Don’t count email out yet. Google is doing its best to regain the glory days of Gmail, its free email service. The giant tech firm is reportedly preparing to roll out a much-awaited makeover of Gmail in an apparent effort to make it interesting to users again.
The redesigned Gmail will appear on desktops in the coming weeks to give users the experience of the recent tweaks Gmail adopted for mobile device users. The refreshed design will make Gmail on web look cleaner and bring about access to other features to facilitate easier organization of messages.
Here are some of the key features that can be expected from the soon-to-be-rolled-out refreshed Gmail:
Smart replies – Provides suggestions or options on how to reply to emails more quickly
New snooze – Enables users to temporarily remove emails from the inbox for a specified period, so users won’t be bothered by those until they get free time to respond
Instant access to G Suite apps – It will be possible to use Google Calendar and other features from G Suite within Gmail (in the new sidebar).
A leaked photo of what could possibly be Gmail’s new, cleaner look
Sources said with the revamped sidebar, Gmail will make it easier to set appointments or meetings or even check if there’s a free time to even reply to received emails. They also disclosed that there will be three layout options: default view (highlights attachments like photos or documents), comfortable view (doesn’t highlight attachments), and compact view (increases the number of messages appearing on a single page, most similar to current Gmail design).