16 ms·

A rundown of the new Gmail

258 points by runesoerensen 8y ago

lsh 8y ago
ha - that blog post is 26MB large and makes my laptop cry
- vezycash 8y ago
  How about the size of the new gmail?
  - lsh 8y ago
    I use the business gmail version for work and it hasn't changed. Might be an opt-in thing?
    - philliphaydon 8y ago
      I can't figure out how to enable it for home or work email :(
    - auscompgeek 8y ago
      At the bottom of the G Suite blog post: > The all-new Gmail experience is available for businesses to start using today in the G Suite Early Adopter Program (EAP) and can be turned on in the Admin console. [...] > Personal Gmail users can opt-in to the new experience, too (Go to Settings in the top right and select “Try the new Gmail.”).
      - y_molodtsov 8y ago
        Does anyone have an idea on how one can enroll in EAP? I couldn't find any setting or a link, but would really like to try it for our G-Suite.
        JDevlieghere 8y ago
        https://support.google.com/a/answer/82691 https://support.google.com/a/answer/82691
        jfconno 8y ago
        Took me ages to find this... In Google Admin Apps > G Suite > Settings for Gmail > Advanced settings ...and then scroll down to : New Gmail Early Adopter Program
- dazc 8y ago
  Looks way better without javascript.
  - enriquto 8y ago
    > Looks way better without javascript. This sentence is nearly always true, applied to websites. (The exception would be mathjax, and a few more things)
- fuzzy2 8y ago
  Yes, it’s incredible how just the preview images of “related articles” are over 13 MiB in size. That’s pretty dumb. As is using GIFs instead of actual videos. It’s 2018, damnit.
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    Google shot themselves in the foot there though - autoplay videos are / can be disabled, but with gifs that's a bit more difficult and / or gifs are a way to force people to get exposed to videos.
    - tambre 8y ago
      Maybe they could change Chrome to allow autoplay videos, which have no audio? Would make them very much functionally equivalent to GIFs.
    - dredmorbius 8y ago
      I've taken to blocking gifs due to abuse. Mostly just transparent-until-hover, but still. https://pastebin.com/m5CEVfhL https://pastebin.com/m5CEVfhL
- josteink 8y ago
  > ha - that blog post is 26MB large and makes my laptop cry Sadly that also reflects the state of the new Gmail. It's bigger and slower to load than ever before. At least based on testing I've done on a test-account given to me by Google. (Which may or may not contain debug-builds, extra logging, instrumentation, etc. I'll not entirely exclude the possibility that the final release builds may leaner.) Anyhow, needless to say, I'm happy with Fastmail :D
- wila 8y ago
  it crashed my browser AND my firewall, never seen that before.
- skywhopper 8y ago
  Well, and the page itself is just hideously unusable. 1/3 of the space is covered with noise begging me to leave the article I'm trying to read. The top 1/3 is 80% blank space that keeps popping up and going away as I scroll, making the simple act of scrolling through an article feel unpredictable, as I'm never sure if I'm even going to be able to see the entire animation they want me to look at. Overall the experience of reading this blog is claustrophobic and stress-inducing. I almost thought I was on Medium for a bit.
  - erichurkman 8y ago
    They somehow made the blog post more painful to read than a CNN article. That's talent right there.
- callahad 8y ago
  The Related Articles carousel at the bottom is responsible for a lot of that. In at least one of the tiles, it's backing an 82x45 thumbnail with a 2800x1556 PNG. The PNG is 6 MB, which works out to over 1.5 KB per pixel. Annotated screenshot at https://twitter.com/callahad/status/989119555711782917 https://twitter.com/callahad/status/989119555711782917 What's worse, it's clear the CMS knows that the image is going to be displayed as a small thumbnail: the markup uses the picture tag and srcset attribute to provide alternative images, indicating that they'll be around 120 or 240 pixels wide, depending on device DPI. ...and yet, the actual file it serves is the same, full-resolution PNG in all cases. This is a problem that the CMS should be solving.
- travoltaj 8y ago
  I had the blog post open on my mobile for the past day and this really explains why my phone was acting up.. It's gotten noticeabley faster right after closing it.
steeve 8y ago
It looks like the good things of Inbox are now in Gmail. That would explain the lack of updates on the Inbox iOS App (which still doesn't have proper iPhone X support)?
- badlucklottery 8y ago
  Yeah, they seem to have hit all the features I liked from both. I had moved mostly to Inbox but things like mass email operations pushed me back into Gmail on occasion.
- roesel 8y ago
  Let alone that the app is abysmally slow on an iPhone 5s. Even if your inbox (not "done" emails) features 7 emails and 3 new emails come in, the app doesn't even fetch them fully and loads them one-at-a-time upon opening. And the inbox.google.com web interface does the exact same thing! It also gets stuck for several seconds when pressing "done" on a lone email in a group, showing an empty group for a while until it realizes "oh, there are no emails in this group" and finally disappears. The app should be SIMPLE and FAST and it is currently neither. I am really thinking about returning to Gmail fully and using some other client for iOS.
  - dirtylowprofile 8y ago
    You can try Airmail or Edison Mail for iOS. I find it much appealing than Gmail app
    - pvinis 8y ago
      I vote for Airmail too.
    - roesel 8y ago
      Neither seems to have a web version (or a desktop version for windows), so if I were to switch, I would still revert to Gmail on desktop. Or am I looking them up wrong? Edit: also, do either of them enable the "tasks" between emails?
- 8y ago
anigbrowl 8y ago
Nice try FBI ...it's neat. I'm just making a crack about them copying the disappearing messages functionality from other providers like protonmail.
mrarjen 8y ago
This reminds me I still need to get rid of some 3k+ emails in my inbox... thanks Google!
- sideshowb 8y ago
  Afaiac the whole point of gmail is that you don't have to get rid of anything from your inbox.
  - lou1306 8y ago
    Your inbox != All your emails. There was this "Inbox Zero" thing/philosophy/cult out there years ago, and some of its tenets are pretty interesting.
gambiting 8y ago
Am I the only one that dreads new product updates recently? I used to be super enthusiastic about every new update for everything(cool! more stuff!) but Android, Youtube and Windows 10 updates especially have made me extremely jaded - it feels like every update I either lose some functionality or something I used every day has now moved to a completely different place for no good reason. I seriously consider disabling firmware updates on my phone for that reason( if not for security updates, I think I would have done it already) - I don't want to re-learn my devices every time there is an update. Youtube interface has changed several times in the last year for me, every time moving some links that I use all the time elsewhere - "my videos" for example is now hidden 3 layers deep, when previously it was on the front page. Just why. I don't want your new shiny interface, I want to keep using the stuff that I know.
- rplnt 8y ago
  I feel like every design update any online service had in the past 5 years could be shortened to one sentence - "See less.".
- ry_ry 8y ago
  Eventually you become the thing you hate... In Gmail's case, that will eventually be Wave!
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- hnaccy 8y ago
  There's plenty of Google developers creating nonsense to justify why they should be promoted.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
    It's not their fault. When you're hired to work on Gmail, what you are supposed to do? You have to innovate. You have to justify your choices. You have to support it with testing. It's not enough that you invent something and write "I feel that...". Moreover, Google developers, just like all developers, work on things they don't believe in, or sometimes find useless. It's just work like any other. Criticizing developers for changes in how Gmail works is not really fair.
mraison 8y ago
I can't see the "Try the new Gmail" setting. Is there a geographic/locale restriction? (I tried switching my account to English without luck)
- agildehaus 8y ago
  Blog post came before they hit the big ol' deploy button.
  - oblio 8y ago
    Yeah, they went: ./publish-blog-post.sh ./deploy-gmail.sh instead of the other way around :p
- gempir 8y ago
  Experiencing the same here. I'm from Germany.
- epaga 8y ago
  Same here, in Germany. Maybe someone could post the link that is behind "Try the new Gmail" - I assume it's just some URL parameter you need to add?
- zapt02 8y ago
  Same, Sweden.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- puzzle 8y ago
  The feature flag probably hasn't been flipped through all the Gmail clusters yet, but probably will be soon. EDIT, for more clarity: Gmail spans lots of clusters ("Gmail's web interface runs in many locations”, https://gmail.googleblog.com/2009/09/more-on-todays-gmail-issue.html https://gmail.googleblog.com/2009/09/more-on-todays-gmail-is...) and Google is an US-centric ("5%") company, so it's likely that the rollout has been timed to be complete or mostly complete during the day... US daytime, that is. It's barely 5AM on the East Coast.
vijaybritto 8y ago
Oh wow, this is neat! Some features like inline controls are a long time need. Good that they are finally here. I hope they refine further to make it look like a chat app cause that might further speed up conversations IMO!
silversmith 8y ago
Oh, so that's the reason why I haven't been getting mail notifications for the past week. The messages just haven't been important enough. Thanks google, you always have my back.
pferde 8y ago
"Finally, a new confidential mode allows you to remove the option to forward, copy, download or print messages—useful for when you have to send sensitive information via email like a tax return or your social security number. You can also make a message expire after a set period of time to help you stay in control of your information." No, thanks. I like my e-mail archive under my own control.
- steve19 8y ago
  Anyone know how this works with IMAP? Does it just not show up in IMAP, otherwise forwarding etc. is trivial (ignoring the fact that you could just screenshot the message and send the screenshot)
  - y_molodtsov 8y ago
    I'm not sure that even will be available to non-Gmail users natively, probably you'll just see a link to check the message.
    - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
      It can't be available as a message, only as a link, otherwise it wouldn't work. But in this case it shouldn't even be called an "e-mail", it only confuses people.
    - dantiberian 8y ago
      Yep, I think thats it. I don't remember where I saw the screenshot, but for anyone not viewing through a Gmail app or site, you get a web link to click on to view the message.
  - josteink 8y ago
    > Anyone know how this works with IMAP? The email contains a link to a site controlled by Google which holds the actual "email's" content. Forwarding the email will only forward a link to an access-controlled resource.
eksu 8y ago
There is reason to be concerned with time expiring messages and other features that fragment the web and email, ultimately making us all more dependent on Google Services.
- maxk42 8y ago
  I use gmail as an archive of all the data / communications I've ever received. Now that messages will expire and be removed from this archive I suppose it's time to look at alternatives.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    How will that help you? If you receive one of those emails from a Gmail user, it will probably only contain a link, not the content. So you still won't be able to archive it.
nextweek2 8y ago
What I really want is a the Smart Reply feature to point out to the user that more than one question was asked of them. It's so boring to ask two questions and get a reply to one or ask someone to choose one of two options and they reply with "Yes, go ahead".
- bo1024 8y ago
  Not sure I'd blame the client for people not reading their emails...
  - tambre 8y ago
    Why do you think they were blaming the client? They simply expressed the desire for a feature to help remedy a problem caused by humans.
- zild3d 8y ago
  More appropriate solution is a smart compose feature - fix what your sending, not how they read it
  - Trav5 8y ago
    Sounds good to me. Let me input multiple questions but only send one at a time after a response is given. (Maybe hinted to me later, not automatically sent)
mephitix 8y ago
What’s going to happen to the Inbox app? It looks like they’re converging but there are things like grouping of Trips, grouping by day, and pinning (which also takes emails and attachments offline) which I really like in Inbox...
donttrack 8y ago
Moved off google products completely. A few years ago I would probably have been excited about this but today I can’t shake the cynic telling me everything they do is to just spy more efficiently.
- sdrothrock 8y ago
  What did you end up moving to for e-mail?
  - donttrack 8y ago
    Fastmail.. Was a customer with them way back, when they started, but moved over to GMail, when I got my account there in 2004. Back to Fastmail since last year..
- bernardino 8y ago
  Was thinking of deleting my Google account completely and moving over to FastMail but I wish they had a free option like user@fastmail.com for no cost. But then again, I do like no ads.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - donttrack 8y ago
    I am on the standard plan at $5 per month. I feel it is money well spent and I can configure my own domains also for email - saves me the money on the Google Apps business thing, which I only had for the email functionality.
  - 2RTZZSro 8y ago
    Supporting Gmail with it's allure and illusion of a "free" account is a rejection of personal freedom and tacit acceptance of malicious authoritarianism.
    - bernardino 8y ago
therealmarv 8y ago
No love for Inbox. Great after I switched... I only need bundles working in Gmail and I can switch again :(
staz 8y ago
How did they manage the expiring e-mail thing without breaking standards?
- delta1 8y ago
  It probably only works gmail to gmail?
  - romanovcode 8y ago
    Yep.
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    Didn't either imap or Exchange also allow for 'withdrawing' emails?
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  They didn't. It's not "e-mail" anymore, just a link.
jamiegreen 8y ago
Anyone able to shed any light on what is Google's strategy regarding the Inbox/Gmail split?
- therealmarv 8y ago
  look here: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3269253/enterprise-applications/google-inbox-future.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3269253/enterprise-app... Quote: "With respect to the upcoming Gmail announcement, there are no changes to Inbox by Gmail," a Google spokesperson tells me. "It remains a great product for users with specific workflows and one in which we test innovative features for email." My opinion: Does not sound confident for me... it will be a always beta product?!
  - dag11 8y ago
    Gmail was in beta for over five years ;)
  - vatueil 8y ago
    > My opinion: Does not sound confident for me... it will be a always beta product?! Asked if Gmail update meant changes to Inbox, Google said no. Sounds simple to me. As for being a "beta" product, to the extent that's true it's nothing new: from the start Inbox has always been a testing ground for new ideas, where the Gmail team could experiment without dealing with the entire Gmail userbase.
  - discreditable 8y ago
    To me it seems like it might be a testing ground for features to bring to Gmail.
- hknd 8y ago
  It looks like that most of the (useful) features from inbox were moved to gmail, so I would assume that inbox will be gone at some point.
- romanovcode 8y ago
  They want to re-invent the email standards to have full control over them.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
MonarchofSouls 8y ago
I cant find the Button :(
OmarIsmail 8y ago
The most exciting news here is that they're iterating on Gmail again. It was clear that Gmail was stagnating for a while as they were investing in Inbox. It's unfortunate that Inbox didn't take off, but now that it looks like they're putting the effort behind Gmail proper, we'll be seeing continual updates and improvements. In just the past 6 months we've seen native Gmail add-ons (that work across web and mobile) and now confidential mode, Calendar/Keep/Tasks sidebars, and Material look and feel. It's more work for us working on the InboxSDK, but I'm gladly willing to make the tradeoff of some extra work for a more robust and vibrant underlying platform.
- nailer 8y ago
  I wish they'd just fix Gmail sync between tabs. Sending a reply to a message you've already replied to (because the first reply didn't show up in the tab) is embarrasing.
  - gk1 8y ago
    That seems like a non-problem. You can easily prevent it by having only one Gmail tab open at a time.
    - pmontra 8y ago
      Not with GMail, which I don't use, but sometimes I open a site again instead of looking for it in the windows and tabs I leave open forever (32 GB RAM help). It happens with Google Drive and Docs. Maybe the OP also keeps many tabs open.
      - gk1 8y ago
        If you have so many tabs open that you forget what you have open and start opening new tabs of the same site, then you should have fewer tabs open. This reminds me of the joke where, upon realizing that normal pens don’t work in space, the US spent millions of dollars developing a “space pen” that will work in zero-gravity, while Russia just decided to use pencils.
sandGorgon 8y ago
does anyone know the split of these kind of posts on the different blog domains of Google ? I find more meaninfgul postings on the *.googleblog.com sites (e.g. https://research.googleblog.com https://research.googleblog.com or https://india.googleblog.com/ https://india.googleblog.com/) versus the blog.google sites.
- runesoerensen 8y ago
  I don't know about the split, but agree that more interesting (and HN relevant) posts are published on the research blog than the more product-oriented blog.google. This HN domain leaderboard also ranks the research blog domain higher (74 vs 89) over the past year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16692149 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16692149
dagaci 8y ago
The original gmail was quite clean fast and efficient to use. Something about recent updates seem to increase obfuscation on the desktop with the intent to make you spend more time in the software. Thankfully the mobile clients have to remain uncluttered.
mcintyre1994 8y ago
I'll probably stick to Inbox because the pin/sweep workflow is really nice, but snoozing was the real game changer for me and it's good that they've put that in Gmail proper now. The follow up thing looks nice too, that'd be nice in Inbox but could be tricky if messages are archived. "This has been pinned for x days" warnings would be neat.
- jessriedel 8y ago
  When snoozing with Inbox, did it allow you to type in a snooze time that would be interpreted intelligently (e.g., "8 hours" or "3pm May 5")? Or does Inbox only allow you to select from a predefined list of options ("tomorrow", "next week") or use their clunky date picker? Both Streak (a Gmail plugin) and FollowUpThen (an email forwarding service) allowed you to type basically anything, which was way faster.
  - mcintyre1994 8y ago
    Nope it doesn't have that - I can definitely imagine it being useful but their defaults are pretty good in my experience. They do have "snooze until day of event" which is quite nice for things like train tickets or meetup confirmations. And they have location-based snoozing which is occasionally handy. Sounds like a nicer way to do it though now you mention it!
    - jessriedel 8y ago
      Thanks for the info! Yea, I think having good defaults and falling back to the date-picker interface (graphical calendar) is a good solution for mobile, but when I'm on a laptop with a keyboard it's way faster to just type.
pjmlp 8y ago
Oh well, I will keep using Thunderbird.
bambax 8y ago
> New features on mobile, like high-priority notifications, can notify you of important messages to help you stay focused without interruption. Err... wat. Explain again how "high-priority notifications" will help me stay focused "without interruption". This is a new level of newspeak. The ringtone is now LOUDER, which will help you enjoy silence. Anyway, I don't care about any of this. All I want to know is if I'll still be able to disable conversation view in the new interface.
- burfog 8y ago
  Somewhere in the account settings, there is a way to get an HTML-only version of GMail. (the alternative is "standard") This is what I use. I was forced to switch because of older hardware, but mostly I like the interface better. It is far more predictable. Text boxes act as they are defined by my browser. They don't jump around or do anything else weird. The standard interface has scripting that I would always end up fighting and cursing at.
- vatueil 8y ago
  The next sentence says: "Plus, Gmail will start suggesting when to unsubscribe from newsletters or offers you no longer care about." And the following screenshot: https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/images/Gmail_Convergence_Consumer_Image_4.max-1000x1000.png https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/ima... Shows: "Try notifications for only your most important emails: Turn on / No thanks". So in context, the message is not that "high-priority notifications" mean louder ringtones but that (if you accept) Gmail will try to notify you only when an incoming email is important. That hopefully means fewer interruptions from newsletters and other bacn.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- jackpeterfletch 8y ago
  They're just changing how they notify so that you get fewer notifs on important mail only. Just turn them off if you dont want notifs at all.
- 8y ago
jbb67 8y ago
Ah,more "improvements"...
dirtylowprofile 8y ago
I don't know but web interfaces are not a thing to me anymore. I am using Airmail for both my personal and work email. Those new features are just meh.
- statictype 8y ago
  Airmail is great until I find that I collect a lot of mail - At that point - it starts becoming extremely buggy. I tried it a few times - each time worked great at the start and then fell apart once the mail volume grew. Gmail's web interface, crappy though it may be, seems to be the interface that works best out of the lot.
car_invasion 8y ago
I think the way the Gmail team implements new features is quite cautious when I compare that, for example, to the recent Reddit redesign. Progressive and slow changes, so that the users don't notice them and get overwhelmed is the way to go. I bet Google has the manpower and funds to A/B test the usefulness and user acceptance of any such changes.
coatmatter 8y ago
It appears that the snooze function is straight from Google Inbox (inbox.google.com). Meanwhile, you still can't unmark messages marked as spam in Google Inbox. I kind of alternate between Gmail and Google Inbox because they present different views. It's all pretty confusing.
ankitank 8y ago
Actually, the new gmail is: https://protonmail.com/ https://protonmail.com/
- kroberton 8y ago
  Agreed. And: https://tutanota.com/ https://tutanota.com/ Gmail used to be good alright, but then it started to ask for my phone number all the time. I've switched to Tutanota recently, much better IMO, particularly the new client: https://mail.tutanota.com/ https://mail.tutanota.com/
  - Promarged 8y ago
    I just tested tutanota. The interface is clean and nice but the encryption to external contacts is the same as in Gmail (link back to tutanota and shared passwords). Why can't these services use something like OpenPGP's Web Key Discovery [0] fetching key from https://domain.com/.well-known/openpgp/hu/hash-for-localpart https://domain.com/.well-known/openpgp/hu/hash-for-localpart and avoid links altogether? [0]: https://www.gnupg.org/blog/20160830-web-key-service.html https://www.gnupg.org/blog/20160830-web-key-service.html
    - kroberton 8y ago
      Avoiding links is the ultimate goal, hopefully Tutanota will integrate your suggestion or something similar. I've moved my entire family to Tutanota, which also works quite well. But you'll never convince everybody... As far as I know self-destruct emails in Gmail are not end-to-end encrypted.
      - Boulth 8y ago
        Good to hear, I'm also interested in that (hushmail, mailbox.org also use link backs). Is there an issue tracker or a mailing list where one can subscribe and see when this would be available?
  - amelius 8y ago
    Is it open-source like protonmail?
gandalfian 8y ago
Or you know let google photos work with google mail so you can insert a photo without some convoluted work around.
known 8y ago
Sounds like exotic features
seba_dos1 8y ago
I can already hear the laptop fans screaming due to all these useless animations.
lonk 8y ago
A few unnecessary features here or there.
jk2323 8y ago
What is good about Gmail? Imap is a nightmare if you travel a lot (Please log-in via Browser), it is a privacy nightmare..If you forget your password, who can you call? What is good about it? Okay, it is free and has the best "search" option. You can get a domain with Webmail and IMAP for a few bucks. gandi.net (France) infomaniak.com (Switzerland)
- ktosobcy 8y ago
  Well, gmail IMAP is terribly terrible. I'm eyeballing fastmail (was using it for a bit and mail/calendar/contacts were working like a charm) but for my usecase I would have to pay 15usd/month (2 domains, and 2 persons, one having accounts on both domains - totalling 3 accounts according to them) which would be quite pricey. Thanks for the hints about infomaniak.com - looks ok. Any comments?
  - jk2323 8y ago
    I use both. Informaniak has decent webmail. IMAP is okay, didn't get SMTP to work with k9 android email client. I don't have my domain with them, I buy email/IMAP as a service. I think it is 17 Euros per year. gandi's IMAP seems more robust. Infos https://www.infomaniak.com/en/support/faq/1944/ordering-email-addresses-with-infomaniak https://www.infomaniak.com/en/support/faq/1944/ordering-emai... Order (may have to change to English): https://www.infomaniak.com/en/hosting/e-mail https://www.infomaniak.com/en/hosting/e-mail
    - ktosobcy 8y ago
      Why IMAP is only ok? Any particular downsides? Any hints on problems with SMTP? Those are my actual two main protocols to use the mail (I use gmail webmail only because their email is funny in terms of 'archiving' [delete & expunge sometimes works]) and k9mail is my main mobile client (Thunderbird on the desktop).
      - jk2323 8y ago
        I live in China. This could be an IP thing or something. On my Android k9 client I never got sendmail to work with informaniak.
KayL 8y ago
Wish they can add different swipe left/right actions to their mobile APP. It's the only reason I don't use their Gmail APP. Others Mail APP has less real-time sync than the official one.
bbbobbb 8y ago
I guess there is no incentive for google to support this properly but the web client is completely pointless for anybody who has multiple gmail adresses. I want to see my stuff in a combined inbox.
- cdancette 8y ago
  there's an option in gmail labs to activate multiple accounts, I've never tried it though
  - bbbobbb 8y ago
    I think I have tried that and have it enabled but the result is completely pointless. 1) it does not combined inboxes (at least I see no option to view the other emails) 2) it only allows you to send emails from the different accounts. Emphasis on the "From" - the sender will still be the original email address, so that is completely useless for combination of like a public and private email.
jypepin 8y ago
Seems awesome! I'll be switching back once they implement the automatic travel bundle. I've gotten used to it a lot and it's been so helpful. I travel pretty regularly, often with more complex trips than single round trip flight + 1 hotel, their bundling has been super helpful. I also use it as my travel calendar. Gives me a better view of my coming travel than a calendar.
addicted 8y ago
Nice features. That being said the “do more without leaving the inbox” seems like workarounds to the fact that Gmail lacks a 3 pane interface. A 3 pane interface makes much of the deeper features Gmail is adding on message hover redundant. One could argue that in a 3 pane interface you need to click the message you are interested in to get access to advanced actions but in Gmail you don’t. And while this is true, I’d say the need to hover over the message actually makes it harder. The hover needs to be maintained while in the 3 pane interface once you click you don’t need to maintain your mouse position. And you have far more context, since the entire email is displayed while still showing you all your other messages and not yanking you out of the inbox.
- bigtones 8y ago
  Gmail has had a three pane interface for about 6 years. It's enabled under Labs.
gk1 8y ago
Surprised nobody mentions the availability of Google Tasks for iOS here. Or is that old news? I use tasks because it lives on top of Google Calendar, which I use and look at every day. Every other task-tracking option has failed because if it’s not in front of me then it’s not helpful. The biggest problem, until now, has been the lack of a mobile app for tasks. I, got one, am excited about this.
JoshMnem 8y ago
Google is ruining its products with Material Design. The animation is not accessible for people who have difficulty with visual motion. There needs to be a way to turn all animation off. It's bad enough already and keeps getting worse. Edit: you should learn more about visual motion accessibility before downvoting me.
billfruit 8y ago
Nothing on inline video playback and embedded YouTube videos. I think many desktop clients have that functionality. That would make possible email news letters that can have the richness of Medium posts.
- TheWiseOne 8y ago
  God, I hope this never comes true. Email is not the right medium for this. Stick to blogs and webpages for this instead.
billfruit 8y ago
Something as bare minimum as stemming while searching(ie, if you presently search in Gmail for the string 'orange', the results does not include emails that may only contain the string 'oranges') strings inside emails is yet to be implemented by Google. Any possible reason why something that sounds simple is yet not implemented?
- Raidion 8y ago
  Wildcard searches are expensive and gmail has a LOT of data. I bet it would cost them more than you expect.
  - linsomniac 8y ago
    But stemming isn't wildcard...
berberous 8y ago
Seems like some good new features, but man does it look ugly.
portmanteaufu 8y ago
While I love the new functional features (Calendar view, snooze an email, add an email to your task list, etc.), the new UI has a lot of problems. First and foremost, the "Feedback" modal dialog is completely broken in Firefox. The menu loads but then immediately disappears. It blinks back into view intermittently every several seconds, but I can't see it long enough to populate the form they provide. They established a new dock for non-email applications on the right-hand side, but decided to leave the Hangouts interface shoehorned into the lower-left corner. It's too cramped to use and forces them to waste a huge amount of horizontal space to the right of the menu options above it ("Inbox", "Sent", etc.). I count 5 vertical scrollbars visible on my small screen. The scrollbar in the primary inbox pane is there whether there's overflow or not. I tried selecting the "Compact" display density option and limited the list to 20 emails per page to guarantee that scrolling wouldn't be necessary, but I still have to look at the scrollbar. I also dislike that the inbox tabs ("Primary", "Social", etc.) aren't pinned to the top -- if I accidentally scroll on the inbox pane, they vanish.
- dylan-m 8y ago
  Oh gosh, the scrollbars. The scrollbars are more of a disaster than before. I was trying to figure out Gmail for someone with macular degeneration who doesn't want to deal with screen readers or Mutt. Instead she stubbornly uses a magnifier and bumps the font size. It was impossible because Gmail's sidebar ends up taking over the entire screen, the messages pane gets squished into oblivion, and there's no horizontal scrolling. Indeed, there is still no horizontal scrolling for the messages pane, and there are even more things in the way of it. (Incidentally, I tried setting up a screen reader as an ambient helper to wean her onto the idea, but Gmail's HTML client, which is the only thing that doesn't fall to pieces here, works terribly for screen readers). This really should be basic stuff for a frontend web developer: the main scrollbar (the one attached to your root html element) should control the scroll position of your main content. No excuses, you lazy gits, we have `position: sticky` now. Inbox has this figured out, and that's probably one of the reasons I like it.
- sundvor 8y ago
  With a nearly "zero inbox" (only a few mail items, not enough to fill the page), scrollbar is visible for me in Firefox, whilst neatly hidden in Chrome.
tofflos 8y ago
I know they put in a lot of hard work on improving the product... But I wish that they would divert just a minuscule amount of that effort into changing the font to something other than Arial. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just pick "Segoe UI" or "Verdana" like everyone else.
- joshuamorton 8y ago
  Poking at the new UI, it looks like it uses the system default sans-serif font. So you're completely in control. If you want Segoe UI or Verdana, use that as your system default, and Gmail will reflect that.
tlrobinson 8y ago
> Plus, Gmail will start suggesting when to unsubscribe from newsletters or offers you no longer care about. That sounds great. My only other feature request is an unsubscribe button in the list view actions.

258 points by runesoerensen 8y ago

lsh 8y ago

ha - that blog post is 26MB large and makes my laptop cry

vezycash 8y ago
How about the size of the new gmail?
- lsh 8y ago
  I use the business gmail version for work and it hasn't changed. Might be an opt-in thing?
  - philliphaydon 8y ago
    I can't figure out how to enable it for home or work email :(
  - auscompgeek 8y ago
    At the bottom of the G Suite blog post: > The all-new Gmail experience is available for businesses to start using today in the G Suite Early Adopter Program (EAP) and can be turned on in the Admin console. [...] > Personal Gmail users can opt-in to the new experience, too (Go to Settings in the top right and select “Try the new Gmail.”).
    - y_molodtsov 8y ago
      Does anyone have an idea on how one can enroll in EAP? I couldn't find any setting or a link, but would really like to try it for our G-Suite.
      - JDevlieghere 8y ago
        https://support.google.com/a/answer/82691 https://support.google.com/a/answer/82691
      - jfconno 8y ago
        Took me ages to find this... In Google Admin Apps > G Suite > Settings for Gmail > Advanced settings ...and then scroll down to : New Gmail Early Adopter Program
dazc 8y ago
Looks way better without javascript.
- enriquto 8y ago
  > Looks way better without javascript. This sentence is nearly always true, applied to websites. (The exception would be mathjax, and a few more things)
fuzzy2 8y ago
Yes, it’s incredible how just the preview images of “related articles” are over 13 MiB in size. That’s pretty dumb. As is using GIFs instead of actual videos. It’s 2018, damnit.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  Google shot themselves in the foot there though - autoplay videos are / can be disabled, but with gifs that's a bit more difficult and / or gifs are a way to force people to get exposed to videos.
  - tambre 8y ago
    Maybe they could change Chrome to allow autoplay videos, which have no audio? Would make them very much functionally equivalent to GIFs.
  - dredmorbius 8y ago
    I've taken to blocking gifs due to abuse. Mostly just transparent-until-hover, but still. https://pastebin.com/m5CEVfhL https://pastebin.com/m5CEVfhL
josteink 8y ago
> ha - that blog post is 26MB large and makes my laptop cry Sadly that also reflects the state of the new Gmail. It's bigger and slower to load than ever before. At least based on testing I've done on a test-account given to me by Google. (Which may or may not contain debug-builds, extra logging, instrumentation, etc. I'll not entirely exclude the possibility that the final release builds may leaner.) Anyhow, needless to say, I'm happy with Fastmail :D
wila 8y ago
it crashed my browser AND my firewall, never seen that before.
skywhopper 8y ago
Well, and the page itself is just hideously unusable. 1/3 of the space is covered with noise begging me to leave the article I'm trying to read. The top 1/3 is 80% blank space that keeps popping up and going away as I scroll, making the simple act of scrolling through an article feel unpredictable, as I'm never sure if I'm even going to be able to see the entire animation they want me to look at. Overall the experience of reading this blog is claustrophobic and stress-inducing. I almost thought I was on Medium for a bit.
- erichurkman 8y ago
  They somehow made the blog post more painful to read than a CNN article. That's talent right there.
callahad 8y ago
The Related Articles carousel at the bottom is responsible for a lot of that. In at least one of the tiles, it's backing an 82x45 thumbnail with a 2800x1556 PNG. The PNG is 6 MB, which works out to over 1.5 KB per pixel. Annotated screenshot at https://twitter.com/callahad/status/989119555711782917 https://twitter.com/callahad/status/989119555711782917 What's worse, it's clear the CMS knows that the image is going to be displayed as a small thumbnail: the markup uses the picture tag and srcset attribute to provide alternative images, indicating that they'll be around 120 or 240 pixels wide, depending on device DPI. ...and yet, the actual file it serves is the same, full-resolution PNG in all cases. This is a problem that the CMS should be solving.
travoltaj 8y ago
I had the blog post open on my mobile for the past day and this really explains why my phone was acting up.. It's gotten noticeabley faster right after closing it.

steeve 8y ago

It looks like the good things of Inbox are now in Gmail. That would explain the lack of updates on the Inbox iOS App (which still doesn't have proper iPhone X support)?

badlucklottery 8y ago
Yeah, they seem to have hit all the features I liked from both. I had moved mostly to Inbox but things like mass email operations pushed me back into Gmail on occasion.
roesel 8y ago
Let alone that the app is abysmally slow on an iPhone 5s. Even if your inbox (not "done" emails) features 7 emails and 3 new emails come in, the app doesn't even fetch them fully and loads them one-at-a-time upon opening. And the inbox.google.com web interface does the exact same thing! It also gets stuck for several seconds when pressing "done" on a lone email in a group, showing an empty group for a while until it realizes "oh, there are no emails in this group" and finally disappears. The app should be SIMPLE and FAST and it is currently neither. I am really thinking about returning to Gmail fully and using some other client for iOS.
- dirtylowprofile 8y ago
  You can try Airmail or Edison Mail for iOS. I find it much appealing than Gmail app
  - pvinis 8y ago
    I vote for Airmail too.
  - roesel 8y ago
    Neither seems to have a web version (or a desktop version for windows), so if I were to switch, I would still revert to Gmail on desktop. Or am I looking them up wrong? Edit: also, do either of them enable the "tasks" between emails?
8y ago

anigbrowl 8y ago

Nice try FBI ...it's neat. I'm just making a crack about them copying the disappearing messages functionality from other providers like protonmail.

mrarjen 8y ago

This reminds me I still need to get rid of some 3k+ emails in my inbox... thanks Google!

sideshowb 8y ago
Afaiac the whole point of gmail is that you don't have to get rid of anything from your inbox.
- lou1306 8y ago
  Your inbox != All your emails. There was this "Inbox Zero" thing/philosophy/cult out there years ago, and some of its tenets are pretty interesting.

gambiting 8y ago

Am I the only one that dreads new product updates recently? I used to be super enthusiastic about every new update for everything(cool! more stuff!) but Android, Youtube and Windows 10 updates especially have made me extremely jaded - it feels like every update I either lose some functionality or something I used every day has now moved to a completely different place for no good reason. I seriously consider disabling firmware updates on my phone for that reason( if not for security updates, I think I would have done it already) - I don't want to re-learn my devices every time there is an update. Youtube interface has changed several times in the last year for me, every time moving some links that I use all the time elsewhere - "my videos" for example is now hidden 3 layers deep, when previously it was on the front page. Just why. I don't want your new shiny interface, I want to keep using the stuff that I know.

rplnt 8y ago
I feel like every design update any online service had in the past 5 years could be shortened to one sentence - "See less.".
ry_ry 8y ago
Eventually you become the thing you hate... In Gmail's case, that will eventually be Wave!
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
hnaccy 8y ago
There's plenty of Google developers creating nonsense to justify why they should be promoted.
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  It's not their fault. When you're hired to work on Gmail, what you are supposed to do? You have to innovate. You have to justify your choices. You have to support it with testing. It's not enough that you invent something and write "I feel that...". Moreover, Google developers, just like all developers, work on things they don't believe in, or sometimes find useless. It's just work like any other. Criticizing developers for changes in how Gmail works is not really fair.

mraison 8y ago

I can't see the "Try the new Gmail" setting. Is there a geographic/locale restriction? (I tried switching my account to English without luck)

agildehaus 8y ago
Blog post came before they hit the big ol' deploy button.
- oblio 8y ago
  Yeah, they went: ./publish-blog-post.sh ./deploy-gmail.sh instead of the other way around :p
gempir 8y ago
Experiencing the same here. I'm from Germany.
epaga 8y ago
Same here, in Germany. Maybe someone could post the link that is behind "Try the new Gmail" - I assume it's just some URL parameter you need to add?
zapt02 8y ago
Same, Sweden.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
puzzle 8y ago
The feature flag probably hasn't been flipped through all the Gmail clusters yet, but probably will be soon. EDIT, for more clarity: Gmail spans lots of clusters ("Gmail's web interface runs in many locations”, https://gmail.googleblog.com/2009/09/more-on-todays-gmail-issue.html https://gmail.googleblog.com/2009/09/more-on-todays-gmail-is...) and Google is an US-centric ("5%") company, so it's likely that the rollout has been timed to be complete or mostly complete during the day... US daytime, that is. It's barely 5AM on the East Coast.

vijaybritto 8y ago

Oh wow, this is neat! Some features like inline controls are a long time need. Good that they are finally here. I hope they refine further to make it look like a chat app cause that might further speed up conversations IMO!

silversmith 8y ago

Oh, so that's the reason why I haven't been getting mail notifications for the past week. The messages just haven't been important enough. Thanks google, you always have my back.

pferde 8y ago

"Finally, a new confidential mode allows you to remove the option to forward, copy, download or print messages—useful for when you have to send sensitive information via email like a tax return or your social security number. You can also make a message expire after a set period of time to help you stay in control of your information." No, thanks. I like my e-mail archive under my own control.

steve19 8y ago
Anyone know how this works with IMAP? Does it just not show up in IMAP, otherwise forwarding etc. is trivial (ignoring the fact that you could just screenshot the message and send the screenshot)
- y_molodtsov 8y ago
  I'm not sure that even will be available to non-Gmail users natively, probably you'll just see a link to check the message.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
    It can't be available as a message, only as a link, otherwise it wouldn't work. But in this case it shouldn't even be called an "e-mail", it only confuses people.
  - dantiberian 8y ago
    Yep, I think thats it. I don't remember where I saw the screenshot, but for anyone not viewing through a Gmail app or site, you get a web link to click on to view the message.
- josteink 8y ago
  > Anyone know how this works with IMAP? The email contains a link to a site controlled by Google which holds the actual "email's" content. Forwarding the email will only forward a link to an access-controlled resource.

eksu 8y ago

There is reason to be concerned with time expiring messages and other features that fragment the web and email, ultimately making us all more dependent on Google Services.

maxk42 8y ago
I use gmail as an archive of all the data / communications I've ever received. Now that messages will expire and be removed from this archive I suppose it's time to look at alternatives.
- icebraining 8y ago
  How will that help you? If you receive one of those emails from a Gmail user, it will probably only contain a link, not the content. So you still won't be able to archive it.

nextweek2 8y ago

What I really want is a the Smart Reply feature to point out to the user that more than one question was asked of them. It's so boring to ask two questions and get a reply to one or ask someone to choose one of two options and they reply with "Yes, go ahead".

bo1024 8y ago
Not sure I'd blame the client for people not reading their emails...
- tambre 8y ago
  Why do you think they were blaming the client? They simply expressed the desire for a feature to help remedy a problem caused by humans.
zild3d 8y ago
More appropriate solution is a smart compose feature - fix what your sending, not how they read it
- Trav5 8y ago
  Sounds good to me. Let me input multiple questions but only send one at a time after a response is given. (Maybe hinted to me later, not automatically sent)

mephitix 8y ago

What’s going to happen to the Inbox app? It looks like they’re converging but there are things like grouping of Trips, grouping by day, and pinning (which also takes emails and attachments offline) which I really like in Inbox...

donttrack 8y ago

Moved off google products completely. A few years ago I would probably have been excited about this but today I can’t shake the cynic telling me everything they do is to just spy more efficiently.

sdrothrock 8y ago
What did you end up moving to for e-mail?
- donttrack 8y ago
  Fastmail.. Was a customer with them way back, when they started, but moved over to GMail, when I got my account there in 2004. Back to Fastmail since last year..
bernardino 8y ago
Was thinking of deleting my Google account completely and moving over to FastMail but I wish they had a free option like user@fastmail.com for no cost. But then again, I do like no ads.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- donttrack 8y ago
  I am on the standard plan at $5 per month. I feel it is money well spent and I can configure my own domains also for email - saves me the money on the Google Apps business thing, which I only had for the email functionality.
- 2RTZZSro 8y ago
  Supporting Gmail with it's allure and illusion of a "free" account is a rejection of personal freedom and tacit acceptance of malicious authoritarianism.
  - bernardino 8y ago

therealmarv 8y ago

No love for Inbox. Great after I switched... I only need bundles working in Gmail and I can switch again :(

staz 8y ago

How did they manage the expiring e-mail thing without breaking standards?

delta1 8y ago
It probably only works gmail to gmail?
- romanovcode 8y ago
  Yep.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  Didn't either imap or Exchange also allow for 'withdrawing' emails?
dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
They didn't. It's not "e-mail" anymore, just a link.

jamiegreen 8y ago

Anyone able to shed any light on what is Google's strategy regarding the Inbox/Gmail split?

therealmarv 8y ago
look here: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3269253/enterprise-applications/google-inbox-future.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3269253/enterprise-app... Quote: "With respect to the upcoming Gmail announcement, there are no changes to Inbox by Gmail," a Google spokesperson tells me. "It remains a great product for users with specific workflows and one in which we test innovative features for email." My opinion: Does not sound confident for me... it will be a always beta product?!
- dag11 8y ago
  Gmail was in beta for over five years ;)
- vatueil 8y ago
  > My opinion: Does not sound confident for me... it will be a always beta product?! Asked if Gmail update meant changes to Inbox, Google said no. Sounds simple to me. As for being a "beta" product, to the extent that's true it's nothing new: from the start Inbox has always been a testing ground for new ideas, where the Gmail team could experiment without dealing with the entire Gmail userbase.
- discreditable 8y ago
  To me it seems like it might be a testing ground for features to bring to Gmail.
hknd 8y ago
It looks like that most of the (useful) features from inbox were moved to gmail, so I would assume that inbox will be gone at some point.
romanovcode 8y ago
They want to re-invent the email standards to have full control over them.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

MonarchofSouls 8y ago

I cant find the Button :(

OmarIsmail 8y ago

The most exciting news here is that they're iterating on Gmail again. It was clear that Gmail was stagnating for a while as they were investing in Inbox. It's unfortunate that Inbox didn't take off, but now that it looks like they're putting the effort behind Gmail proper, we'll be seeing continual updates and improvements. In just the past 6 months we've seen native Gmail add-ons (that work across web and mobile) and now confidential mode, Calendar/Keep/Tasks sidebars, and Material look and feel. It's more work for us working on the InboxSDK, but I'm gladly willing to make the tradeoff of some extra work for a more robust and vibrant underlying platform.

nailer 8y ago
I wish they'd just fix Gmail sync between tabs. Sending a reply to a message you've already replied to (because the first reply didn't show up in the tab) is embarrasing.
- gk1 8y ago
  That seems like a non-problem. You can easily prevent it by having only one Gmail tab open at a time.
  - pmontra 8y ago
    Not with GMail, which I don't use, but sometimes I open a site again instead of looking for it in the windows and tabs I leave open forever (32 GB RAM help). It happens with Google Drive and Docs. Maybe the OP also keeps many tabs open.
    - gk1 8y ago
      If you have so many tabs open that you forget what you have open and start opening new tabs of the same site, then you should have fewer tabs open. This reminds me of the joke where, upon realizing that normal pens don’t work in space, the US spent millions of dollars developing a “space pen” that will work in zero-gravity, while Russia just decided to use pencils.

sandGorgon 8y ago

does anyone know the split of these kind of posts on the different blog domains of Google ? I find more meaninfgul postings on the *.googleblog.com sites (e.g. https://research.googleblog.com https://research.googleblog.com or https://india.googleblog.com/ https://india.googleblog.com/) versus the blog.google sites.

runesoerensen 8y ago
I don't know about the split, but agree that more interesting (and HN relevant) posts are published on the research blog than the more product-oriented blog.google. This HN domain leaderboard also ranks the research blog domain higher (74 vs 89) over the past year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16692149 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16692149

dagaci 8y ago

The original gmail was quite clean fast and efficient to use. Something about recent updates seem to increase obfuscation on the desktop with the intent to make you spend more time in the software. Thankfully the mobile clients have to remain uncluttered.

mcintyre1994 8y ago

I'll probably stick to Inbox because the pin/sweep workflow is really nice, but snoozing was the real game changer for me and it's good that they've put that in Gmail proper now. The follow up thing looks nice too, that'd be nice in Inbox but could be tricky if messages are archived. "This has been pinned for x days" warnings would be neat.

jessriedel 8y ago
When snoozing with Inbox, did it allow you to type in a snooze time that would be interpreted intelligently (e.g., "8 hours" or "3pm May 5")? Or does Inbox only allow you to select from a predefined list of options ("tomorrow", "next week") or use their clunky date picker? Both Streak (a Gmail plugin) and FollowUpThen (an email forwarding service) allowed you to type basically anything, which was way faster.
- mcintyre1994 8y ago
  Nope it doesn't have that - I can definitely imagine it being useful but their defaults are pretty good in my experience. They do have "snooze until day of event" which is quite nice for things like train tickets or meetup confirmations. And they have location-based snoozing which is occasionally handy. Sounds like a nicer way to do it though now you mention it!
  - jessriedel 8y ago
    Thanks for the info! Yea, I think having good defaults and falling back to the date-picker interface (graphical calendar) is a good solution for mobile, but when I'm on a laptop with a keyboard it's way faster to just type.

pjmlp 8y ago

Oh well, I will keep using Thunderbird.

bambax 8y ago

> New features on mobile, like high-priority notifications, can notify you of important messages to help you stay focused without interruption. Err... wat. Explain again how "high-priority notifications" will help me stay focused "without interruption". This is a new level of newspeak. The ringtone is now LOUDER, which will help you enjoy silence. Anyway, I don't care about any of this. All I want to know is if I'll still be able to disable conversation view in the new interface.

burfog 8y ago
Somewhere in the account settings, there is a way to get an HTML-only version of GMail. (the alternative is "standard") This is what I use. I was forced to switch because of older hardware, but mostly I like the interface better. It is far more predictable. Text boxes act as they are defined by my browser. They don't jump around or do anything else weird. The standard interface has scripting that I would always end up fighting and cursing at.
vatueil 8y ago
The next sentence says: "Plus, Gmail will start suggesting when to unsubscribe from newsletters or offers you no longer care about." And the following screenshot: https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/images/Gmail_Convergence_Consumer_Image_4.max-1000x1000.png https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/ima... Shows: "Try notifications for only your most important emails: Turn on / No thanks". So in context, the message is not that "high-priority notifications" mean louder ringtones but that (if you accept) Gmail will try to notify you only when an incoming email is important. That hopefully means fewer interruptions from newsletters and other bacn.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jackpeterfletch 8y ago
They're just changing how they notify so that you get fewer notifs on important mail only. Just turn them off if you dont want notifs at all.
8y ago

jbb67 8y ago

Ah,more "improvements"...

dirtylowprofile 8y ago

I don't know but web interfaces are not a thing to me anymore. I am using Airmail for both my personal and work email. Those new features are just meh.

statictype 8y ago
Airmail is great until I find that I collect a lot of mail - At that point - it starts becoming extremely buggy. I tried it a few times - each time worked great at the start and then fell apart once the mail volume grew. Gmail's web interface, crappy though it may be, seems to be the interface that works best out of the lot.

car_invasion 8y ago

I think the way the Gmail team implements new features is quite cautious when I compare that, for example, to the recent Reddit redesign. Progressive and slow changes, so that the users don't notice them and get overwhelmed is the way to go. I bet Google has the manpower and funds to A/B test the usefulness and user acceptance of any such changes.

coatmatter 8y ago

It appears that the snooze function is straight from Google Inbox (inbox.google.com). Meanwhile, you still can't unmark messages marked as spam in Google Inbox. I kind of alternate between Gmail and Google Inbox because they present different views. It's all pretty confusing.

ankitank 8y ago

Actually, the new gmail is: https://protonmail.com/ https://protonmail.com/

kroberton 8y ago
Agreed. And: https://tutanota.com/ https://tutanota.com/ Gmail used to be good alright, but then it started to ask for my phone number all the time. I've switched to Tutanota recently, much better IMO, particularly the new client: https://mail.tutanota.com/ https://mail.tutanota.com/
- Promarged 8y ago
  I just tested tutanota. The interface is clean and nice but the encryption to external contacts is the same as in Gmail (link back to tutanota and shared passwords). Why can't these services use something like OpenPGP's Web Key Discovery [0] fetching key from https://domain.com/.well-known/openpgp/hu/hash-for-localpart https://domain.com/.well-known/openpgp/hu/hash-for-localpart and avoid links altogether? [0]: https://www.gnupg.org/blog/20160830-web-key-service.html https://www.gnupg.org/blog/20160830-web-key-service.html
  - kroberton 8y ago
    Avoiding links is the ultimate goal, hopefully Tutanota will integrate your suggestion or something similar. I've moved my entire family to Tutanota, which also works quite well. But you'll never convince everybody... As far as I know self-destruct emails in Gmail are not end-to-end encrypted.
    - Boulth 8y ago
      Good to hear, I'm also interested in that (hushmail, mailbox.org also use link backs). Is there an issue tracker or a mailing list where one can subscribe and see when this would be available?
- amelius 8y ago
  Is it open-source like protonmail?

gandalfian 8y ago

Or you know let google photos work with google mail so you can insert a photo without some convoluted work around.

known 8y ago

Sounds like exotic features

seba_dos1 8y ago

I can already hear the laptop fans screaming due to all these useless animations.

lonk 8y ago

A few unnecessary features here or there.

jk2323 8y ago

What is good about Gmail? Imap is a nightmare if you travel a lot (Please log-in via Browser), it is a privacy nightmare..If you forget your password, who can you call? What is good about it? Okay, it is free and has the best "search" option. You can get a domain with Webmail and IMAP for a few bucks. gandi.net (France) infomaniak.com (Switzerland)

ktosobcy 8y ago
Well, gmail IMAP is terribly terrible. I'm eyeballing fastmail (was using it for a bit and mail/calendar/contacts were working like a charm) but for my usecase I would have to pay 15usd/month (2 domains, and 2 persons, one having accounts on both domains - totalling 3 accounts according to them) which would be quite pricey. Thanks for the hints about infomaniak.com - looks ok. Any comments?
- jk2323 8y ago
  I use both. Informaniak has decent webmail. IMAP is okay, didn't get SMTP to work with k9 android email client. I don't have my domain with them, I buy email/IMAP as a service. I think it is 17 Euros per year. gandi's IMAP seems more robust. Infos https://www.infomaniak.com/en/support/faq/1944/ordering-email-addresses-with-infomaniak https://www.infomaniak.com/en/support/faq/1944/ordering-emai... Order (may have to change to English): https://www.infomaniak.com/en/hosting/e-mail https://www.infomaniak.com/en/hosting/e-mail
  - ktosobcy 8y ago
    Why IMAP is only ok? Any particular downsides? Any hints on problems with SMTP? Those are my actual two main protocols to use the mail (I use gmail webmail only because their email is funny in terms of 'archiving' [delete & expunge sometimes works]) and k9mail is my main mobile client (Thunderbird on the desktop).
    - jk2323 8y ago
      I live in China. This could be an IP thing or something. On my Android k9 client I never got sendmail to work with informaniak.

KayL 8y ago

Wish they can add different swipe left/right actions to their mobile APP. It's the only reason I don't use their Gmail APP. Others Mail APP has less real-time sync than the official one.

bbbobbb 8y ago

I guess there is no incentive for google to support this properly but the web client is completely pointless for anybody who has multiple gmail adresses. I want to see my stuff in a combined inbox.

cdancette 8y ago
there's an option in gmail labs to activate multiple accounts, I've never tried it though
- bbbobbb 8y ago
  I think I have tried that and have it enabled but the result is completely pointless. 1) it does not combined inboxes (at least I see no option to view the other emails) 2) it only allows you to send emails from the different accounts. Emphasis on the "From" - the sender will still be the original email address, so that is completely useless for combination of like a public and private email.

jypepin 8y ago

Seems awesome! I'll be switching back once they implement the automatic travel bundle. I've gotten used to it a lot and it's been so helpful. I travel pretty regularly, often with more complex trips than single round trip flight + 1 hotel, their bundling has been super helpful. I also use it as my travel calendar. Gives me a better view of my coming travel than a calendar.

addicted 8y ago

Nice features. That being said the “do more without leaving the inbox” seems like workarounds to the fact that Gmail lacks a 3 pane interface. A 3 pane interface makes much of the deeper features Gmail is adding on message hover redundant. One could argue that in a 3 pane interface you need to click the message you are interested in to get access to advanced actions but in Gmail you don’t. And while this is true, I’d say the need to hover over the message actually makes it harder. The hover needs to be maintained while in the 3 pane interface once you click you don’t need to maintain your mouse position. And you have far more context, since the entire email is displayed while still showing you all your other messages and not yanking you out of the inbox.

bigtones 8y ago
Gmail has had a three pane interface for about 6 years. It's enabled under Labs.

gk1 8y ago

Surprised nobody mentions the availability of Google Tasks for iOS here. Or is that old news? I use tasks because it lives on top of Google Calendar, which I use and look at every day. Every other task-tracking option has failed because if it’s not in front of me then it’s not helpful. The biggest problem, until now, has been the lack of a mobile app for tasks. I, got one, am excited about this.

JoshMnem 8y ago

Google is ruining its products with Material Design. The animation is not accessible for people who have difficulty with visual motion. There needs to be a way to turn all animation off. It's bad enough already and keeps getting worse. Edit: you should learn more about visual motion accessibility before downvoting me.

billfruit 8y ago

Nothing on inline video playback and embedded YouTube videos. I think many desktop clients have that functionality. That would make possible email news letters that can have the richness of Medium posts.

TheWiseOne 8y ago
God, I hope this never comes true. Email is not the right medium for this. Stick to blogs and webpages for this instead.

billfruit 8y ago

Something as bare minimum as stemming while searching(ie, if you presently search in Gmail for the string 'orange', the results does not include emails that may only contain the string 'oranges') strings inside emails is yet to be implemented by Google. Any possible reason why something that sounds simple is yet not implemented?

Raidion 8y ago
Wildcard searches are expensive and gmail has a LOT of data. I bet it would cost them more than you expect.
- linsomniac 8y ago
  But stemming isn't wildcard...

berberous 8y ago

Seems like some good new features, but man does it look ugly.

portmanteaufu 8y ago

While I love the new functional features (Calendar view, snooze an email, add an email to your task list, etc.), the new UI has a lot of problems. First and foremost, the "Feedback" modal dialog is completely broken in Firefox. The menu loads but then immediately disappears. It blinks back into view intermittently every several seconds, but I can't see it long enough to populate the form they provide. They established a new dock for non-email applications on the right-hand side, but decided to leave the Hangouts interface shoehorned into the lower-left corner. It's too cramped to use and forces them to waste a huge amount of horizontal space to the right of the menu options above it ("Inbox", "Sent", etc.). I count 5 vertical scrollbars visible on my small screen. The scrollbar in the primary inbox pane is there whether there's overflow or not. I tried selecting the "Compact" display density option and limited the list to 20 emails per page to guarantee that scrolling wouldn't be necessary, but I still have to look at the scrollbar. I also dislike that the inbox tabs ("Primary", "Social", etc.) aren't pinned to the top -- if I accidentally scroll on the inbox pane, they vanish.

dylan-m 8y ago
Oh gosh, the scrollbars. The scrollbars are more of a disaster than before. I was trying to figure out Gmail for someone with macular degeneration who doesn't want to deal with screen readers or Mutt. Instead she stubbornly uses a magnifier and bumps the font size. It was impossible because Gmail's sidebar ends up taking over the entire screen, the messages pane gets squished into oblivion, and there's no horizontal scrolling. Indeed, there is still no horizontal scrolling for the messages pane, and there are even more things in the way of it. (Incidentally, I tried setting up a screen reader as an ambient helper to wean her onto the idea, but Gmail's HTML client, which is the only thing that doesn't fall to pieces here, works terribly for screen readers). This really should be basic stuff for a frontend web developer: the main scrollbar (the one attached to your root html element) should control the scroll position of your main content. No excuses, you lazy gits, we have `position: sticky` now. Inbox has this figured out, and that's probably one of the reasons I like it.
sundvor 8y ago
With a nearly "zero inbox" (only a few mail items, not enough to fill the page), scrollbar is visible for me in Firefox, whilst neatly hidden in Chrome.

tofflos 8y ago

I know they put in a lot of hard work on improving the product... But I wish that they would divert just a minuscule amount of that effort into changing the font to something other than Arial. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just pick "Segoe UI" or "Verdana" like everyone else.

joshuamorton 8y ago
Poking at the new UI, it looks like it uses the system default sans-serif font. So you're completely in control. If you want Segoe UI or Verdana, use that as your system default, and Gmail will reflect that.

tlrobinson 8y ago

> Plus, Gmail will start suggesting when to unsubscribe from newsletters or offers you no longer care about. That sounds great. My only other feature request is an unsubscribe button in the list view actions.