Google Inbox helps make replying easier with Smart Reply

You may or may not have noticed but Google’s Inbox email app on Android and iOS has a new feature that makes it easier for you to reply to messages. The Smart Reply technology is rather similar to canned phrases you send but it promises to use more “natural-sounding” language. This is able to do so because it scans and recognizes different message types and then suggests possible phrases to use. You can then just select the appropriate phrase, if typing one out gets too cumbersome, and then hit send. You can’t disable the feature at the moment but you can just tap into the message box and type in your own reply. Or you can edit the suggested replies to fit your needs.

How this works is it supposedly uses a “deep neural network that writes email” and it simply analyzes the message content while applying a complex set of programmed rules to create the response. It’s purely machine though and it uses a kind of artificial intelligence called machine learning to make its decisions. Google researchers emphasize that they follow strict privacy standards and no human reads your email.

Source: The New York Times