Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
New in Labs: Smart mute and easier ways to unmute
December 1, 2010
Posted by Bruce DiBello, Software Engineer
If you subscribe to a lot of mailing lists and like to keep an empty inbox,
muting
(or preventing a conversation from re-entering your inbox) is an essential feature. We just made a few changes that should make muting even better.
First up is “Smart Mute,” a new Gmail Labs feature that helps solve the problem of conversations that just won’t die. You know the ones I’m talking about: those emails with 10+ people cc’d where everyone replies all, but you lost interest five emails ago. The current mute behavior doesn’t do well in these situations since the messages are addressed to you. You end up with muted messages in your inbox, and the only way to prevent these emails from coming back to your inbox has been to create a custom filter for a specific conversation.
If you enable “Smart Mute” from the
Labs tab in Gmail Settings
, muted conversations will only appear in your inbox if a new message in the conversation is addressed to you and no one else, or a new email in the conversation adds you to the “To” or “Cc” line. Once you enable Smart Mute, mute behavior will change across all versions of Gmail: web, mobile, Android, etc. Try it out and
let us know
what you think.
Since you’ll likely be muting more than ever, we also added easier ways to unmute muted conversations. Previously, the only way to unmute a conversation was to move it to your inbox -- not super intuitive and useless if the conversation was already in your inbox. Now there are two new ways to unmute a conversation. The first is through an "Unmute" option in the "More actions" menu. You’ll see this when you view or select a muted conversation.
If you’re viewing a muted conversation, you’ll see the second new way to unmute: the "Muted" label next to the subject line now behaves just like all other labels. Clicking on the "X" will remove the Muted label and unmute the conversation.
Hopefully these changes will make it easier to mute and unmute conversations.
New in Labs: Recently used emoji
November 30, 2010
Posted by Darren Lewis, Software Engineer
When we added
emoticons in Gmail
, you responded with a nice big smile
, but then you asked for more. So we added
hundreds more emoticons
through Gmail Labs. “But alas!” you cried. “How can I ever keep up with so many different choices?
I am overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of emotion
, amusement
, and cute animals
that Gmail has to offer." Well, don’t despair, fine purveyor of emoticons. There is now a solution: “Recently Used Emoji” in Gmail Labs, which keeps track of the ten most recent emoticons you’ve used, and saves them for easy access. To turn it on, just visit the
Labs tab of Gmail Settings
.
No more searching through dozens of cat faces for the one that says, “I miss you, but I’m still ambivalent about our weekend plans.” You can now triumph over the plethora of emoticons, and easily add a pile of emotion to any email that you choose —
let us know
how it goes.
Optional attendees in Google Calendar
November 29, 2010
Posted by Karol Stosiek, Software Engineering Intern
Time is one of our most precious resources. Despite their necessity, meetings tend to vary in importance for different attendees. John might be really interested in his team’s weekly meeting, whereas Jane, who is working on a unrelated project, may want to skip it.
Guests’ roles in meetings tend to vary as well. Some people have to be there to lead the meeting or help make decisions, whereas others are gathering information they may be able to digest just as well via the notes. Without knowing which attendees are crucial and which are optional, it can be difficult to know which meetings you really need to attend.
That’s where Google Calendar’s new “Optional attendees” feature comes in. With a couple clicks, you can openly communicate the importance of a meeting for each attendee. Click on the “Make some attendees optional link” above the guest list and then toggle the role of each attendee by clicking the icon next to his or her name. So far, this feature has helped us more effectively manage our own time on the Calendar team — we hope it does the same for you.
Gmail homepage makeover
November 15, 2010
Posted by Jason Toff, Product Marketing Manager
If you visited the
Gmail log-in page
recently, you may have noticed that things looked a wee bit different. We decided to give this page a bit of a facelift and updated a few of Gmail’s
other
pages
while we were at it. Our goal was to keep a familiar look while freshening up the graphics and trimming down the text (we cut out over 250 words in the process).
Here’s a before & after of the log-in page:
We also updated the Gmail logo, brightening the colors and making it more in line with the latest
Google logo
:
Five new themes
November 4, 2010
Posted by Manu Cornet, Software Engineer
Manu
: Hey, how would you fancy some new Gmail themes?
Jake
: Sure, I would love that! How usable are they?
Manu
: Huh, usable? Well, there’s a flishy-flashy theme that blinks every...
Jake
: What? I don’t want things to flash, I want to read my email.
Manu
: No? Well then, what about this fluorescent pink theme that will make your screen look very special when your friends are looking at...
Jake
: No pink please!
Manu
: Oh. Then maybe this hyper dynamic and playful theme that makes all links on the page jump away each time you try to click on...
Jake
: Are you insane? Please, just give me something usable. If I want flashy game-like graphics, I can use High Score. If I want something dapper for my friends to look at, I can use Shiny. If I want cartoon characters hanging out here and there in my Gmail, I can use Zoozimps. I just want something dead simple.
Manu
: What about stripping the Gmail interface to the bare bones, like these two new themes, Basic Black and Basic White?
Jake
: That’s better. The dark one may be good for my eyes.
Manu
: Great! Do you have an Android phone?
Jake
: Yes.
Manu
: Then you may like this Android theme too. How about that?
Jake
: Nice! Some graphics but still subtle. Give me more.
Manu
: Relaxing tree tops? This one ain’t blinking.
Jake
: Not bad! What about something that would feel more handmade?
Manu
: You’re in luck, sir. I have this cool Marker theme in store for you. Very unprofessional.
Jake
: Nice — I’m gonna stick with this one for now.
Manu
: Good choice! See you next time for some more.
Gmail in mobile Safari: now even more like a native app
October 27, 2010
Posted by Brett Lider, User Experience Designer
(Cross-posted from the
Mobile blog
)
Go to
gmail.com
from your iPhone and you’ll notice two improvements we’ve rolled out over the past few weeks. First, scrolling is snappier: the speed of scrolling reflects the speed of your swipe gesture. This is helpful for long conversations where a few quick flicks will get you to the information you need much faster than before. Second, the toolbars stay on screen while you’re scrolling rather than moving down into view
after
each scroll. Being able to access your toolbars from any point on the page should make it easier to triage your email and move around the app.
If you use Gmail in your mobile browser a lot, you may have noticed that we recently tried several different variations of these buttons. We‘ve iterated on the design and made improvements based on your feedback. If you have more suggestions, please post them in our
forum
or, if you use Twitter, mention #gmailmobile and we'll take a look. If you’re a developer and are interested in learning about the Javascript and HTML techniques we used to do this, we’ll post an article to
code.google.com/mobile
in the coming weeks.
You can see these improvements by visiting gmail.com from the browser of iPhone and iPod touch devices running iOS4 (English-only for now). And if you like Gmail in mobile Safari, make getting to it easier by tapping the “+” at the bottom of the screen and then “Add to Home Screen.” (Don’t see the new changes yet? Try
clearing your cache
and refreshing the page.)
New in Labs: Auto-advance to the next conversation
October 26, 2010
Posted by Bruce DiBello, Software Engineer
Today, whenever you open an email in your Gmail inbox and then archive or delete it, you’re taken back to your inbox.
Many
of
you
have
asked
for the ability to instead go to the next conversation. Keyboard ninjas will already be familiar with the “]” and “[“
keyboard shortcuts
for archiving and going to the next/previous conversation. For everyone else (and for people who frequently mute or delete conversations rather than archive them) we’re offering a new feature in Gmail Labs called “Auto-advance,” which automatically opens the next conversation after you archive/delete/mute the one you’re on.
To get started with “Auto-advance” go to the
Labs tab in Settings
, enable it, and click the “Save changes” button. By default, “Auto-advance” will advance to the previous (older) conversation in your inbox -- perfect for people who read their newest mail first. If you usually read your oldest email first and would rather advance to the next (newer) conversation, you can change the direction from the
General Settings tab
.
Hopefully this will save you some time the next time you have to deal with a crowded inbox. Try it out and
let us know
what you think.
Help us improve Tasks
October 26, 2010
Posted by David Tattersall, Associate Product Manager
If you’re using
Tasks
, you’ve probably thought about something you’d like us to improve or an additional feature you wish you had. Well, we want to hear your ideas — whether they’re for Tasks in Gmail, in Google Calendar, or on your phone.
For the next few weeks, we’re running a
poll for Tasks feature requests
. We really appreciate the feedback we’ve already received about syncing, sharing, Calendar integration and more, and we’re looking forward to hearing more details within these topics as well as any new requests you have. The poll will remain open until November 19th, at which point we’ll take a careful look at all of the feedback and prioritize your requests. So if you have a few minutes between now and then, please take a look and vote to help us improve Tasks functionality. Thanks!
Help keep your account safe with the Gmail security checklist
October 15, 2010
Posted by Diana Phan, Gmail Support Team
October is
National Cyber Security Awareness month
and a good time for a reminder about why hijackers do what they do and how you can protect your account. Check out the
Online Security blog
to learn about common hijacking techniques and security practices that will help you stay one step ahead of the bad guys. To help ensure your Gmail account is safe, take a minute to visit the Gmail help center and complete our new
security checklist
.
Follow Gmail on Twitter
October 4, 2010
Posted by Jason Toff, @gmail team
We launch new features in Gmail almost every week, and people learn about these features from different sources -- friends and family, the news, this blog, or our
what’s new
page. But heavy Twitter users like me often have to rely on
@google
and other users for updates related to Gmail. Starting today, you can now get all your Gmail news, tips and tricks directly from
@gmail
.
As always, if you encounter any issues with your Gmail account, our
Help Center
and
user forum
are your best resources. But if you have feedback or ideas you want to share, feel free to reply @gmail or include #gmail in tweets - we’ll be reading your feedback periodically.
We’re also giving away 140 snazzy t-shirts:
To get a shirt, tweet your best ode or
haiku
to Gmail (see
some
examples
). The first 140 people to do so will get a free shirt in the mail (subject to these
contest terms
).
To follow us, visit
http://twitter.com/gmail
.
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