Did you know that Gmail started out as an April Fool’s joke? Well, okay not really, but it did start out on April 1, 2014 but Google was dead serious when they launched it. You could say that they revolutionized how we used email with its 1GB of storage, grouping messages into conversation threads, and of course using the power of Google Search built into the email service. Now 15 years later, they have made so many changes since its early days and they’re bringing new features to celebrate the fact that they’re now a teenager in digital years.
A few months ago, they introduced Smart Compose which used AI and machine learning to help you compose emails quicker. They said that this feature has actually saved people from typing 1 billion characters a week as it makes suggestions as you type and you just have to swipe or press tab (depending on where you’re typing from) to accept the auto-complete suggestion.
Now they’re improving the Smart Compose feature by adding more languages to support, specifically Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Previously, it was only available on desktop and for iOS on mobile but now, Android users can join in on the party. It will also now personalize its suggestions so if you email in a certain manner, it will eventually learn your “language” and suggest words based on it.
Another new feature that they’re adding is the ability to schedule your emails. You can finish composing it then instead of just saving it in your drafts, you will now be able to schedule it at the most appropriate time when you need to send it, whether it’s due to time zones or because you like composing emails at 2 in the morning and you don’t want to disturb your colleague or friend at that time.
Lastly, you will now be able to take action on some of your emails without having got leave Gmail. We’ve talked about this previously and it looks like they’re now rolling it out to regular users. You will be able to do things like respond to a Google Docs comment or pin an item to a board on Pinterest, browse hotel recommendations, etc. These new features should now be available on your Gmail or if not, it will be rolling out in the next few days.
SOURCE: Google
