Just when you least expect it, Gmail goes and gets yet another inbox refresh. That’s right, everyone’s favourite free email service, Gmail has received a fresh new look that tries to bring Google Chat, Google Meet and Google Spaces closer than ever before.
The announcement of Gmail’s design update and inbox UI refresh was made in a company blog, along with screenshots of how these visual changes would appear for free Gmail users.
According to the blog update, Meet, Chat and Spaces are going to be easily accessible within Gmail inbox, pinned together in the leftmost column of your Gmail inbox – users will be saved the trouble of having to open Google Meet, Chat and Spaces separately, thereby simplifying their launch and access from within the Gmail inbox.
The official rollout of this new Gmail inbox user-interface and design was preceded by Google previewing this new design back in January 2022 to a few users.
In fact, Google Workspace users (people who have official business email provided through Gmail) have seen these changes in their inbox for a few months already – some of us Digit users have definitely seen this new Gmail inbox UI since the beginning of the year, for sure.
Just like Google Meet, Chat and Spaces are present in a single row at the bottom of Gmail app on your Android phone or iPhone, the same approach is taking place on Gmail accessed through your laptop or desktop’s web browser.
Instead of a row in the app, there’s a new vertical sidebar pinned to the left edge of your Gmail inbox’s screen where Chat, Meet and Spaces will reside by default. Furthermore, Gmail users will have the option to disable any of the other three apps they don’t want to quickly access or simply don’t use altogether from the newly integrated view in the sidebar.
Google’s reinforcing the fact that Gmail’s new design update is more than just a pretty new look – it’s focused on making Gmail more powerful, customizable and functional for users. For example, “we’re making it easier than ever to find the message you’re looking for by bringing search chips to your inbox and improved search results that suggest the best match for your query.Gmail will also include a separate section for labels, even customized ones,” according to Google’s blog update.
Let’s just hope these new design changes don't end up making the Gmail tab in your browser even more hungry for system resources and memory bandwidth, eh?
Are you looking forward to these new UX updates to Gmail’s inbox? Let us know in the comments below, and keep reading Digit.in for more daily tech news, reviews and updates.