Did you know Gmail is now 15 years old? On April 1, Google revealed new Gmail features to try in 2019. I thought it’d be a great opportunity to highlight the changes, as well as some other features that have been added recently that you may not yet be aware of.
Many of us probably spend more time in our Gmail client than we’d like to admit, so hopefully these 5 features will help you to stay more organized and productive in 2019 and beyond.
Right-Click Emails For Quick Access Controls
If you are using Gmail on the desktop, you can now right-click emails in the feed to get access to quick controls. You can quickly move emails to different tabs, reply, forward, or access any other feature, including Google’s new snooze control.
It essentially takes two clicks to do absolutely anything you could want to do with each email. I find it far faster than using any of the other controls on the Gmail interface.
Snooze Emails For Later
The recently added snooze feature in Gmail can be used to hide a particular email for a later time or date. Then, when the snooze timer is up, you’ll get a new email notification. The email will pop into your inbox as if it’s a new email.
Why use snooze? Well, sometimes we get emails that we don’t have the time to reply to, or we want to think more carefully about how to respond. Using snooze makes sure we get notified at a later point so that we don’t forget to reply.
I’ve been using snooze a lot recently and it’s helped me to make sure those half-written replies don’t sit in my drafts folder for too long.
Follow Up Reminders
This is a feature you may already be taking advantage of. If Gmail thinks an email is important, but you don’t respond to it, it will show reminders in your email feed so that you don’t forget. You will see orange text a few days later alongside the email subject line.
I find it’s easier to actively use the snooze feature instead. But if you forget, Gmail has your back so you don’t have to worry about missing important messages.
Write Now, Send Later
A very new feature added in April 2019 allows Gmail users to write emails and send them later. This could be useful for scheduling time sensitive messages you can’t always get sent on time.
Google suggested it could be used for birthday messages, for sending messages at more appropriate times for those in different time zones, or to not interrupt those on vacation.
To use the new Write Now, Send Later feature, tap the three dots in the Gmail app and tap Schedule Send.
On the desktop, tap the arrow next to the blue send button and tap Schedule Send.
Gmail Smart Compose, Now Coming To iOS
Google says that more people are using Smart Compose to speed up their emails and Gmail Smart Compose is going to get smarter over time.
Wondering what Smart Compose is? It’s an AI-powered feature that guesses what words you will write next. Apparently, it’s already saving people from collectively typing over 1 billion characters per week. As of April 2019, Smart Compose is available on all Android devices and soon it will come to iOS.
To use Smart Compose, simply use the Gmail app to compose a message. As you type, suggestions will appear in dull text. Swipe to fill out the suggestion.
The more you use Smart Compose, the more it will learn about the words you use, making it even more powerful. It’s essentially like a more powerful auto-correct built into your email client.
