With Inbox, can Google reinvent email again?
Google has launched an email service, called Inbox, which claims
to help you better manage your emails and prioritise important tasks. Though it
runs alongside Gmail, Inbox will include new, polished features, which give it
a more modern take on the 2004-born email service.
According to Google’s official blog post, Inbox includes a feature called
Highlights, which gives you key snippets from important messages, such as
flight itineraries, event information, and photos and documents emailed to you
by friends and family. Inbox will even display useful information from the web
that were not part of the original email, such as the real-time status of your
flights and package deliveries.
Similar to Categories in Gmail, Inbox includes email bundles
that groups similar messages together. For example, all your purchase receipts
or bank statements are grouped together so that you can quickly review them
when you need to.
Other features include the ability to add reminders, create
to-do’s or snooze away tasks when you just can’t be bothered with constant
reminders. It includes Assist, a feature that provides handy pieces of
information you may need to get a particular job done. For example, if you
write a Reminder to call the hardware store, Inbox will supply the store’s
phone number and tell you if it’s open.
Users can either join by getting an invite from a friend who is
already using Inbox, or by sending an email to the company at inbox@google.com
to get an invitation.
The service is being provided alongside Gmail, so it could be
that Google might eventually move all Gmail users to Inbox if the new service
catches on quickly. It is available for desktop use as well as on Android
smartphones running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or higher versions and iPhones
running iOS 7 or higher.