Google has unveiled a new inbox for Gmail on both desktop and mobile, saying it “puts you back in control” thanks to “simple” and “easy” organization. It separates your incoming messages into categories by tabs: Primary, Social, Promotions and Updates.
“On the desktop, the new inbox groups your mail into categories which appear as different tabs,” explains Itamar Gilad, Product Manager. “You simply choose which categories you want and voilà! Your inbox is organized in a way that lets you see what’s new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read when.”
“You can easily customize the new inbox – select the tabs you want from all five to none, drag-and-drop to move messages between tabs, set certain senders to always appear in a particular tab and star messages so that they also appear in the Primary tab,” says Gilad.
The Gmail apps for iPhone, iPad and Android (4.0+) will show you the Primary mail when you open the app, and you can navigate to other tabs to see the rest.
If you don’t like the new style, you can switch off all optional tabs, and go back to classic view.
The new inbox is rolling out across desktop and mobile apps over the course of the next few weeks. If you want to try it sooner, you can click “Configure Inbox” when it appears in your settings.
It could make things easier and simpler for users, but what about email marketers and publishers who offer newsletters to their readers? Those who have had difficulties reaching Gmail users since Google launched the “priority inbox” have some new stuff to take into account.
Google hasn’t exactly made clear just how opt-in email newsletters will be handled under the new system, but regular newsletters will likely appear in the “Updates” tab, with ad messages hitting the “Promotions” tab. It’s also likely that Google won’t get it right every time. Still, the system could actually prove beneficial for newsletter publishers. If newsletters aren’t mixed in directly with with everything else, but are collected under a specific tab, perhaps readers will be more inclined to open them when they’re at a point where they’re actually ready to read some content.