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I’ve used gmail pretty much since day 1, but I can’t recall any of the previous interfaces. What were the good features of previous ones?

hsn915 4y ago
No wasted space. More colorful. More buttons. It was more pleasant to look at and provided more useful functionality on the UI. The modern trend of wasting space and erasing colors is really bad. The only new feature I like is the "tab" categories (but only on desktop). Though they really botched it because now I'm confused about the difference between categories and labels so I don't use labels anymore. IMO they should have used the existing labels system for that.
alias_neo 4y ago
Fast and light which it currently is not. It was also pretty easy to find and read your email, which it currently is not.
- dietr1ch 4y ago
  You can still opt-in into the ancient HTML UI. It's really lightweight and network-bandwidth friendly, but not having shortcuts for some basic actions makes it a little bit too arcane and sometimes way slower than just paying the resource costs. I wish there was a better balance between both UIs. The "better looking" one wastes too much resources (CPU, memory, screen space).
  - alias_neo 4y ago
    Thanks, I didn't know that, I think I'll switch it back. It's not about resource cost for me, I use high end hardware and fast connections (coupled with ad and script blockers, both in-browser and at network level, which are probably adding to the frustration) and not only does it load and run like complete crap, I literally couldn't find an email I knew was there in my "inbox" last time I opened it. I only use Gmail/Workspace for family/personal stuff so I just use mobile apps 99% of the time now, but if I had to use it more regularly I'd be quite annoyed. Not that Office 365 which I use for work is any better in a web browser.
michelb 4y ago
It loaded quickly and was snappy.
boomlinde 4y ago
At the bottom of this guide there are two links to switch from the current state-of-the-art design to the "basic HTML" version, and back, should you regret it: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15049?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15049?hl=en The "basic HTML" version is probably not exactly as any previous version but it's a good approximation. I think it makes much better use of color and space, and the buttons have text labels instead of using an arcane symbol language I have to relearn every time I have the misfortune to use it.
- manigandham 4y ago
  You can switch the gmail UI buttons to be text labels.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

hsn915 4y ago

No wasted space. More colorful. More buttons. It was more pleasant to look at and provided more useful functionality on the UI. The modern trend of wasting space and erasing colors is really bad. The only new feature I like is the "tab" categories (but only on desktop). Though they really botched it because now I'm confused about the difference between categories and labels so I don't use labels anymore. IMO they should have used the existing labels system for that.

alias_neo 4y ago

Fast and light which it currently is not. It was also pretty easy to find and read your email, which it currently is not.

dietr1ch 4y ago
You can still opt-in into the ancient HTML UI. It's really lightweight and network-bandwidth friendly, but not having shortcuts for some basic actions makes it a little bit too arcane and sometimes way slower than just paying the resource costs. I wish there was a better balance between both UIs. The "better looking" one wastes too much resources (CPU, memory, screen space).
- alias_neo 4y ago
  Thanks, I didn't know that, I think I'll switch it back. It's not about resource cost for me, I use high end hardware and fast connections (coupled with ad and script blockers, both in-browser and at network level, which are probably adding to the frustration) and not only does it load and run like complete crap, I literally couldn't find an email I knew was there in my "inbox" last time I opened it. I only use Gmail/Workspace for family/personal stuff so I just use mobile apps 99% of the time now, but if I had to use it more regularly I'd be quite annoyed. Not that Office 365 which I use for work is any better in a web browser.

michelb 4y ago

It loaded quickly and was snappy.

boomlinde 4y ago

At the bottom of this guide there are two links to switch from the current state-of-the-art design to the "basic HTML" version, and back, should you regret it: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15049?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15049?hl=en The "basic HTML" version is probably not exactly as any previous version but it's a good approximation. I think it makes much better use of color and space, and the buttons have text labels instead of using an arcane symbol language I have to relearn every time I have the misfortune to use it.

manigandham 4y ago
You can switch the gmail UI buttons to be text labels.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]