once you start snoozing, you'll notice that Inbox can make the entire process a whole lot easier. For instance: you can name and save common places.
And if, say, you've resolved to call your Mom more this year, you can just create a reminder. Inbox will help you snooze to a time or place with
Assists
.
If you ever get ahead of schedule (lucky you!), you can check out all of your snoozed emails and reminders by opening the app menu, and tapping on Snoozed. From here you can edit snoozed items, move them back into your inbox, or just review everything you've snoozed to 'Someday.'
Ultimately, Inbox is about helping you get back to what matters. So give Snooze a try, and take back your inbox this January.
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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