What is Google Inbox? It is one of the revolutionary innovations from Google which is just perfect for you to use your email as a to-do list. Inbox from Google makes sure that this is filled with receipts and notes to self, reminders, confirmation numbers and also the emails which you need to respond back in stipulated time. Way back in 2013, Google introduced the tab view of the Gmail and now this will be the next big revamp from Google with the arrival of Inbox. It wouldn’t be unfair to call as Mailbox 2.0 with so many good things. This app, Google Inbox seems to be a combination of Gmail and Google Now.
This new Google Inbox only works for the emails which ends with the “@gmail.com” which will soon be extended to the other corporate emails as well who are hosting on Gmail.com. While initially, it may take some time for a user to bundle/ understand / use this app as this is one of the newer apps, at the end of the day this has a strong potential to become one of the most powerful to-do app with mail facility. So let’s check out in detail on how Google Inbox works, How it Looks, what are bundles in Google Inbox and also about the gestures which Google Inbox uses for effective management.
“Google Inbox is not just an email app, but also a smart to-do list too”
How it Works?
So, to start using this Inbox from Google, first you need to email requesting “Google Inbox” invite as currently it’s in the beta stage and entry is strictly on the Invite based system. Send an email to inbox@google.com requesting about invite from your Gmail ID. Once sent, you need to wait till you receive the invite code. Once your Gmail account gets the invite, download the “Google Inbox” app from Android or IOS App stores.
Once the app is installed, Google starts to crawl all of your emails. It will look for similar types of emails which combines into “Bundles” with names like “Updates” and “Travel,” and is then filters the important part of the message. All thanks to the brilliant algorithm of Google which makes sure that the corrct and meaningful part of email is picked up for your purpose. If suppose you have an expense receipt, Inbox will grab that document or PDF and features it in the stream of Inbox. Attachments are no longer buried inside the message as it will be just 1-tap away. If you have a flight confirmation, it will show you the Live flight status. If there’s an address in your email, your inbox or search results give you a Maps link without even needing to open the message.
How it Looks?
Google Inbox undoubtedly sports the latest and fresh material design which is the new design language for Android’s latest OS, Lollipop 5.0. This inbox is in the chronological order with messages from today to the older emails at the bottom. For each email, you will be shown with the highlight from the message, including any attached images, documents, or videos, helping give you some context. At the bottom most part of the screen, this comes with the compose button and when tapped on it, your recently emailed folks are being shown in circles. Also, there’s an option to add a new reminder (more on that later) and compose a new message.
What is Bundles?
If you are like most of the users who email mix includes promo emails, personal emails along with the email updates and social alerts, then Google is smart enough to recognize all of these mails and similar emails are lumped to form a bundle or a themed label. One can also move the emails in an out of these bundles to the Inbox as it automatically learns on where that email needs to get into. You can also choose to remove the bundle, but note that just in case if you do this then all of the emails will be shown in the Inbox.
There are some preset bundles which are Social, Promos, Updates, Forums, Promos, Finance, Travel and Purchases. You can move the emails to these bundles and Google will remember all of these preferences for future use. Alternatively, as mentioned previously one can also create the bundles with custom names / labels. Within each bundle, you can even choose what time of day a bundle appears, and choose if the bundle triggers a notification or not. Must say that Bundles is the powerful part of Inbox which helps in organizing your messages and also controls on what needs to be shown in the Inbox.
Gestures:
To manage your mails effectively, Google Inbox comes with many Gestures support as well. From swipe right to the swipe left to the tap and hold to pinning, there are some quick actions in the form of gestures for faster taskmanagement.
- Swipe Right – To mark messages as done or archiving it,
- Swipe Left – To Snooze,
- Tap and Hold – to bring up the bulk edit controls where in one can batch archive, delete or snooze messages,
- Pin It – To view it in a separate list of pinned emails and reminders
Refer below screen captures for more details.
With so many algorithms in place, this Google Inbox will be one of the most sophisticated yet simple app for consumers. This app will be available for Apple and Android users and can be downloaded from respective app stores.
This app requires a minimum of Jellybean 4.1 and iOS 7. With this product, Google aims to create an inbox which also helps you to effectively manage with a to-do list as well. As mentioned earlier, to get early access to Google Inbox, send an email about the same to inbox@google.com asap! Do let us know about on what you think about this all new app from Google in the comments section below as we will be more than happy to hear from you.
