Inbox by Google

Google recently released a new app for reading mail called Inbox. They claimed that this app isn’t a replacement for the Gmail app in anyway and that Gmail is here to stay but it is more purposed to go along with their material design.

I was lucky enough to receive an early invite to download Inbox so I did. My first impressions of Inbox was that it had an excellent design and it really flowed well with Google’s new Material Design concept. Even though I’m still rocking a now ancient iPhone 4S, I could definitely tell that this app was designed with larger phones in mind. Which makes sense since Google’s new flagship phone, the Nexus 6 is even bigger and wider than the iphone 6. Inbox also features a button on the bottom right that is placed conveniently very close to your thumb so you quickly reply to recent contacts, set a reminder, or compose a message. I love this! It’s everything I need inside one button that’s easy to reach. Another great feature is that you can pin emails that you want to get back to later. You use the slider at the top to see the emails that you have pinned. It’s kind of like starring something, but better.

(I’ve cropped out my personal information. Usually you would see previews of the emails where the grey boxes are)

Now, Inbox does an amazingly creepy job of categorizing your mail. It’s excellent for people who want to stay organized all the time. I hate this feature because Google hasn’t included a category to be able to see “All Mail” like they do with Gmail. I want to be able to see all the mail that was sent to me in a chronological list. Just because of this I’ve turned off categories all together and now I have the features that I like without the confusing categories. Also, I noticed that it takes a little longer to get used to the look and feel of the app, at least for an iOS user than it would for a normal app. You have to do a little hunting to find that email that you’re looking for unless you have the categories turned off.

Overall, my impression of Inbox is that it has potential but it is still in the early stages so it could end up not looking anything like this when they release it to the public.

Originally published at blogcbandara.tumblr.com.