5 ms·

Could you be more specific? Which features would you like to see?

c_r_w 8y ago
For what its worth, I am currently looking at ProtonMail again because I find "suggested replies" too creepy. It is actually stressful, at the "increased heart-rate" level, to see those and be constantly reminded I have no privacy at Google. Gmail is the best email client IMHO but suggested replies may finally drive me away.
- s3r3nity 8y ago
  I might be a minority, but I actually like this feature, as it has saved my ass a few times already in terms of replying to emails from my boss / boss's boss, so I'd vote to have it be optional rather than have Gmail remove it. (Edit: it looks like you CAN turn it off in the settings.)
  - c_r_w 8y ago
    I actually would assume the usage stats would be very good on the feature. I am not sure if you can turn it off on the web, I will look again. Unfortunately it is a bit of a Pandora's box situation; just knowing it is happening is the problem. That said, out of sight, out of mind. As much as I like to think I'm driven by principle, I haven't stopped using Gmail yet.
    - prlambert 8y ago
      You can disable Smart Reply from the mobile apps, the setting isn't there on Web yet. Honestly we just haven't prioritized it yet. Here's some info on how it works if it helps address your concern: We've transformed the language generation problem into a labelling problem. From a systems point of view it's not any different from spam filtering, or tabbed inbox, and we use the exact same features. Smart Reply uses a whitelist of around 30k independently generated & sanitized phrases. You could think of each whitelist entry as a label. So when an email comes in on the delivery pipeline we just label things, like we've always done. We label (spam/not-spam) for spam filtering, we label (promo/social/update/forum) for tabbed inbox, and we label (Thanks!/Sounds good!/etc/etc) for smart reply.
      - c_r_w 8y ago
        Thanks very much for the reply, that is very interesting. It is really a very smart feature, and I cannot explain rationally why that is the one thing that pushes me over the line into "this is too creepy." Do you record what responses people choose? If so is that data used to personalize the responses or just stored in aggregate?
s3r3nity 8y ago
The #1 feature I've been looking for is just manual sorting of threads in the inbox and/or folders (via drag-n-drop or the like.) This was such a sneaky-good feature with Mailbox (before Dropbox shut it down) and solves a bulk of my priority / triage problems with email. I've surprisingly had a difficult time finding any other client that can do this. ...Though, knowing HN, I'm sure someone probably has one up their sleeve =)...
- jorisw 8y ago
  FWIW, I do this in Mac's Mail.app by assigning different colors of flags, and sorting my inbox by flags, then received date. This allows me to have business actionables on top, then personal actionables, then unfiled bills, then new incoming messages.
  - s3r3nity 8y ago
    Ah interesting - I should try this! I'm a huge fan of Mail.app, but my biggest frustration is that the colored flags don't carry to my iPhone (the latter of which only has one color flag in the Mail app.) My other response is that I'm big on stack-ranking tasks / priorities, so your flow would be great for personal stuff, but not best for what I need for work.
    - prlambert 8y ago
      Have you tried multiple inboxes in gmail? You can create custom sections for specific labels and then sort your incoming mail into them (using keyboard shortcuts this can be really quick). For example you can have inbox sections: Starred P1 P2 P3 Inbox (new/untriaged) You can also use 'super stars' to accomplish multiple priority states within starring. Here's an example of a real power user: https://medium.com/@gregsramblings/how-i-tamed-gmail-at-work-a0bd66a17a63 https://medium.com/@gregsramblings/how-i-tamed-gmail-at-work...
  - jorisw 8y ago
    To illustrate: https://jor.is/mail-flow.jpg https://jor.is/mail-flow.jpg

For what its worth, I am currently looking at ProtonMail again because I find "suggested replies" too creepy. It is actually stressful, at the "increased heart-rate" level, to see those and be constantly reminded I have no privacy at Google. Gmail is the best email client IMHO but suggested replies may finally drive me away.

s3r3nity 8y ago
I might be a minority, but I actually like this feature, as it has saved my ass a few times already in terms of replying to emails from my boss / boss's boss, so I'd vote to have it be optional rather than have Gmail remove it. (Edit: it looks like you CAN turn it off in the settings.)
- c_r_w 8y ago
  I actually would assume the usage stats would be very good on the feature. I am not sure if you can turn it off on the web, I will look again. Unfortunately it is a bit of a Pandora's box situation; just knowing it is happening is the problem. That said, out of sight, out of mind. As much as I like to think I'm driven by principle, I haven't stopped using Gmail yet.
  - prlambert 8y ago
    You can disable Smart Reply from the mobile apps, the setting isn't there on Web yet. Honestly we just haven't prioritized it yet. Here's some info on how it works if it helps address your concern: We've transformed the language generation problem into a labelling problem. From a systems point of view it's not any different from spam filtering, or tabbed inbox, and we use the exact same features. Smart Reply uses a whitelist of around 30k independently generated & sanitized phrases. You could think of each whitelist entry as a label. So when an email comes in on the delivery pipeline we just label things, like we've always done. We label (spam/not-spam) for spam filtering, we label (promo/social/update/forum) for tabbed inbox, and we label (Thanks!/Sounds good!/etc/etc) for smart reply.
    - c_r_w 8y ago
      Thanks very much for the reply, that is very interesting. It is really a very smart feature, and I cannot explain rationally why that is the one thing that pushes me over the line into "this is too creepy." Do you record what responses people choose? If so is that data used to personalize the responses or just stored in aggregate?

s3r3nity 8y ago

The #1 feature I've been looking for is just manual sorting of threads in the inbox and/or folders (via drag-n-drop or the like.) This was such a sneaky-good feature with Mailbox (before Dropbox shut it down) and solves a bulk of my priority / triage problems with email. I've surprisingly had a difficult time finding any other client that can do this. ...Though, knowing HN, I'm sure someone probably has one up their sleeve =)...

jorisw 8y ago
FWIW, I do this in Mac's Mail.app by assigning different colors of flags, and sorting my inbox by flags, then received date. This allows me to have business actionables on top, then personal actionables, then unfiled bills, then new incoming messages.
- s3r3nity 8y ago
  Ah interesting - I should try this! I'm a huge fan of Mail.app, but my biggest frustration is that the colored flags don't carry to my iPhone (the latter of which only has one color flag in the Mail app.) My other response is that I'm big on stack-ranking tasks / priorities, so your flow would be great for personal stuff, but not best for what I need for work.
  - prlambert 8y ago
    Have you tried multiple inboxes in gmail? You can create custom sections for specific labels and then sort your incoming mail into them (using keyboard shortcuts this can be really quick). For example you can have inbox sections: Starred P1 P2 P3 Inbox (new/untriaged) You can also use 'super stars' to accomplish multiple priority states within starring. Here's an example of a real power user: https://medium.com/@gregsramblings/how-i-tamed-gmail-at-work-a0bd66a17a63 https://medium.com/@gregsramblings/how-i-tamed-gmail-at-work...
- jorisw 8y ago
  To illustrate: https://jor.is/mail-flow.jpg https://jor.is/mail-flow.jpg