Google has joined the ranks of companies trying to tackle the problem of email overload, but its new Inbox mobile app will sit alongside its Gmail service rather than replace it.
Unveiled this week, Inbox is an app for Android and for iPhone, with an invite-only launch that mirrors the debut of Gmail in 2004.
Its features include the ability to organise similar emails in “bundles”, from bank statements and online shopping purchases to travel reservations, to reduce inbox clutter.
The app will also show “highlights” of key information from individual messages, including live flight times and thumbnails of photo attachments. Inbox can also “snooze” away emails until a later point – a feature pioneered by another email app, Mailbox.
“Years in the making, Inbox is by the same people who brought you Gmail, but it’s not Gmail: it’s a completely different type of inbox, designed to focus on what really matters,” wrote Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president of Android, Chrome and apps, in a blog post.
“For many of us, dealing with email has become a daily chore that distracts from what we really need to do – rather than helping us get those things done.”
He added that Inbox is purposefully different from Gmail, which has its own mobile app that recently passed 1bn installs on Android alone. “Gmail’s still there for you, but Inbox is something new. It’s a better way to get back to what matters, and we can’t wait to share it with you.”
That’s not strictly accurate: Google is making people wait to have Inbox shared with them: the first invitations have been sent out already, with Pichai promising that early adopters will be able to invite their friends.
Mailbox is the obvious competitor to Inbox. That app launched in February 2013 and was bought the next month by Dropbox for a rumoured $100m. Other apps trying to de-clutter inboxes include Boxer, Gusto, Acompli and Evomail.
Source: Guardian News
