Google introduced on Wednesday a fresh look for Gmail on its desktop, Android, and iOS apps. The changes are not cosmetic – the focus is on better email organization and management. This is the vaunted arena where every email application is pitting itself against the other, and while Gmail had remained comparatively unadventurous, the new updates promise much.
The new inbox introduces tabs, into which you can group your emails just like categories. From Google’s blog, it appears that there will be five tabs into which you can organize specific emails, and you can choose which tab among the five to display at any time, or display none of them. The tabs are: Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. The tab names are pretty self-explanatory, Primary being the one where all your important emails comes in. In Gmail for Android 4.0+ and Gmail for iPhone and iPad, the first screen will be Primary email and then you can easily navigate to the other tabs.
So far, an option to create your own tabs does not seem to be available. The tabs can be customized to show emails from particular senders and emails can be shifted from one tab to the other with a simple drag and drop. And yes, if you don’t like the new organization, Gmail does allow you to retain the old classic look by switching off the new feature.
The update will be rolled out gradually to all users. If you’d like to try out the new inbox on Desktop sooner, keep an eye on the gear menu in Gmail and select Configure inbox when it appears in the Settings options.
The new interface’s success will depend on the effectiveness of Gmail’s algorithm to sort emails. If you get it first, do tell us if the change helps you get more organized, or whether your individual filters still come out on top.
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