If you use Gmail on your daily basis then you must have known this: Gmail has a new look. The new interface of Gmail comes with a rounded as well as flat concept. This new interface looks cleaner than the old one. Google also added some new features to this new version of Gmail, including snooze.
Google is rolling out the new version of Gmail gradually to users. Lucky users will be able to give some try to the features of new Gmail earlier, while others have to wait until Google eventually rolled out the new Gmail for all users. Currently, some new features still under the development. If you have gotten the new version of Gmail and find it doesn’t suit you, Google gives you a freedom to return to the old Gmail. To return to the old Gmail you can click the gear icon on the upper right corner.
But for now, let’s find out the new features offered by the new Gmail.
1. Hover actions
The first new feature offered by the new Gmail is hover actions. This features allows you interact with emails more quickly. Try to hover your mouse over any email in your inbox and notice the pop-up that appears on the right side of the email. You will see four buttons to perform certain act. From archiving the email, deleting, marking as read and snoozing. This simple feature is handy to save you time and keep your inbox clean. For instance, if you got an email from someone you don’t even want to read the message from, you can just delete it without needing to open it.
2. Side panel
The new interface of Gmail offers a side panel (right side). On this panel, you will see all of the Gmail add-ons you have previously installed. This feature is primarily helpful if you have lots of Gmail add-ons since you can now effortlessly access them through this panel. By default, there are two items available on this panel: Google Calendar and Google Keep. Unfortunately, there is no chance to bring the Google Contacts to this panel.
3. Snooze
Previously, you need a help from an extension to snooze certain emails on Gmail. But now, you can do so without any extension. As mentioned earlier, snooze is one of the new features offered by the new Gmail. This feature is handy to keep your inbox clean.
The snooze feature is useful if you have not enough time to deal with certain emails right now, but want to read it later. By snoozing an email, it will be disappearing from your inbox, but not really deleted. Instead, it will shows up again according to the snoozing period you set. All of the snoozed emails are sent to the “Snoozed” box. To snooze an email, you can simply hover your mouse over the email you want to snooze and set snooze period.
4. Confidential mode
Sometimes, you want to send an email only to a specific person. If you send a regular email to someone, he/she (your recipient), will be able to forward the email you sent to anyone without you know it. If the email contains no sensitive contents then there is no problem with that. What if the email you sent is a confidential email? That is how this feature comes into play.
The confidential mode is a new Gmail feature that you can use to prevent your recipient from forwarding the email you sent. If you set this feature active when sending an email, your recipient won’t also able to download or copy the email’s contents and the attachments. In addition, the confidential mode also allows you set the expiration date of an email. Once an email is expired, your recipient won’t be able to ready it anymore.
5. Smart Compose with autocomplete
Last May, Google introduced a new Gmail composer which is AI based. Google called it Smart Compose. This is so technical, but the point is that Smart Compose offers new feature to save you time. The feature is autocomplete. When you are writing a new email, there is background process on Gmail that predicts the words you want to type. Once the words show up and they are what exactly you want to type, you can press the tab button on your keyboard to use that suggested words.
While some users find this feature useful as it can save time, there are some that find it annoying. Google gives you option to disable this feature if you don’t find it useful. Read here to learn more about this feature.