Google has launched a new email app ‘Inbox’ for Gmail and it is currently available by invitation only. If you want to get an invite, either send an email to – inbox@google.com and wait for their reply (Google is sending invites very generously and usually withing 24 hours) or ask a friend who is already using Inbox app. Lets see what Google Inbox app has got to offer and how it is different from existing emails Apps on mobile.
1) Single Inbox –
Gmail groups all mails based on their categories such as – Primary, Social, Updates, Forums etc. However such categorization requires you to go to each category to check which mail has come where. So you miss the benefit of having a centralized Inbox for all emails. Not anymore with Inbox app, you have got one scrollable view where you see all mails grouped by date. So all your today’s mails will be available on the top and you do not miss to check an important mail just because it was shown in ‘Updates’ category instead of Primary category.
2) Bundle of Mails –
What if you get 40 mails in one category (such as in Updates category). Inbox will group all such mails of a category and will create a ‘Bundle’ which will be shown as a single entry. Bundles can be expanded by clicking on them. All the attachments of a bundle can be accessed even without opening it.
3) Highlights From eMails –
This is the most important advancement over the original Gmail app. Google will be highlighting important piece of information from the mails. Such as photos, documents or any other important information will be shown directly in the mail header, so it can be accessed without opening the mail.
Google will detect the content of the mail and relevant information will be shown from Internet. Such as real-time flight status or courier tracking information.
4) Actions in Inbox –
Google Inbox app allows many actions to be performed on emails. Such as now you can swipe left to Snooze a mail or swipe right to mark it Done.
Furthermore the red plus button is not limited to Composing a mail only, it allows to create Reminders and access your recently used contacts. Even Reminders are intelligent and will suggest you extra help such as a Phone number or relevant website links.
You can also pin any mail if you want to revisit it and work on it, and later on quickly access it using Pin switch given on the top of Inbox app. Once you are Done with all mails, you will see a sunshine box .
Limitations –
As currently Gmail Inbox app is very new, and there are few limitation associated with it. Such as Inbox app is available only for iPhone and Android, it does not support iPad currently.
Similarly Inbox Website supports only Chrome browser, if you try to open it in any other browser you may get an error message.
Overall it is a significant improvement shown by Google Inbox app, specially when compared to official Gmail app. Google Inbox is available as Mobile app for iPhone and Android, also it is available as a Website.
As Google Inbox app supports only Gmail account, you will require to have different mobile apps for different email accounts. So for now I am going to stick with CloudMagic for iPhone.
What are your feeling about Google Inbox and how are you planning to use it. Please feel free to share your thoughts regarding Gmail Inbox app.