New Gmail is here: 14 new features you should know

Gmail is undeniably one of the – if not the – most popular email services used by people around the world. After a long gap, Google’s mail service is getting a major overhaul which is now being rolled out to users. The search giant confirmed that the update is being released and will bring a host of new features to the service. The new features deal with security, confidentiality, better usability among other things.

The rollout has begun today and will be phased over the next few months. The ‘regular’ Gmail users can try the new features under the Settings menu where an option of ‘Try new Gmail’ will be available. However, this too will be phased so if you don’t find it immediately do not panic. Here are 14 features that Gmail is getting for a better user experience:

This is meant more for business users as it gives users an option to block the forwarding, copying, downloading or even printing of particular messages.

As the name suggests, this gives users an option to set an expiration date to an email or they can completely revoke it. What Gmail does is in the confidential mode is that it doesn’t send the content of the mail. Rather, a link to the content is sent which on opening displays as a regular email in a Gmail client.

In the confidential mode, Gmail is also offering 2FA or two-factor authentication protection. A recipient of a mail in confidential mode will have to enter a SMS passcode to read the message.

This will come in handy for those who often forget to reply to important mails. A new snooze feature will now allow users to schedule important mails to pin at the top of the inbox at a later stage.

Now Gmail will have an ‘offline’ version where users can work on in case there’s no connectivity. The messages will be synced and downloaded as soon as one is connected to the Internet.

What Nudges will do is that it will bring up emails older than two days to the top of the inbox. It’s not a random bump of old mails as Google is using machine learning to identify which mails are ‘important’. If an email has a direct question and hasn’t been replied to, that email will also be flagged up.

Attachments with emails will now be visible in the inbox. There will be an icon below the message which people can access without opening the mail.

A new feature called High Priority notifications is being introduced which will filter out the number of notifications. Notifications will mainly be sent for mails which are considered important or urgent. Google says that almost 97% per cent of push notifications will be reduced.

Now a one-click option will be available to users from unsubscribing from pesky mailing lists. These messages aren’t really read by most users or fall in the Spam folder.

The Smart reply feature will be available on the Web client of Gmail. It’s already there on the mobile version and basically gives three short replies to email. The replies can be edited or immediately sent, depending on what a user wants to do.

A new side panel will now be available on the right side of the screen and will list the most-used Google apps. It will include Calendar, Tasks among others. The idea behind this, according to Google, is that users don’t have to leave Gmail to access other apps.

The user interface will be more attractive and have a less cluttered look. This feature, however, will only be for the Web version of Gmail.

A new Google Tasks app for G Suite users on Android and iOS is also being released. The app will allow G Suite users to keep their tasks up-to-date on their smartphones. The changes will show in the Google Tasks on the desktop as well.

While phishing warnings aren’t new but the new update of Gmail makes it better. Google will flag all potential phishing mails with banners which will be coloured – red, yellow or grey – depending on the risk factor.