Are you a Gmail user? A fan of Google products and services? Chances are you’ve been pretty cross at the way Google was treating Gmail of late. For long, the marquee email service didn’t receive any significant update, even when its less popular rivals had gone revamped their services in sync with the changing times. Granted, the so-called Gmail Lab offered a bevy of tweaks and tools for the savvy user, but most of them stayed just there, even when the likes of YahooMail, Microsoft’s Live, Outlook services and outliers like Proton Mail changed looks and features, introducing several useful tools and enhanced security capabilities.
It was like Gmail was stuck in a time warp. But looks like Google has had some solid plans for Gmail as the latest changes suggest. The new-look Gmail has answered many of the demands of its users: it is more secure now, has better looks and add-ons, is easier to navigate, and, above all, responds better to low-bandwidth scenarios.
What are the best of the new lot? Let’s take a look:
Hover buttons
The first thing we have notice are the inline action buttons. You can now delete, archive or even snooze emails just by placing the cursor over the mail, without opening the mail. These buttons save precious time and data. For the record, this is not a new feature. Many of Gmail’s rivals, including Microsoft Outlook, have this already. But better late than never.
Snooze
The snooze button is quite handy for businessmen and those who receive a lot of mails at one go; they can postpone response to particular mails by snoozing them for a specific time. Once snoozed (you don’t need to click-select the mail to do this), the mail disappears from the list and reappears later at the time you’ve set allowing you to give it a detailed look and feedback.
Confidential mail
Gmail users can now send emails that will die after a certain period. This is useful when you are sending confidential emails to, say, a client or a bank or even to the media as a whistleblower. The mails cannot be copied or forwarded. But that’s just consolation in this age of screen capturing. Still, the tool will let others know you are sending a very important message and should be treated with care. And you can also set an SMS passcode for your mails to be opened by another user. Conversely, the confidentiality feature is silent on Mac OS for now.
Right pane
This is the most useful addition according to me. The right side of the Gmail interface now features a narrow lane containing Google Calendar, Keep and Tasks. This is super easy to locate and negotiate. It helps you take notes, set tasks and reminders and you can even fetch more add-ons to this pane using Google’s GSuite marketplace. In fact, Tasks have now got a makeover; it is now easier to scribble and save your favourite tasks. This feature will get Gmail scores of brownie points among business persons.
AI-powered reply and nudging
As Gmail users have noticed quite recently, Google has been offering a ‘smart reply’ feature for Gmail, which many users find quite useful as it allows them to send quick, pre-set responses without typing them out. Gmail has extended the AI faculty to a few other areas, of which the new Nudging feature has already caught the fancy of users. Basically, Gmail will remind you (nudge) about mails you haven’t responded. If you are a genetic procrastinator, well, here’s your aide.
..And more
There are several other cool features in the new Gmail. High priority notifications for Gmail app, where Gmail will cherrypick important messages for you and send notification alerts, is one. The user interface, though looks tad busy, is cleaner but no so much customisable. I’d really want the partitions flexible or manually adjustable. The GSuit marketplace now looks pretty thin; maybe Google might get more third party developers to populate the space.
Also, I expected more data security options from Gmail, especially in terms of managing one’s Gmail data. It would have been nicer if one could download the whole Gmail and start afresh; this will solve the storage woes as well. Also, in-mail search still suffers from the old-world hangover. A better search would allow users to filter messages by type and size of attachments (the current system is too geeky) and manage Gmail more organically. In sum, the current overhaul—though long overdue—is an unfinished business.