In today’s world many people may check their email on their phones as often, or more often, as they do on their computers. This trend has led Google to truly rethink the concept of email. Relatively unchanged from the 70s, email has long been formatted in a similar way, regardless of the provider. With people receiving more emails than ever before, particularly those in the business world, Google found it important to try and create a smarter email interface that not only provides email, but also can intuitively assist people in their daily lives.
The product is called Inbox, designed to not only sort and classify, but also add value to the customer’s email experience. The shift in user preferences, from conventional desktop to mobile, played a large role in the features offered by Inbox. Some of the product’s interesting features are as follows:
- Helps the user stay organized by grouping bank statements and receipts together to help facilitate reconciliation of the user
- Highlights key information from e-mails in the subject line to allow users to get the point of the email without having to read it
- Displays useful information not found in the e-mail. For example, the real time status of a flight you booked a month ago or the status of a package your order in the confirmation email
- Uses “assists” to help the user finish a task. If you make a restaurant reservation online, Inbox adds a map to the confirmation e-mail. Book a flight online, it gives you a link to check in