Gmail's Biggest Overhaul Is Now Live

Source: The Verge / Alex Castro

Gmail, the world's most popular email service,  received its first major redesign since 2013. With 1.4 billion users a month, the redesign for Google's flagship product is focused on making users more productive and safe and began its roll out to customers yesterday. The redesign will bring some highly demanded features such as two factor authentication, email snoozing, nudging, and native offline mode. Analysts have estimated that the G suite brings in close to $2 billion a year to Google, close to 10x less than Office does for Microsoft, and this overhaul looks to close that gap.

The redesign focuses on security and usability, bringing features common to many third party applications. Google shifted to their own Tensor chips to allow certain smart-assistant like features for users. Here is a rundown of some of the most critical upgrades:

Security- many new features are built around a newly developed 'confidentiality mode'

• Two Factor Authentication- on a per-message basis, users can request that recipients provide authentication before being able to open an email. This authentication can be sent via text message.
• Integrated Rights Management - this feature allows users to block the downloading, printing, copying, or forwarding on a per-message basis. This feature is intended to prevent the unintentional sharing of information. 

Usability:

• Nudging- Gmail will selectively push emails the system has determined still require a response or are time-sensitive to the top of the inbox. This nudging feature will resurface emails very frequently and will use signals like the email content and sender to make its determination to nudge or not. 
• Email Snoozing- allows users to selectively snooze an email for a later time. 
• Offline Mode - Gmail has now added a native offline mode that enables users to access up to 90 days of emails.

Other improvements include being able to select your display density of your inbox and one tap access to attachments from your inbox screen. Google has not provided cost figures for the redesign, but Google CFO Ruth Porat did explain that 50% of parent company Alphabet's capital expenditures in the first quarter were the result of hardware purchases to aid in the expansion of machine learning.



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