If you hadn’t noticed or have not checked your email yet, Gmail revealed a new look today. I was greeted with a message as soon as I logged into my Gmail account. It says, “Welcome. Your favourite email has a fresh new look”. And true enough, it does.
After clicking on the “Next” button, Gmail will ask whether you want to view your email in default view, comfort view or compact view. I choose default because I guess I’m used to that. These views were also available in the old Gmail UI.
The default view has a new twist. You can see any attachments to the email at first glance, meaning you don’t have to open the email to see the attachments (docs, pdf, jpeg, etc). I find that this function is much better in case if I want to see any attached documents quickly.
The second thing you will notice is the right side bar. This is where you can find the standard calendar button with two additional buttons available, Keep and Tasks. Both are also available in Android app so that you can sync your data easily. I use Keep all the time but since Gmail supports Tasks now and it’s available in Gmail itself, I installed the app on my phone immediately just to test it out.
True enough, it syncs well. Just like all the other Google apps.
Another cool right sidebar feature is that you are able to add other “add-ons” to the sidebar. Other notable add-ons that you can have are Trello, Asana, Wrike and many useful work related apps.
As for the layout of the email itself, it is basically almost the same as the previous one but many of the changes are noticeable with bigger buttons and highlighted tick boxes/icons when you hover your mouse pointer over it.
Google have also included the Snooze button for emails that you wish to read later. Simply open the email, and click on the Snooze icon (clock icon) at the top to keep it aside for the time being. You can manually set the time and date when you want it to reappear in your inbox as well.
So that is basically my quick rundown of what I think about the new Gmail UI/UX for now. So far I’m liking it, but it’s not making me go “wow” just yet. Other than the right sidebar and the snooze button, it’s more or less the same. Oh… and the “Compose” button got bigger too. And still using the old themes.
Ok, that’s all folks.
