Google Revamps Gmail for Web With New Design, Email Snoozing, Nudging, Smart Reply, and Confidential Mode

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 25 Apr 2018

Gmail app

Google today announced a slew of updates for Gmail for G Suite customers. This includes an all-new look for Gmail on the web, advanced security features, ability to snooze emails, tighter integration with G Suite apps, and more.

News about Google working on a redesigned Gmail for the web had leaked earlier this month. The redesigned interface makes doing day-to-day tasks easier and faster. Google says that you can hover over emails for tasks like RSVPing to an invite, archiving an email thread, and more. In fact, you can even open and view attachments from an email without having to open that thread.

Thanks to the tighter integration with other Google products, you can now create/edit calendar invites, take down notes in Keep, or manage to-dos in Task right from your inbox. The side panel also acts as a great way to quickly access Gmail Add-Ons you might be using. This new side panel integration will also be making its way to other G Suite apps like Docs, Calendar, and Sheets in the coming months.

Thanks to native offline capabilities in Gmail, you can continue writing new emails, search for old ones, delete, or archive emails up to 90 days old. This feature will be rolled out to teams in the coming weeks.

Apart from the visual revamp, Google has also infused some AI-powers into it to add features like Nudging, Smart Reply, and high-priority notifications. As the name suggests, with Nudging, Gmail will automatically remind you to reply to important emails in case you have forgotten about them. As for Smart Reply, it was already available on Gmail’s mobile app, and now, it is finally making its way to the web. Lastly, high-priority notifications is coming to Gmail for mobile and will ensure that you are only notified of important emails thereby keeping the notification clutter down. The priority of an email will be decided on how many emails you get from that particular sender, how many emails you actually read, and more.

 

Google also introduced new phishing protections in Gmail last month that has helped address Business Email Compromise (BEC) threats. The company says that this has helped in blocking 99.9 percent of BEC attempts. And today, Google is taking security to the next level for emails with Gmail confidential mode. You can protect sensitive attachment in your email from unauthorized access by setting an expiration date for them or adding a passcode to them. You also have the ability to revoke sent messages. New tools also allow you to remove the option of copying an email, forwarding it, or downloading/printing it. Confidential mode in Gmail will roll out to consumer Gmail users and a limited number of G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

With the Gmail for web revamp, Google has also given a lease of new life to Tasks, its to-do app. The service now has a new web app along with mobile apps. And thanks to its tight integration with Gmail and Google products, you can drag-drop emails to it to create a new to-do. Similarly, tasks will now also show up on your Google Calendar.

Download: Google Tasks

There’s a lot of new features that Google has announced for Gmail today. While almost all of them are aimed at the web app, I’d expect Google to unveil new mobile apps with these new features at Google I/O early next month.

[Via Google]