Category: Gmail

One of the announcements this week at Google I/O ’17 was the addition of Smart Reply to Gmail.  This one-tap feature allows you to reply to an email quickly and without having to type anything in response.  It is a feature that has been in Google Inbox for some time now and it appears that users of the Gmail app on Android are starting to see it show up.  If you aren’t familiar with Smart Reply, here is how it works at a high level.

Using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, the email you receive is interrogated for information – Is there a question?  Is there a date or time?  Those kinds of things.  If such an item is found in the email, you will see a selection of replies to that question at the bottom of the page.  Just tap the appropriate response and a new email pane is opened.  Tap send and you are done.  That’s it.

A small update to Gmail is currently rolling out to the Google Play Store that brings support for GIF keyboards from within the app.  The update is build 7.3.13.151698241.release for those keeping score at home and who like to play Google version Bingo.  When it is installed, you will be able to insert GIF animations directly from the keyboard instead of having to go to another app, then copy-and-paste it into your message.  In order for it to work, you have to be using a GIF supporting keyboard like Google’s own Gboard.

Once you have the update, inserting GIFs is done like it is any other app when using a supporting keyboard.  You can search for GIFs from the keyboard, tap them, and they are inserted into your messages.

Productivity enhancing add-ons are going to be coming to Gmail later this year.  At Google Cloud Next today, the company announced that developers will soon be able to create add-ons that allow users to immediately jump to another app from within Gmail to complete a task or perform another task.  The idea is to increase productivity as you can stay within one app, Gmail, yet complete other tasks from another app.

The example used was from Intuit where someone could send an invoice to a customer right from within Gmail.  Using Machine Learning to figure out that the email was about a bill, users will be able with a tap to move into Quickbooks to create and send the invoice without ever having to leave the mail app itself.  Salesforce would be another example as you could add a contact to your contacts list within SalesForce right from Gmail.

Yesterday I posted on the improved support for Exchange in the latest update to the Gmail app.  The update to the app now allows you to manage your Exchange tasks from within the app so you don’t have to go elsewhere to do so.  There is another nice update that came with the 7.2 version when it comes to the app shortcuts.  Now when you long press the Gmail icon, you will be able with a single tap access any of the configured accounts you have in the app.

As readers likely know, in order for app shortcuts to work, you have to be running Nougat 7.1.1 or later.  That, for now, limits it to just a handful of devices unfortunately.

When you access the shortcuts, you will have one for each of your accounts along with a compose shortcut.  When you select one of your accounts, you are taken to the inbox for just that account, allowing you to focus just on it and not all of your emails from various accounts you have configured.

Gmail for Android has been updated with several improvements for users.  The updated build, version 6.9.11.134426830.release for those keeping score at home and who like version number Bingo, is rolling out now in the Play Store and when you get it, you will find that you have much improved search features in the app.  Google has improved the search features in Gmail that give you much better search results of what is in your accounts whether you are offline or online.  Further, the search improvements work on both your Google accounts as well as your non-Google accounts.  You can search a variety of ways including the senders name and their email address.

Last week I posted about an ongoing issue that Windows Phone users have had with adding a Gmail account to their devices.  The issue was that when a user opened up Outlook Mail and attempted to add a Google account, it would give an error indicating that the browser of the device was not supported.  This on again-off again problem has been going on for several weeks but it appears, finally, that it has been addressed.  Google indicated in a forum post that the error was not intentional on the part of the company which I personally think is the case.  To me, this feels like simple inattentiveness on the part of the Mountain View company.