Google to shut down Inbox app by March 2019

If you stuck by Inbox all these years as an alternative to email, we’re sad to say but you have less than five months with the app. Google just announced it was shuttering the app by March 2019 so it could focus on Gmail. The company reasons that a lot of the popular features in Inbox—like snoozing emails, Smart Reply, connected task lists, and high-priority notifications—have made or are making their way to Gmail. “Bundles” or those that group similar emails together into a single block haven’t made its way to Gmail yet, but is said to be coming at a later date.

Inbox was a fun experiment in trying to redesign the email experience. Unfortunately, it looks like that experiment didn’t quite pan out. Redesigned Gmail does incorporate a lot of ideas, though, so for you loyal Inbox users, it might not be as painful a switch. According to The Verge, there will be no layoffs related to this shut down as the employees working on the app have already been “well-integrated” into the Gmail team.

Google Inbox gets Apple iPhone X notch support

Google has finally added compatibility with Apple iPhone X’s notch for its Inbox app. The new update comes in at 144MB and is version 1.3.180617. Google’s Gmail had support for iPhone X back in December 2017. This might’ve come late but better late than never, right? As GSMArena points out, it must be noted but Apple has started to make it mandatory for iOS apps to support the iPhone X display starting this month.

Google Inbox introduces new Snooze feature defaults

Google responds to the needs of its Inbox app users with its latest update. The new snooze options introduced into the alternative email app include being able to make emails appear later in the week or weekend or snoozing the email until an appointed time. You can opt to get the message later in the day or the following week or even at an unspecified time (which can be useful for things you might want to revisit but aren’t a priority, like articles sent to you). A new snooze settings are available also so you can choose what date and time to receive those messages on the weekend.

Source: Google | Via: PCWorld

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