Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Try out the new Hangouts experience in Gmail
May 15, 2013
Posted by Thijs van As, Product Manager
Today we announced Hangouts, a
big improvement
to Google’s real-time communication services. Instead of different versions of chat, video chat and calling across Google products, Hangouts gives you one consistent way to connect with the people you care about.
What does this mean for your Gmail? You now have the option to switch from the current version of chat to Hangouts. Simply click “Try it out” next to your chat list to switch to Hangouts and give your chat an instant facelift (literally!). You’ll now see the profile photos in the order of your most recent conversations. With Hangouts, you’ll also be able to quickly send messages, have video calls with up to ten people at once, and share photos. You can start a conversation with just one friend or even a whole group.
Hangouts transition effortlessly between desktop and mobile -- in fact, Hangouts will be available in Gmail, Google+,
Android phones and tablets
,
iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
and as a Windows, Mac or Linux desktop application using the
Chrome extension
. You can start a Hangout on your phone, and pick it up in Gmail right where you left off!
The new Hangouts experience in Gmail is rolling out as an optional switch starting today. Click the “Try it out” button when it appears next to your chat list to switch right away, or you can
switch later
. Learn more about the new Hangouts
here
.
Bringing it all together: 15 GB now shared between Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos
May 13, 2013
Cross-posted from the
Google Drive blog
Life gets a bit easier when your Google products work well together—whether that’s inserting a Drive file into an email or sharing a photo from Drive on Google+. As this experience becomes more seamless, separate storage doesn’t make as much sense anymore. So instead of having 10 GB for Gmail and another 5 GB for Drive and Google+ Photos, you’ll now get 15 GB of unified storage for free to use as you like between Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos.
With this new combined storage space, you won’t have to worry about how much you’re storing and where. For example, maybe you’re a heavy Gmail user but light on photos, or perhaps you were bumping up against your Drive storage limit but were only using 2 GB in Gmail. Now it doesn’t matter, because you can use your storage the way you want.
We’ll also be making updates to the
Google Drive storage page
, so you can better understand how you’re using storage space. Simply hover over the pie chart to see a breakdown of your storage use across Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos. And if you need more storage, this is your place to upgrade, with plans starting at $4.99/month for 100 GB.
Pro tip: This change means you’re no longer limited to a 25 GB upgrade in Gmail—any additional storage you purchase now applies there, too.
These changes to Google Drive storage will roll out over the next couple of weeks. Google Apps users will also be getting shared storage, so visit the enterprise blog to learn more.
Posted by Clay Bavor, Director of Product Management
Add events to Google Calendar from Gmail
May 2, 2013
Posted by Boris Khvostichenko, Product Manager
If you do a lot of scheduling over email, it's now a little bit easier to create events directly from your Gmail. Starting today, dates and times within emails are lightly underlined: click them to schedule that conference call or lunch date without ever leaving Gmail.
When you click on one of these underlined dates, you’ll be able to preview your schedule for the day and change the title, date or time of the event. Clicking “Add to Calendar” will do exactly that -- add the event to your calendar, and for extra convenience, the calendar event will include a link back to the original email.
This new feature is rolling out over the next week to everyone with the English (US) language. We'll be adding other languages soon, so stay tuned.
Gmail: 9 years and counting
April 10, 2013
Posted by Zohair Hyder, Software Engineer
This April marks Gmail’s 9th birthday, and as year ten gets underway, it’s a good opportunity to look at how much has changed: the
curse of the Bambino
was broken,
Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar
, and we stopped
referencing Xena the Warrior Princess
in our blogposts. And during that time, Gmail—and online communication as a whole—evolved too.
So much of that evolution is a result of your feedback. In fact, Gmail was inspired by
one user’s feedback
that she was tired of struggling to find emails buried deep in her inbox. So we built a new email that leveraged the power of Google Search. You told us you were tired of spam, so we set to tackling that, and today your feedback makes it possible for Gmail to filter out well over 99% of incoming spam. You also said that you needed tools to deal with information overload, so we introduced Priority Inbox to help you manage your email (and we’re still exploring new ways to make it even easier).
Simply put, whether you’ve been a Gmail user for 9 years or 9 months, your input helps us continue to keep Gmail current and useful. Thanks for taking this journey with us, and onward to year ten!
Google Calendar now disponible in Latin American Spanish
April 8, 2013
Posted by Ian Hill, Project Manager, Google Localization
If you are one of the hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers in North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean, you’ve been able to use your
Gmail in Latin American Spanish
since last year. Today, you can now also switch your Google Calendar language to “Español (Latinoamérica).”
Of course, it isn’t easy to find a variation of Spanish that works for someone living in say, South America, but also feels natural to a Spanish speaker in the United States or Caribbean for example. The Spanish spoken in these regions differs greatly from one country to the next due to geography, separate cultures, customs, and histories. To give all of our Latin American Spanish speakers an option that looks, feels, and sounds right, Google Localization constructed a Spanish variant that combines the most common elements from the different dialects. So whether you speak Spanish or any one of
Calendar’s 42 languages
, it’s now even easier to keep up with your busy schedule!
If you’re new to Calendar but already using Gmail in Latin American Spanish, just visit
google.com/calendar
and language settings will be ready to go. If you’ve used Calendar in the past, you’ll need to update your language settings by clicking on the
gear icon
in the mid-upper right of Calendar, then selecting
Settings
:
Once in
General Settings
,
Language
you can select Español (Latinoamérica). If you are using
Google Calendar for Android
, Language Settings are controlled by your phone’s
Settings
menu. For any questions on getting started with Calendar, please check our
help center
.
Introducing Gmail Blue
April 1, 2013
Posted by Jonathan Zames, Project Manager
Gmail launched nine years ago on April 1st, 2004. Since then you've been able to use hundreds of new features that push the boundaries of what email can do and make it easier to get things done.
Starting today, you'll get to experience the next big step for Gmail, Gmail Blue. Watch the video to learn more:
Update
: Was Gmail Blue an April Fool's joke? Take a look at developer Shon Dalezman's
Gmail Blue Chrome Extension
and then decide.
Gmail's new compose now default
March 28, 2013
Posted by Phil Sharp, Product Manager
You are busy people, so it's no surprise that an overwhelming number of you opted to try out Gmail's faster, simpler compose experience after it launched
last October
. In addition to telling us what you love about the new compose experience (like how much easier it is to multitask!) you’ve also been sending us helpful suggestions for what features you'd like to see added. As a result of your input, we're now ready to introduce the new compose experience as the default for everyone. We're looking forward to hearing what you think!
If you're already using the the new compose experience, you've probably noticed it's gotten a lot of upgrades over the last few months, from a
new way to send files with Google Drive
to much-requested features like pop-out replies. We’ve also added support for originally missing features like starring and labeling when composing and the Canned Responses lab.
The new compose will be rolling out to everyone over the next few days. You can learn more in our
help center
, or
follow us on Google+
, where we'll be posting more tips for using the new compose.
Indic Languages in Gmail on your feature phone
March 27, 2013
Posted by Ian Hill, Project Manager, Google Localization
Indian culture is diverse, with more than 100 languages and thousands of alphabets used every day. Depending on where you are, you might hear anything from Gujarati to Bengali and Tamil to Urdu. If you're a speaker of these languages and use a feature phone, communicating is about to get a little easier.
Starting today, we are rolling out support for 6 Indic languages in Gmail on the feature phone browser: Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. Simply go to
settings
in Gmail and choose your language.
Some 500 million new users from around the world will join the Internet between now and 2015. Since most will experience the web for the first time on a mobile device, it’s important that people everywhere can communicate in the language they know best.
Swipe between messages in the Gmail app for iPhone
March 27, 2013
Posted by John Barr, Software Engineer
With today’s update to the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad, you can save even more time when you email on the go. Version 2.1 lets you swipe left or right to move between conversations on the iPhone without needing to return to the inbox. You'll be burning through those unread messages in a flash!
Additionally, it’s now easier for you to take action on multiple messages. Selecting a message in the inbox now enables edit mode. Once in edit mode, tap on messages to select them and then choose to archive, delete, or more, from the new actions bar at the top of the screen. You may select Cancel at any time to leave edit mode.
The latest version of Gmail is available in the
App Store
.
Reply and search faster with the Gmail app for Android
March 18, 2013
Posted by Andy Huang, Software Engineer
With today's launch of the new Gmail Android app, you can save time on the actions you use most often: reply, archive, and search. If you're using Gmail on an Android 4.1+ device, the updated app lets you reply and archive messages right from notifications with one quick tap.
You can combine this with
existing notification features
like the ability to customize which messages you receive notifications for and set up different sounds for individual labels. So if you filter and label all the messages from your mom, you could set a ringtone to let you know you received a new mail from her and then quickly reply (because we know what can happen when you ignore your mother!).
The new app also introduces faster search and better search suggestions so you can find your messages quickly online and offline. You can get the latest version of Gmail on
Google Play
.
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