Google has released, for everyone and not only by invitation, its new Google Inbox email app, linked to Gmail but in many ways that we will see now, different. All the current 900 million users who use Google Mail can therefore download and use the Inbox mail app instead of the classic Gmail, both via the web and from iPhones and Android smartphones or tablets.
I had already talked about inBox as the app to better organize Gmail's mail by focusing on functions such as automatic reminders based on received messages and, above all, the automatic filter that puts the most important messages in the head, even if they are not the latest arrivals .
With Inbox the word read is replaced by the completed word and the Emails are automatically organized by categories based on date, type, importance and other parameters.
Inbox can be thought of as an alternative interface for managing Gmail mail, for those who prefer to sort messages intelligently, without being confused by the typical clutter of an email box.
UPDATE 2019: Inbox has been withdrawn by Google and can no longer be used.
If you liked the way of viewing Inbox or if you want to simplify the Gmail site so that it gives more prominence to the conversations and messages received, you can install the extension for Chrome Simplfy Gmail, which partially reports the interface of Inbox above Gmail.
Simplify was created by one of the Inbox developers, so even if it's not from Google, it's the best way to get Inbox back into Gmail.
From the list of messages, touching and holding on one you can perform some particular actions:
- Fix it with the pushpin, to put it in the list of personal activities
- Create a reminder so that you will receive another notification about that email on another date and time.
- Mark it as completed, making it disappear from the general list, without deleting the email
Then there will be other classic actions such as trashing the message or marking it as Spam.
The action of postponing the e-mail with reminder is also activated by swiping the message to the left while swiping it to the right marks the e-mail as completed.
From the general list, you can touch the switch at the top to see the messages pinned, which is a bit like a list of important emails to keep always at hand.
From the menu that appears by swiping your finger from left to right or by touching the button with three lines in the top left, you can find completed and postponed messages.
From here you can also find all the labels created in Gmail and, for each of them, you can open a set of options to say whether you want to group in Inbox and whether to ignore them from Inbox and mark the messages of those labels always as completed.
In summary, it is better to use Inbox than Gmail when :
1) We often forget the most important emails
To never forget important emails and not have to search for them every time thanks to the pushpin function.
2) Time is wasted in opening attachments
In order not to waste time in opening emails just to see the attachments inside them
Inbox shows in fact a preview of the attachments and allows you to open and read them without necessarily opening the email that contains them.
3) You waste time searching for emails of a certain type
To see the mail automatically grouped into categories.
The categories include travel, purchases, finance and updates and you can also add your own categories.
The Travel category is particularly useful because it can automatically group together all the confirmation emails received to book airplanes, hotels, excursions and other things online.
4) You waste time deleting or archiving unnecessary old messages
To archive groups of messages at once.
If you mark an entire conversation as completed, all messages will disappear from the general list (without being deleted, only that they do not fill and disturb the main box).
5) We forget to answer
To remember to reply to emails even later you can use Inbox's Snooze function, perfect to avoid forgetting to reply to an email.
Let's say that the email arrived at a time when we are very busy.
We crawl that message to the left to postpone it and remind it later, maybe even tomorrow.
It will disappear from the inbox until then and will be repeated at the postponed hour or day.
InBox also has the function of reminders that integrate with Google Keep if installed.
InBox also has the function of canceling the sending of a message within a few seconds after pressing Enter, to return the messages sent by mistake.
Inbox allows settings to insert a signature, to manage general notifications and notifications for each label.
For this purpose I remind you to disable Gmail notifications if you prefer to use Inbox and vice versa otherwise you will have a double notification for each message received.
For the rest, Inbox is the same as Gmail, with more modern graphics, a more concentrated interface, fewer options and more essential functions.
Inbox only works with Gmail accounts, while other accounts can also be managed with Gmail.
