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Just curious, which features are you bitter about? I was a long-time Inbox user and was dreading the day I'd have to switch back to Gmail. But now that I've do

Just curious, which features are you bitter about? I was a long-time Inbox user and was dreading the day I'd have to switch back to Gmail. But now that I've done it, I've found that I don't really miss Inbox at all.

daxterspeed 8y ago
Personally it's the bundles and pinning. The bundles just worked more consistently than Gmail's tabs and made it feels fast (and safe!) to quickly archive a bunch of promo emails you weren't currently interested in. Stars can be made to work like pinned e-mails, sort of, but it not consistent across the mobile app and the website and the UX just feels unresponsive in comparison. Pinned emails were much better separated than starred emails are today. I think a bonus aspect was just design. Inbox didn't have to support as much legacy as Gmail and its design ended up being really sleek. Inbox overall just felt faster than using Gmail.
- piccolbo 8y ago
  Bundles are like thematic inboxes. So I can go into work mode, family mode, news mode and stay there for a while but look only at things that have not been taken care of yet. If you try and replicate that with a filter, inbox actively prevents it (label: something AND in:inbox). It won't show anything. Even apple mail allows that. Also the de-emphasis of read/unread status. You can archive without reading more than the subject, and it doesn't show in all the unread counts etc. When unread counts are so much in your face, it's hard to ignore them.
artworx 8y ago
For me, it was the way purchases and travel info were displayed. Right before the shutdown I've booked a fight and hotel for a conference in June and it was showing as a big card in inbox. After the gmail switch there is nothing displayed, I have to go hunting for confirmation emails. So sad to see inbox go.
- tluyben2 8y ago
  Same here: I was struggling to find the confirmation to show the hotel at the desk a few days ago while in Inbox it was immediately clear.
BeyondLimits99 8y ago
Not OP. My only issue with the Gmail app is the ads that sneak in. Using Spark for Android and it seems to be scratching the itch so far
yaseer 8y ago
I miss the inbox UX & UI in particular. Gmail seems slow and cluttered by comparison.
mephitix 8y ago
Trip bundles, pinning, mail previews. Inbox was much cleaner than Gmail. Gmail also feels slower than Inbox - spinners on startup. And other UX issues: seeing previews of images right in the email list, font/UI makes it harder to find things vs Inbox. Inbox was a much nicer UI/UX. Ads are annoying but I would have been fine with ads if it was integrated in Inbox. And look, I understand that it doesn’t make sense to invest in/maintain two heavily used email clients. But the most infuriating thing is the trip bundles. That was my most used feature and such a distinguishing aspect of Inbox that it’s almost insulting that Google would tell me I can “find my favorite features in Gmail” when it’s blatantly not there. I would pay to still use Inbox.
- piccolbo 8y ago
  Can you explain why it doesn't make sense to invest in two email clients? Particularly if you make one of the two premium?
  - sh87 8y ago
    Internal politics (Inbox was a clear threat to Gmail UI) and product adoption cannibalism
greenice 8y ago
I miss snoozing emails right from notifications on Android a lot. With Gmail I need to open the app to snooze more than two hours. Inbox: drag&drop a screenshot, then make it an attachment. Gmail: save it as an image in a folder, then select the attachments and browse to the file.
sorum 8y ago
Apart from what’s already been mentioned (bundles, general UI, speed etc), the killer feature for me was how Reminders were integrated into the email itself. When an email came in that I couldn’t quickly resolve and move on, I’d write the short ToDo to myself about what I specifically need to do. Back in Gmail I go to my flagged/starred emails and I know I’m supposed to do something about the email, but many times I’ve forgotten what what specific action was, so I open up the email, read through it and realize that I for some reason or other won’t take the action right now. Having to ”rediscover” actions in emails is such a waste of time. With Inbox there would be clear ToDos written, so I could easily scan a list of emails and pick the right one to take action on. Also very useful with emails containing many actions within, but only one or a few are left unresolved, or an email with useful links for future reading, so easy to specify what in the email I should focus on and thus ignore the rest. RIP Inbox. Miss you dearly.
- Liron 8y ago
  Maybe you can add a Draft to the thread with a note to yourself about what the next action should be.
  - sorum 8y ago
    As a workaround, I kind of like that idea! The other option is to keep the next actions in a separate list (or app), with a link to the email. Then you face the problem of context switching between 2 apps, so yours is better. I just with that I didn't have to open the email to see the note I'd written myself; Inbox was so clever that the reminder was right under the subject line.
piccolbo 8y ago
Besides bundles, the duplication of categories and labels hurts. Labels are second class (can't have a tab for instance) and categories are not user-generated. Lack of abstraction and orthogonality, a.k.a. "tacked on"

daxterspeed 8y ago

Personally it's the bundles and pinning. The bundles just worked more consistently than Gmail's tabs and made it feels fast (and safe!) to quickly archive a bunch of promo emails you weren't currently interested in. Stars can be made to work like pinned e-mails, sort of, but it not consistent across the mobile app and the website and the UX just feels unresponsive in comparison. Pinned emails were much better separated than starred emails are today. I think a bonus aspect was just design. Inbox didn't have to support as much legacy as Gmail and its design ended up being really sleek. Inbox overall just felt faster than using Gmail.

piccolbo 8y ago
Bundles are like thematic inboxes. So I can go into work mode, family mode, news mode and stay there for a while but look only at things that have not been taken care of yet. If you try and replicate that with a filter, inbox actively prevents it (label: something AND in:inbox). It won't show anything. Even apple mail allows that. Also the de-emphasis of read/unread status. You can archive without reading more than the subject, and it doesn't show in all the unread counts etc. When unread counts are so much in your face, it's hard to ignore them.

artworx 8y ago

For me, it was the way purchases and travel info were displayed. Right before the shutdown I've booked a fight and hotel for a conference in June and it was showing as a big card in inbox. After the gmail switch there is nothing displayed, I have to go hunting for confirmation emails. So sad to see inbox go.

tluyben2 8y ago
Same here: I was struggling to find the confirmation to show the hotel at the desk a few days ago while in Inbox it was immediately clear.

BeyondLimits99 8y ago

Not OP. My only issue with the Gmail app is the ads that sneak in. Using Spark for Android and it seems to be scratching the itch so far

yaseer 8y ago

I miss the inbox UX & UI in particular. Gmail seems slow and cluttered by comparison.

mephitix 8y ago

Trip bundles, pinning, mail previews. Inbox was much cleaner than Gmail. Gmail also feels slower than Inbox - spinners on startup. And other UX issues: seeing previews of images right in the email list, font/UI makes it harder to find things vs Inbox. Inbox was a much nicer UI/UX. Ads are annoying but I would have been fine with ads if it was integrated in Inbox. And look, I understand that it doesn’t make sense to invest in/maintain two heavily used email clients. But the most infuriating thing is the trip bundles. That was my most used feature and such a distinguishing aspect of Inbox that it’s almost insulting that Google would tell me I can “find my favorite features in Gmail” when it’s blatantly not there. I would pay to still use Inbox.

piccolbo 8y ago
Can you explain why it doesn't make sense to invest in two email clients? Particularly if you make one of the two premium?
- sh87 8y ago
  Internal politics (Inbox was a clear threat to Gmail UI) and product adoption cannibalism

greenice 8y ago

I miss snoozing emails right from notifications on Android a lot. With Gmail I need to open the app to snooze more than two hours. Inbox: drag&drop a screenshot, then make it an attachment. Gmail: save it as an image in a folder, then select the attachments and browse to the file.

sorum 8y ago

Apart from what’s already been mentioned (bundles, general UI, speed etc), the killer feature for me was how Reminders were integrated into the email itself. When an email came in that I couldn’t quickly resolve and move on, I’d write the short ToDo to myself about what I specifically need to do. Back in Gmail I go to my flagged/starred emails and I know I’m supposed to do something about the email, but many times I’ve forgotten what what specific action was, so I open up the email, read through it and realize that I for some reason or other won’t take the action right now. Having to ”rediscover” actions in emails is such a waste of time. With Inbox there would be clear ToDos written, so I could easily scan a list of emails and pick the right one to take action on. Also very useful with emails containing many actions within, but only one or a few are left unresolved, or an email with useful links for future reading, so easy to specify what in the email I should focus on and thus ignore the rest. RIP Inbox. Miss you dearly.

Liron 8y ago
Maybe you can add a Draft to the thread with a note to yourself about what the next action should be.
- sorum 8y ago
  As a workaround, I kind of like that idea! The other option is to keep the next actions in a separate list (or app), with a link to the email. Then you face the problem of context switching between 2 apps, so yours is better. I just with that I didn't have to open the email to see the note I'd written myself; Inbox was so clever that the reminder was right under the subject line.

piccolbo 8y ago

Besides bundles, the duplication of categories and labels hurts. Labels are second class (can't have a tab for instance) and categories are not user-generated. Lack of abstraction and orthogonality, a.k.a. "tacked on"