*Spoiler Alert*: A new Gmail with improved user experience is finally coming!
Yesterday, Google sent an email to G Suite administrators preempting upcoming changes to Gmail “in the coming weeks”. It appears that changes will be massive as Google is going to offer a “new experience in Gmail”. The new Gmail will be rolled out to all users – G Suite users as well as personal Gmail accounts. Similar to other releases from Google, there will be a beta test under a scheme called the “Early Adopters Program”. Any updates will be announced on G Suite Updates blog.
Though the spoiler email is brief and doesn’t offer many details, the main revamps are:
- Easy access to G Suite apps, such as Google Calendar, from within Gmail.
This is long overdue. Google Calendar is an essential feature complementing Gmail. The current step requiring Google Calendar to be accessed through the Google Apps button is severely understating the usefulness of this feature. By offering an easy access to Google Calendar from within Gmail, at least one step will be saved.
More is yet to be revealed. For now, let’s hope that it be will be a tremendous improvement from that of Microsoft Outlook instead of just copying it.
- Smart reply on the web, just like on mobile.
This is already available under Gmail’s mobile app and it is akin to Google preparing an email reply for you.
The ‘smart reply’ goes through the content of an incoming email in order to suggest 3 canned short responses to the sender. Each of them is displayed in a button. This is best used for quick, on the go email reply by simply tapping on the button. There is now an excuse for sending very short emails. LOL
While this feature may be useful for very quick and simple email replies, serious concerns remain regarding the information Google gathers through this feature. To make it even more alarming for some paranoid data privacy advocates, Google’s algorithm is pretty accurate in deciphering the email content in order to arrive at the 3 canned responses.
You might be able to know more about how the information is processed by going through Google’s lengthy user agreement and privacy policy.
- Offline support on the web, no extension needed!
Conventional email clients work this way – you don’t need the internet to read downloaded emails. There was a solution previously via the Google Apps extension and now it will be made available on the web. No WIFI connection is needed and no desktop app or any installation is required. What else could you ask for?
If this goes well, we expect more apps on the Internet to follow suit and roll out offline functionality the same way Gmail does on the web browser.
Well, that’s all for now. Stay tuned for more updates once “Early Adopter Program” is launched!
