The original version of this article “How to make the most of your inbox under the Gmail redesign?” can be found on Gmelius Official Blog.

How to make the most of your inbox under the Gmail redesign?

First, the little things that go a long way

With its new look and sleeker design, Gmail’s new inbox is full of little details which allow you to do more.

Thanks to inline action buttons you can save time dealing with emails, no need to select them then scroll back up to do anything, you can just hover over a conversation to delete it, archive it or mark it as unread.

You also have the option to download attachments without having to open an email, making it easier and quicker to find the documents you are looking for.

Speaking of saving time, for emails which only need a straightforward basic answer you can now use Smart replies. These are simple direct answer suggestions from Gmail to address an email in 2 clicks.

The new Gmail also offers more advanced little extras. Like the “Nudging” feature. Gmail’s algorithm notices if you haven’t responded to an email it qualifies as “important” for a while and will alert you to it.

You also have the option to suspend all emails except those that Google qualifies as urgent, in case you are scared of closing your inbox altogether for fear of missing out on one of those.

Gmail also offers a new Offline Mode, which still gives you access and allows you to use your Gmail inbox when away from WiFi or while in airplane mode.

Snooze (and why not Smart Snooze)

One of the main functionality change made to the Gmail inbox is the addition of the Snooze feature, which allows you to take non-urgent emails out of your inbox, setting them to return at a time when you will be better suited to deal with them.

IIf you love the idea of streamlining your inbox workload, you might be interested in using the Smart snooze. To the request of our community, we have reactivated Gmelius’ Smart snooze which on top of Gmail’s basic snooze functions offers advanced snooze options.

You can, for example, decide for an email to be snoozed only if no-one replies, ensuring that if a thread becomes an active conversation, it won’t be snoozed anymore, to avoid any confusion. You can also set custom times for when you want your emails to come back inside your inbox, so their return is tailored to your personal schedule.

Sidebar

Gmail now offers a sidebar where you can find useful tools and all the add-ons you use.

You will first find your Google calendar icon for a quick look at your day. Then you have the option to keep track of thoughts or anything that pops into your head, and you might want to jolt down with Gmail’s Note feature. Finally, Gmail offers Tasks so you can list actions you need to write down and tick them off.

These options offer you a first place to write things down replacing your scrap of paper or notebook, so it’s all in one place. You then have access to your add-ons.

To make the most of your inbox, you should have add-ons to give you a full suite of tools you can use to further optimize your email management. With Gmelius for example on your side panel you have detailed information on the recipient of the conversation, you know when they opened your email and whether they clicked on any link included.

You also have access to a different kind of notes, there you can still jolt down information linked to an email and give it some context, but you can also have a conversation with your team. Indeed notes are shareable, which allows you to get feedback from your manager on a conversation or ask for inputs or ideas from a colleague. This conversation is private and will never be shared with the recipient of your inbox.

You can even use them to collaborate on tasks. Indeed, Gmelius offers a task management system, using the kanban technology it allows you to organize your tasks visually, turn emails into tasks and sync them with your calendar.

You can turn emails into task from the inbox view thanks to an inline action button and keep track of task’s due date and details on your calendar.

Next Steps?

We are super excited about the new Gmail interface and all new features it has to offer. We’ll keep working to enrich our features and look forward to what comes next.

As previously shared Gmelius looks even better (yes, it is possible) in the new interface so it’s high-time to test us out!