
Google Inbox - jmdenis
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/an-inbox-that-works-for-you.html
======
GuiA
Congrats to Google on shipping!

Side question: am I the only person fully satisfied by my email workflow? I
practice inbox 0- if an email is in my inbox, it means something needs to be
done about it (whether it's replying, filing a bug report, writing a patch,
etc). Once it's done, it gets archived. I star the stuff that I'll need to
refer to later, like tickets for a flight or concert. I then have a few server
side rules to do things like mark certain classes of emails as read (eg build
logs, mailing lists), so as to not flood my phone with notifications. And...
that's it.

(edit: oh and yes, I am also very diligent about unsubscribing from the stuff
I know will never be relevant, rather than just archiving it and forgetting
about it until another email from the same source comes up a week later. After
a few weeks of consistently practicing this, your inbox gets much better)

I get probably a few hundred emails a day at most (work+personal), and this
system works great for me. I know people like Paul Graham think email is
utterly broken, but when you're at their level I'm not sure ~any~ tool will be
satisfying - they're absolutely outliers.

So HNers, do you really have a problem with your email workflow, or is
everyone just repeating "email is broken" because some smart people with an
ungodly amount of email said so?

~~~
Rezo
I wouldn't say I have a problem with email as it is today, but I am the exact
opposite of you; I never archive or organize any of my email (besides rules
for labeling email lists and groups so they directly bypass my inbox). I
appear to have 11,600+ emails in my Gmail inbox.

If I need something, I just search for it. As the Gmail search is really,
really, good, I can pretty much instantly bring up any thread. I therefore
don't see any value in spending even a second of time in trying to organize a
piece of email. I also really like the "Social" and "Promotions" tabs Gmail
added, it's like a smart filter for "unimportant stuff" that I don't even need
to bother looking at but can search for if needed. I look forward to Inbox
automating and highlighting actionable items even more (check in for flight
etc, should just be a button press without even opening the email).

I would rather apply a label, or mark a message as unread (this is what I
typically do), if it is something I need to return to later. Most emails can
either be directly acted upon, or don't require a followup at a later time, so
optimizing the common case down to "do nothing" makes sense for me.

~~~
ricket
I think you have to really consciously process your email though, in order for
your system to work. I have gotten really bad at email lately and it's because
of this: I leave my emails in my inbox like you. Except I archive something
that I'm really, truly done with (never wanna see it again, not even for
reference; archive = trash). But now my inbox is a mix of things I haven't yet
read, I've read but haven't acted on, things I've read and keep in my inbox
for reference, and things that I'm done with but I'm ignoring them so hard
that they never actually get archived like they should. "Mark as unread" is
used at a whim, usually when I read something on my phone and think "I should
read this on my computer" so I flag it unread to make sure it stands out.
Nothing is starred, except I have colored stars and mark a bill with a green
star before I archive it (this is a remnant of a system I tried in the past
but didn't fully stick).

As a result, I end up missing or not doing things, and re-reading emails I've
already done, and my inbox is just a big chronologically-ordered mess.

This is my personal email anyway. My work email I'm a little more careful
with, but it also piles up over time and rarely something will slip through
the cracks. Outlook's flag/reminder system is decent at least, so it's
manageable, but it still at times feels disorganized and just not quite how I
want it to be.

~~~
Rezo
I think you're still trying to do too many things at once and mixing concepts.
Simplify: If an email requires a followup, label it with "todo". Don't archive
email (except as an alternative to delete), don't try mark read things as
unread, etc. Then, in order to check your current list of actions, have a view
of only the emails labeled with "todo". I try to review this list twice a day
or so. As you work off the list, remove the label from email when done! This
workflow is almost identical to the Outlook flag system which I also like. In
this way, the goal is only to get your todo list to zero, which is a very
small subset of all items that are arriving in your inbox.

I think the key is to use one system consistently, and to have a concise view
of your current open items with minimal manual effort.

~~~
01Michael10
I agree with the don't archive email... Who cares if all my mail is in my
inbox? That's what search and labels are for, but... Why bother with a "todo"
label? Emails I need to act on are simply "starred".

------
Lewisham
I've been using Inbox at El Goog for a while now, and I am happy to answer
questions (in between dealing with a newborn...)

FWIW, I really like it, and use it exclusively for my work and personal
accounts. Inbox functions very much more like a ToDo list than it does an
email client. Here are the workflows I have:

Work:

I filter all mailing lists into different clusters that I have appear at 7AM
every morning. I then scrub through the subject lists to see what happened
yesterday, pinning things that require my attention, and then sweeping the
rest. At this point, everything pinned in my Inbox is now "something I need to
look at". I then read the email, and decide if it has an action item or not.
If it's actionable and I intend to do it today, I'll leave it pinned. If it's
not something I'm going to do today, I'll Snooze it until I think I'll have
time to do it, or at least evaluate another Snooze time.

To make sure I don't miss important emails, I have a cluster that I put all
email that has myself explicitly in the To: line, and have that appear
whenever anything arrives. I do occasionally miss things that didn't have me
in the To: and went to my 7AM clusters, but this is few and far between, and I
hazard happens less than my Gmail inbox where I had far more cognitive load on
managing the emails there.

Home:

The defaults are tuned well for home, and I use the clusters (like Travel,
Purchases etc) like I do for work, having them appear at 7AM each day. Most
things get swept immediately, and again I pin things that require my attention
and are maybe ToDo items.

Inbox is really opinionated about its workflow: if you struggle against it,
you'll have a bad time, and you'll prefer Gmail's flexibility. However, if you
are Inbox Zero or GTD minded, I think you'll love Inbox. Inbox is my ToDo
list, and replaces Wunderlist/Things/Evernote/Google Tasks for me. I set
reminders to myself for work items that don't have an email attached.

I encourage everyone to give it a week to see if it suits them, but I'm afraid
I'm all out of invites for now :(

~~~
kulkarnic
I wrote a review of the Inbox on facebook (that was my deal with the person
that invited me). Cross-posting here if it interests you.

My review of Google's new Inbox, based on two hours of use (thanks [redacted]
for the invite).

First the good parts: 1\. I really like bundles. The idea that I can "Sweep"
all the promotional emails I get in one click fills me with glee (and
marketers with anxiety, I imagine). It's also nice to have all the travel
related emails in one place. Never again am I going to be confused whether I
should be going to SFO or SJC.

2\. I like the new compose. My emails are too long (both those I write and
those you do), and I'm praying that showing just one line to write a response
will make emails briefer.

3\. Snooze/procrastinate: How I like the idea of "someday". Combined with my
own future discounting, I'm not going to feel guilty about not responding
anymore.

The not-so-good parts:

1\. Boy is this opinionated software! There is an inexorable push to empty
your inbox. I guess I'll like it if I get with the program.

2\. It's too pretty. No, seriously. The title-bar is too bright, there are too
many people's faces, too many colors and font styles. I like my email drab so
I can focus on what people are saying and not get distracted by the colors.

That's all I see with two hours of use. Oh, also, I don't know how to invite
people yet. If someone tells me, I'm happy to invite y'all.

edit: formatting.

~~~
dmd
My review of Inbox, based on about 4 hours of use:

#. I hate Bundles. I rarely if ever have more than 5 emails in my inbox.
Hiding things from me is counterproductive.

#. WAY too bright and big. Regular gmail fits 3x as much information in the
same space, and I was already unhappy with how bright and big regular gmail
is.

#. Love snooze. I've been using boomerang for ages.

#. No idea where the compose-suggestions are coming from; they're for people I
haven't communicated with since _before gmail even came out_.

#. In general, just feels very clunky compared to Gmail.

~~~
proexploit
Why are you concerned with the amount of information it can hold if you only
ever have 5 emails in your inbox?

------
inoop
I'm not sure what this 'inbox' does, but from judging from the video it's
about a bunch of twenty-something hipsters from California high-fiving each
other.

~~~
Dirlewanger
You could sum up the post dot-com startup craze with "a bunch of twenty-
something hipsters from California high-fiving each other". Nothing more than
an unparalleled amount of resources thrown at solving first world problems
that millenials have.

~~~
thedaveoflife
Yes because as we all know email is exclusively the domain of the young, idle
Bourgeoisie

~~~
rakoo
Well, that's who Inbox is targeted to with the given video, at least.

~~~
mytochar
That's who you target first, to spread it toward people who aren't so
technically inclined. iPhone wasn't for moms at first, and now many don't know
what they'd do without it

------
cwilson
I've been using this for the last 4 hours or so. I closed the old gmail in my
browser and swapped default apps on my phone.

My quick thoughts on the iPhone app:

Good overall. It's just as good as most of the new line of productivity
focused apps that have been released (and acquired) over the last year.

My quick thoughts on the web interface (inbox.google.com):

This is where it's really shining for me. Finally email doesn't feel like a
spreadsheet with buttons anymore. It feels like Gmail should feel in 2014. Now
that I've started using this, it would feel painful to go back to normal
Gmail. You just kind of have to start using it to understand, but I really
like it.

All of the new features (reminders, pinning emails, bundles, and one-button
archiving of bundles like promotions and forums) are great . I've used almost
every new feature already and they all feel like a natural part of a flow.

The only nitpick I have at the moment is the integrated chat in the web
interface. It's defaulted to the Hangouts style chat, which I'm not a huge fan
of. In old Gmail you have a choice of using the normal version of chat or
Hangouts chat, and I've always turned off Hangouts chat. I really wish you
could do that here, but I'm not seeing an option for it and my guess is there
will never be one.

Overall however I'm really happy with this new version of Gmail and will
continue to use it everyday.

------
IkmoIkmo
Oh god, the video? Amazing models doing fun recreational stuff. At the end of
the video I didn't feel I knew anymore more about Inbox than I did before.

I mean I get it... but it still feels stupid to do something like that, worse
to sit through it and realize you're not watching to be informed by substance,
you're watching to be convinced by style.

------
dkulchenko
Here's what I got in response to my invite request:

    
    
      Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
    
         inbox@inbox.gmrservice.ext.google.com
    
      Technical details of permanent failure:  
      Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the relay gmr-smtp-in.l.google.com by gmr-smtp-in.l.google.com. [2607:f8b0:400e:c04::e].
    
      We recommend contacting the other email provider at postmaster@gmr-smtp-in.l.google.com for further information about the cause of this error.
    
      The error that the other server returned was:
      550-5.2.1 The user you are trying to contact is receiving mail at a rate that 
      550-5.2.1 prevents additional messages from being delivered. For more 
      550-5.2.1 information, please visit 
      550 5.2.1 http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?answer=6592 j1si1502294pdb.1 - gsmtp
    

Nice one, Google.

~~~
joelwd
I received the same error; I tried again a few minutes later and it worked.

~~~
piyush_soni
Same here. Got the error, emailed a second time, it worked.

------
steven
When I got the demo on Monday, I was struck most by how Google Now technology
was integrated. That's why I called my piece (on Medium/Backchannel) "Inbox,
the app child of Gmail and Google Now." Now that I have the app, I'm enjoying
it. Very clean.

------
pcwalton
Chrome only, it seems. Disappointing.
[https://twitter.com/brianleroux/status/524987137892954112](https://twitter.com/brianleroux/status/524987137892954112)

~~~
cromwellian
It doesn't use any Chrome specific features and it will work on FF, but it
needs to be optimized to get buttery smooth 60fps animations. As you know, the
logic for when the various browsers do layout, create layers, upload them to
the GPU, etc is different, and that causes divergence rendering performance.
It was hard enough to do this on Chrome, it just takes time.

We also ran into a recent difference in the way sparse JS arrays as handled.
We use sparse JS arrays for some data structures, but array.splice(0) on
Chrome runs much faster than FF when using this to clone a sparse array.

There's no intent to exclude Firefox, engineers are staying late in the office
working on it.

~~~
jgon
What an incredibly disingenuous reply. Chrome is truly this decade's IE, and
watching Google try to play this kind of crap off would be disappointing if it
wasn't so insulting.

"There's no intent to exclude Firefox", it just turns out you've done that for
like 2 major product releases in a row along with a giant flashing button
suggesting that the user downloads Chrome. I'm not stupid, you don't have to
lie to my face.

~~~
cromwellian
I take offense to someone calling me a liar.

Try typing this into a JS Console: var xx = []; xx[30000000]=42; var yy =
xx.slice(0);

It took almost a week to track down this problem where FF was taking 13
seconds to startup. We've spent a lot of time working on this and it is always
in the cards to support this on all the other browsers. We've fixed tons of
bugs and have gotten closer to it working the way it should, and people have
spent countless hours staying very late at the office to try and finish a
polished FF release before the deadline, and we just didn't make it in time. I
spent the past 5 years of my time working on open web stuff.

Any insinuation that this is an attempt to sell Chrome over Firefox is just
_flat out wrong_. This was a "mobile first" designed app, it's not designed to
promote browsers of any stripe, it's designed to promote an experience for
gmail users. If we really wanted to shit over a platform, why bother with iOS?
Firefox has such a large user base, it can't be ignored, just like iOS can't.

~~~
bzbarsky
Unfortunately, V8 implements slice() fast at the expense of correctness. A
basic edge-case testcase like
[https://bug1087963.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=85...](https://bug1087963.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=8510317)
fails.

That said, it's clearly possible to do this fast _and_ correctly (e.g. IE
manages this).

But as a note, some V8 folks would like to remove the buggy-but-fast thing
completely. See
[https://code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=3612#c2](https://code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=3612#c2)

~~~
cromwellian
Thanks Mozilla for the quick reaction. We were not really blocked on this as a
for-in/Object.getOwnPropertyNames loop is an easy workaround, it's more that
finding the cause of an unexplained slow down took a bit of time (the usage
comes from another engineer's rpc-serialization library)

Is there a point of contact for rendering/paint performance issues? We've had
problems in Chrome where we had to work around excessive invalidation/paints,
but those were diagnosed by using Chrome's layer/paint debugging tools and
talking to Blink engineers, things may go quicker if when we encounter
problems, there's someone we can email for help or a fix.

~~~
tschneidereit
(SpiderMonkey engineer here)

What VerGreeneyes says is true for our JS engine, too: you can always file
bugs in our bugzilla (in the "Core/ JavaScript Engine" component). We react to
such bugs very promptly (as you can see in bug 1087963[0] which was fixed six
hours after being filed) and, in many cases, can uplift patches from Nightly
to Aurora and maybe Beta, so they'll reach release builds more quickly.

If for some reason you're not comfortable with filing a publicly visible bug,
you can also abuse the flag for filing security-sensitive bugs. That way, we
may be better able to help with issues affecting unannounced products.

For asking questions or getting our attention even more quickly, you can
either join us in the #jsapi channel on irc.mozilla.org, send mail to
dev.tech.js-engine[1], or send mail to one of the SpiderMonkey engineers
directly. A list of these engineers is available at [2], or you can just email
me at [my nick]@mozilla.com.

[0]
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1087963](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1087963)
[1] [https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-js-
engine](https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-js-engine) [2]
[https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=Modules/Core#JavaSc...](https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=Modules/Core#JavaScript)

~~~
cromwellian
Thanks for the info.

I'll make sure we file bugs as repro-case-able issues come up, but if we get
stuck on a deeper mystery, we may need some more direct help. We've made a lot
of progress, and from a logic and speed issue, a lot has been resolved and
mostly working, but animations are janky, and from "subjective" speed point of
view, it unfairly makes FF look bad. Based on previous experience with Chrome,
hitting the sweet spot of 60fps is usually where the JS developers need help
from the rendering engine folks.

~~~
tschneidereit
That makes a lot of sense, yes. We can profile cases like that and get
info/help from people working on the relevant components. It happens fairly
frequently that we move perf bugs from the JS component into GFX or DOM
bindings or something else entirely. So really, just file a bug in one of
these components, maybe CC a person you already interacted with or send an
email, and we'll do the triage.

------
caffeineninja
This looks very much like Mailbox, in particular the swipe left and right to
archive/snooze a message.

~~~
jfernandez
It seems to take strengths from Google's email aggregation prowess + Mailbox-
like functionality + Google Now integration. A smart play but yeah it's going
to look very derivative in light of how awesome Mailbox already is at tackling
the majority of the issues with email maintenance.

~~~
r00fus
Yeah, but it's possible many folks trust Google and don't trust Dropbox (or
haven't even heard of Mailbox) so it's interesting for Google to access that
untapped market.

------
jawns
I get the impression that this is more the next generation of Google Now than
it is the next generation of Gmail. (Google Now is all about plucking out
information from larger sources of data and bringing the most important stuff
to the front as it's needed.)

I suppose I could see how this would be useful if you're using your smart
watch or your phone and only want the most important facts, boiled down to
their essence. (But then, doesn't Google Now already do that?)

Outside of that context, it doesn't seem like you'll ordinarily have both
Inbox and Gmail open at the same time, because (as far as I can see) Inbox is
just a way of better organizing and presenting the underlying data, whereas
Gmail is more like the raw feed.

------
coryfklein
The first video on the page is useless. Full of images of people on their
computer and phones, running on the beach, etc. After watching the video, I
still have no idea what Inbox really is besides "an improvement to email"
(supposedly).

------
jcampbell1
Snoozing emails, and turning emails into tasks, is the one feature that is
important to me and gmail has been missing. I have tried some hacks like
"mailbox" by dropbox, and "taskforce", etc, and they worked well, but it
didn't work across all platforms.

I am looking forward to trying this out.

------
adambratt
I've been messing around with the new email schema stuff that Google has had
out for the past year or so.

I'm really looking forward to having a more intelligent layer around email.
It's a great messaging protocol but up until now it's been mostly contextless.

I don't see email going away anytime soon and projects like this just confirm
its usefulness.

For those who haven't seen it yet take a look at Google's email schema stuff:
[https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/](https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/)

------
daturkel
Certainly ties into the discussion about google making two of everything [0].
It's not clear how this product is meant to co-exist naturally with gmail.

[0]: [http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/googles-product-
stra...](http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/googles-product-strategy-
make-two-of-everything/)

~~~
radley
...And Google Now and Lollipop's new Smart Notifications.

------
bearbin
This looks great. It seems like the extension of what they've been doing with
Now for a while - all the information you need in easily actionable cards.

------
danielweber
What does this mean for [https://www.inboxapp.com/](https://www.inboxapp.com/)
[http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/inbox-
app/](http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/inbox-app/) ?

------
cantrevealname
I wish Google had used a less generic name. Searching for _" mail isn't
showing up in my inbox"_ is either going to show you generic mail problems or
Google Inbox problems. Apple's "Messages" app is a terrible name in the same
way.

~~~
Ensorceled
For a company that still makes the vast majority of it's money from search,
Google sure generates a lot of products with absolutely horrible SEO.

The chrome browser vs chrome os search overlap is just awful as I found out
this week.

~~~
stephenr
Google don't make money on Search. They make money on Advertising.

------
GI_Josh
I recently spent the better part of a day clearing out my work inbox because
I'd heard too many people preach about inbox 0, and how the only things in
their inbox were things they actively needed to work on.

This worked for all of two days for me. Now, a week later, my inbox is once
again packed, with nothing being moved or deleted, just read. That's just a
flow that seems to work better for me. My to-do lists that I actually need to
pay attention to are in other places... I'm looking at Jira to see what needs
my development attention and in what order, for example. I'm pleased with
treating my email as a giant bin where everything gets thrown, but can easily
be fished out again given the need.

While I imagine this is all dependent on just how much email you actually get
in a day, systems like Google Inbox seem useful to me at first, until I
realize I'm no longer following the system, or I'm spending too much time
deciding on where an email should be filed instead of simply acting on it and
moving on with my life.

~~~
dmix
You should probably work on getting less email then. I find zero inbox easy to
do. It takes practice, but I also unsub from newsletters and reduced my work
load. Tons of email is a symptom of either over-loading yourself with work or
not managing how you communicate with people well.

------
vmarsy
After a bit of use, I think I like it.

I was curious about the relation between Inbox and Gmail. My current Gmail has
a lot of filters and labels.

When looking at the labels, you have the choice of displaying them as
"Clusters" in your main inbox, which is pretty convenient.

I did that to my Friends label and it is now a Friends cluster.

Note that it doesn't change anything in Gmail: the label is still here, all
the filters that interact with it are still here too.

I realized that one of my friends wasn't in the cluster, so I moved it in it,
and clicked on "Always do this", it prompted me : "Always move emails from
Myfriend@email.com to Friends" . 2 remarks about this:

\- This is a very basic way of adding some emails from bundling, in the future
I except to be able to specialize more: for instance sometimes I get important
emails from a co-worker, but he also sends a daily reminder that I don't care
so much about, I would like to be able to move it to the bundle “Useless
updates” only it comes from him AND has this specific subject. That is
something we can do through the Gmail filters, but not through the “Always do
this” interface yet.

\- Curiously it created a filter in my old Gmail filters with as a rule : "
from:Myfriend@email.com Action: " The filter has no action, so I assume that
when I will be receiving an email from that friend , in Inbox it will go into
the good cluster, but in Gmail the label "Friend" won't be appended to it,
this means that Gmail rules/filters apply to Inbox, but Inbox rules don’t
apply to Gmail.

The Inbox's "Done" is doing the same thing as the Gmail's "Archive" .

I haven't been able to experience the snoozing feature yet

------
Chevalier
Hmm. I'm not sure that this is actually an email app. For the record, I think
Gmail and its steady incremental improvements embody email perfection -- I
can't imagine going back to life before auto-sorted tabs -- and I'm totally
willing to give Google the benefit of the doubt. Still... it's tough to see
how Inbox improves on Gmail.

Instead of email, I think Inbox is an effort to finally (FINALLY) improve
GTasks by marrying it into Gmail and Google Now. GTasks is woefully lacking.
My recent switch to Trello has absolutely revolutionized my work flow, more
than I thought possible. Inbox's autotasking looks like a big improvement on
the dumb list, but it still doesn't look like a real competitor to Trello's
kanban system.

(One last plug for Trello, just because using it for an hour has turned me
into a wild-eyed fanatic. It's AMAZING. Try it!)

------
BinaryIdiot
Looks interesting; is this coming to iOS and Android or just Android? Also
curious if this will make an appearance in web form as the Gmail and its suite
of apps are woefully outdated (Gmail, Contacts, Tasks and Calendar have had
some bugs for years and are simply behind on the good UX front).

~~~
DannyBee
It's IOS, Android, and Web.

~~~
deweller
Do you have a source for this?

~~~
DannyBee
Yes. [http://www.google.com/inbox/](http://www.google.com/inbox/) shows it

But i'll shortcut it and just offer an existence proof, since you can find all
three pieces with creative searching:

[https://itunes.apple.com/app/id905060486?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/app/id905060486?mt=8)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.inbox)

[https://inbox.google.com](https://inbox.google.com)

:)

~~~
BinaryIdiot
Oh damn; the link from the OP I didn't see it but it's very clear on this
page. Thanks!

------
nazca
If you are using Google Apps Free edition, you're good to go.

If you pay for Google Apps, you get shafted. Nice.

~~~
gmcabrita
I have the old Google Apps Free edition and I apparently can't use Inbox, so
there you go.

~~~
wjoe
Same - the help page says it's not available at all for Google Apps accounts,
only for personal Gmail accounts.

[https://support.google.com/a/answer/6082718?rd=2](https://support.google.com/a/answer/6082718?rd=2)

Since I only use my @gmail.com account for spam and have my own domain for
personal emails, guess this is a no go for me. I was considering switching
back to a personally hosted mailserver for privacy reasons anyway, would have
liked to try this though.

------
MCRed
New Rule: I'm officially done with artificially segregating people into "cool
people" who have an invite and the rest of us who have to get in line.

Simple was the worst offender-- I should have known with the multi-year wait,
to be capped off by bigoted comments from a cofounder to me on twitter (about
an unrelated matter. But hey, your CxO makes a bigoted comment- I'm no longer
your customer!)

But it's not just Simple, it's google with the wave invites, google with the
gmail invites going back when, google with the orkut invites, google with the
Plus invites, etc.

No more, Google.

~~~
smussmann
I expect the reason Google is doing this is to be able to control the rate at
which they allow people onto the infrastructure behind the new service. Going
from internal testing to everyone on the Web using a service can be pretty
rough.

[Disclosure: I work for Google, but not on anything related to Inbox or Gmail]

------
noinput
Video: we're fixing email because people send too much of it

Blog Post: email inbox@google.com to try it.

..I got a good chuckle.

------
scrollaway
GOS talked about it a few days ago before the announcement for those
interested: [http://googlesystem.blogspot.se/2014/10/google-
inbox.html](http://googlesystem.blogspot.se/2014/10/google-inbox.html)

I'm interested but I keep seeing that this sort of stuff never takes into
accounts things such as mailing lists (a la mailman and such). I hope I'm
wrong.

------
yournemesis
WTF google? You get me interested in a product. I download it on my phone no
problem. But then when I go to open it I'm told that it is invite only. I
missed this detail in the blog since it isn't mentioned until the end.
Knowingly allowing me to download a program I can't even use? This is a
perfect recipe for a 1 star review. How it has so many 5 star review is beyond
me.

Oh well, I still really want to try it. So I clicked the invite link that
makes me use gmail (the app I'm replacing) to send an email. However, it's not
a standard mailto link but a link to
[https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox?compose=new](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox?compose=new)
. Seriously? Now I have to type in an email address because Google failed to
use one of the most primitive features of HTML. So far my email experience has
only been less convenient.

Anyway, I uninstalled it from my phone. I'll just wait a year or so to see if
it flops like several of there other products and then maybe install it.

------
sdk16420
I don't understand why people want some algorithm to sort your email for you.
IMO email should always be sorted chronologically, and if it's too much, then
used rules and folders/labels. Your inbox is not the place to add reminders.
With the Google strategy you will have reminders everywhere seperately:
calendar, email, phone, IM, texts, etc.

Inbox by Gmail: the Facebook of email.

~~~
AceJohnny2
As a counterpoint, I use Gmail's "Priority Inbox", and it's basically the best
thing since sliced bread for me.

I don't want to have to bother creating rules for every Kickstarter I back,
mailing list I join, marketing email that's just useful enough not have me
unsubscribe.

The Priority Inbox does a 99% perfect job of sorting the emails I actually
care about. Occasionally (once every other month), it misses something, but a
quick scan of the "everything else" box usually, which I do anyhow, has me
catch that.

That's the kind of algorithmic sorting that I want more of.

~~~
_delirium
> rules for every ... mailing list I join

This one at least is solved for me now, since most list software implemented
RFC 2919 a few years ago. Lists should include a list-id header, so just write
one rule "if mail is to a list named _foobar_ , file it in _lists /foobar_".
Or if you don't care to separate them out, even just "if mail is to a list,
file it in _lists_ ".

------
eellpp
The basic assumption behind this seems to be that marketing spam in email will
keep increasing and instead of fighting against it, organising content around
it is better approach.

Most people (who nowadays carry lot of personal/group communication around
facebook/whatsapp) still get a lot of mails on product deals, newsletters etc.
Email is also the tool for login, password recovery and for other utilities
like that. Beyond that its the primary tool to do the most important thing :
send a official mail to whoever concerned. May be to the president of country
or to the school principal. Reducing the noise into this core tool should be
of importance. Facebook/Whatsapp has take out a big chunk of casual and group
communication, which is good. Something that could keep out the product
marketing out of email could be of next good change.

I think the movement should be towards reducing the unwanted content in
emails, than organising the unwanted.

~~~
aiiane
The promotional cluster is only a very small part of Inbox's feature set.

------
higherpurpose
They are building a new e-mail system - yet still nothing one end-to-end
encryption?

Oh sure, I know they want to build the End-to-End _plugin_ for _Gmail_ (the
service they are trying to make obsolete), which they know only a few people
will use. But this is an opportunity to start from scratch with end-to-end
security by default.

~~~
abraham
Inbox changes nothing about how email works. It simply tries to make the UI/UX
more useful. Gmail content is what powers Inbox.

------
janoelze
I'm so happy Google finally found its design language. This looks beautiful.
Really something to build on.

~~~
jinushaun
I love it too. Certainly prettier than ios 7/8.

------
danbruc
What I always wonder - do people actually use email for private communication?
Everybody uses email at work, but at home? From time to time I sign up for a
new service or order something and get confirmation mails or I send a couple
of emails back and forth to resolve an issue with a service I am using, but it
is always between me and some business.

The number of emails I have written to or received from friends is negligible
and I am not aware of anyone heavily using email for private communication.
Everybody just calls or writes a SMS or uses WhatsApp or Facebook or ICQ, but
never email.

So am I - and the people I know - a rare case or did just nobody advertising
email related stuff recognize that no one uses email for private
communication?

~~~
hayfield
I may be an odd one, but I use email for personal things. If messaging a group
of people, there's inevitably _someone_ who refuses to get Facebook or doesn't
have a smartphone or never checks their texts or something. At the same time,
everybody has an email address that's checked at least daily (at university,
and email's how anything course-related is communicated).

By emailing, it removes the cognitive step of working out how to contact
someone - it just works. Yes, I'll use text or Facebook for certain things
with certain people, but email is something that just works with everyone.

~~~
danbruc
University is a bit a odd case - it's often a mix between work and private
life and during that time I indeed used email quite a bit more for private
communication.

------
shostack
This is the first step towards some of the functionality in the movie "Her."

Trusting an AI (or algorithm in this case) to sort your email and bubble up
different aspects is a huge task, and I'm glad to see Google finally start
putting their full might behind it.

~~~
zevyoura
That functionality has already existed for quite a while in Google Now.

~~~
shostack
Yep, you're correct. I should have been more clear in that while some of this
was in Google Now, it didn't really "manage your email" like this does.

I was specifically referencing the scene where Sam is noting key points about
the various things in his inbox and organizing it for him. Of course the movie
title is possibly one of the most generic words out there, so finding a link
to share is non-trivial :)

------
checken
After using Inbox for a day, here's my initial thoughts: Incredible mobile
experience, but not as productive as Gmail on the browser side. If you're an
inbox zero fan, you'll love it. I think the point of Inbox is to bring inbox
zero to the masses. They've replaced the "archive" button with a check mark
button labeled as "done". This button has the exact same functionality as
archiving a message in Gmail, but to someone using Inbox for the first time,
it would more natural to click "done" rather than archive. The reminders &
pins are a nice touch as well.

The snooze functionality takes a page from Baydin's boomerang service.
However, this is where I'm still not sold. I've used Baydin's boomerang
service for nearly 2 years now. I use it on approximately 80% of the messages
I send. Inbox gives you the ability to "snooze" messages, but not "boomerang".
I think it's much more important to be able to bring an email back to your
inbox when someone hasn't replied to it as opposed to snoozing a message to
take care of at a later date/time. I've come to the point of not understanding
why you would even attempt inbox zero without boomerang. It blows my mind that
email has been around for this long and we're still relying on a third party
app to achieve this functionality. For anyone unfamiliar, Boomerang allows you
to set a message to come back to your inbox if a person does not reply to it
in 12 hours, 2 days, 4 days, or any later date you choose. I started using it
for business, but then I realized how much it helps with everything. I use it
on most personal emails now as well. Let me give you a real world example: 3
people on an email chain, everyone agrees we need to meet one day next week.
The last email of the chain someone suggests, "Are you guys available next
Wednesday at 10:00 AM?". In a world of inbox-zero without boomerang, this
message may go unanswered if everyone on the chain forgets to reply (very
common in my world). For a boomerang user, I set the email to come back to my
inbox "if no response" in 2 days. This way, if there's no response, I can send
a follow up, "So are we meeting next Wednesday or not?" I still can't figure
out why this hasn't been built in to more email services by now.

Anyways, coming back to Inbox. It's beautiful, cool, great on mobile, but I
will not be able to use it as my main email client unless they allow 3rd party
apps like boomerang. Or, for the love of technology, build their own
functionality that brings no-response emails back to the inbox! Am I the only
one?!

------
danieldk
I love Google Now, so I will probably like this as well. However, one thing I
start worrying about more as I come to rely more on such tools is: what is the
chance to miss something important? What is relevant is picked based on
heuristics and statistical models, and it might miss things that I consider to
be very important.

Obviously, human errors occur in a more traditional approach where you use an
e-mail client, calendar, and todo application. However, it would be
interesting to see how accurate such machine-learned approaches are, compared
to manual methods for information management.

~~~
habosa
I've been using Inbox and you won't miss anything. The auto-surfacing is
really not as aggressive as you might imagine. If you just use Inbox without
changing any settings you basically just get a cool GMail UI with the addition
of 'Done' or 'Remind me Later' on each message.

------
thallukrish
I have used Google Inbox, but if I read the comments here, the overarching
thing seem to be to make a zero inbox. Why cannot you do this with your
existing email client? What are the features of Google Inbox that helps you do
this? And why do you need to make your inbox zero? Is it like you want the
email client to show up the high priority ones that you need to attend to at
the top? How does a Google Inbox automatically know what is high priority for
you ? Sorry if my understanding is not aligned to what is offered by Google
Inbox.

~~~
thallukrish
Sorry, Typo - read as 'I have not used Google Inbox'

------
akulbe
I would love to love this... but it's only for @gmail.com accounts, so far.
What a disappointment.

It would seem like Google would get more REAL traction with this if they made
it available to Apps for Work customers. Every single one of my business
domains uses Google for email.

Business folks use productivity solutions more than individuals, I'd think. I
don't understand why they don't target us first??

The only people I give my personal @gmail.com address to any more, are ones I
don't want to be bothered by, in my main mailbox.

------
mohamedbassem
Sending an email to inbox@google.com fails with the error : "the user you are
trying to contact is receiving mail at a rate that prevents additional
messages from being delivered."

------
ProAm
MIT can't be thrilled with the name being taken (albeit it Inbox is so generic
I dont see this brand becoming worth much)[1][2]

[1][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7999814](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7999814)

[2][http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/07/mit-and-dropbox-alums-
launc...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/07/mit-and-dropbox-alums-launch-inbox-
a-next-generation-email-platform/?utm_campaign=fb&ncid=fb)

------
legohead
years in the making of solving a problem that doesn't exist. another google
"wave".

------
covi
When composing in Inbox, how do we get the nice "Plain text mode" option
available in Gmail? The most useful thing it brings is to automatically line-
wrap the emails.

------
mudil
What I would like to see is Gmail becoming more like Zendesk/Desk.com. So I
can effectively manage responses, contacts, etc, with a single click and pre-
defined responses.

------
andrewguenther
I can't stand how little I can see at a glance in my inbox now. With the Gmail
app on my Nexus 5, I could see 7 emails in the default inbox view. With Inbox
I can see 3. Two of which do not include a subject line because they have been
grouped "Social" or "Purchases" and will take an additional tap to view. I'm
going to give it some time, but for now I find most of the content to be a
horrible waste of space.

------
joshfinnie
I am sad that this seems to be Gmail only. Why have developers lost touch with
standard IMAP protocols so we can use these new fancy apps with any email
provider...

~~~
maggit
An unfortunate reality is that IMAP is a really bad protocol. I encourage you
to try implementing a client to get a feel for how difficult and quirky the
protocol is. (Be sure to try implementing IDLE)

I'd love to see a better base protocol with a clean extension mechanism and a
culture of documenting and publishing such extenstions. One can dream :)

~~~
exelius
EWS (Exchange Web Services) is actually a very good and well-documented
protocol built on top of HTTP/HTTPS. Unfortunately, it's Microsoft only, but
it's the closest anyone's really come to a "modern" e-mail protocol.

------
aashishpatil
I am the developer of Eπvelope email app for iOS. Its got a clustering feature
that seems similar to Gmails' Bundles - auto grouping of similar emails
(Receipts, Offers, ). Entire clusters can be moved,deleted,archived. And it
works with Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Outlook.

[http://bitly.com/envelope-clustering](http://bitly.com/envelope-clustering)

[http://PiEnvelope.com](http://PiEnvelope.com)

------
Dwolb
It's good that they got the 'bundles' in there, but much of this looks like
it's a Google Now integration into Gmail. There's a ton of anxiety around
information gathering, organizing, monitoring, and 'checking the box' that
this solution glances by, but doesn't directly address. I don't believe this
solution will compete with most people's other email inbox.

------
erenemre
I'm definitely not the target audience for this and I really hope that Google
isn't going to force me to upgrade to Inbox. Looking at you G+.

~~~
danieldk
If you are on Google Apps, you can (as an administrator) disable Google+
completely. In that way, you won't get any Google+ stuff in Gmail.

~~~
danieldk
Really, downvoting? Care to explain?

[https://support.google.com/a/answer/1689647?hl=en](https://support.google.com/a/answer/1689647?hl=en)

[https://support.google.com/a/answer/1638152?hl=en](https://support.google.com/a/answer/1638152?hl=en)

------
suprgeek
An interesting comparison might be to the Zoho Inbox Insights [1] app that is
slated to land fairly soon. If reports are to be believed this app has similar
functionality.

[1] [http://www.pcworld.com/article/2837812/zoho-nips-at-
google-i...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/2837812/zoho-nips-at-google-
inboxs-heels-with-its-own-email-filtering-app-inbox-insights.html)

------
amluto
Google says "it’s a completely different type of inbox, designed to focus on
what really matters."

I thought that things like having a text editor that allows me to reliably do
complex things like typing and pasting without losing my place, or perhaps a
compose window that can be resized, really mattered. Since Gmail doesn't have
either of those, maybe Inbox will add them :)

~~~
dragonwriter
You seem to be more concerned with features of the _outbox_ than features of
the _inbox_.

~~~
amluto
Touche.

Maybe Google Outbox will end up being amazing.

------
covi
Eventual consistency / Lost Updates at play? I have tried sweeping the "Low
Priority" emails; whenever I clicked the tick that group entry was gone. So
far so good. However, whenever a new email popped up and was classified in
that group, the whole group appeared again.

Or am I just misunderstanding the feature and do I just have to mark
individual email as done one by one?

------
gcb0
from the site is is just gmail with the ability to accept/snooze calendar
events.

also the spam inbox (what they are trying to label as offers or something on
gmail) is not part of the priority inbox.

besides that, and all the smiling happy people in the Ad, all i could grasp is
that they added lots and lots of white space around each message to compensate
for the humongous size of that phone screen.

------
diltonm
It looks pretty, it looks like it might end the hide and seek with attachments
on a smart phone client; not a problem on a desktop but I can never find the
attachments in Gmail on the phone. I'm not sure I like that idea that it
decides what's important and highlights it; probably because it would get it
right most of the time. I could get used to it.

------
flavor8
Perhaps cool. I honestly wish they'd change their approach to quality & bug
reporting, though. I get the impression that all of their developers are so
busy making new & shiny that the tools that we rely on everyday are just
languishing. I've never had any bug that I've reported via their product
forums fixed.

------
alaxsxaq
It will be interesting to see how companies like Boxer 'pivot' in response to
this. I started using Boxer a little while ago specifically to deal with the
email-becomes-todo-item issue which Gmail generally lacked. Not sure I'd have
any reason to continue to use it if I could score an invite to Inbox (hint
hint).

------
ssijak
I really, really like the idea that they are pushing you to always have clean
inbox. I always struggled with that, making my own systems. Also grouping of
similar emails sounds promising. But I hate this invite thing, so if someone
have a spare invite, I would be really thankful if you can send one to
ssijak@gmail.com

------
ed_blackburn
Sadly I have my google account hooked up with custom domains so it won't work.
I'm looking forward to trying this when it is available.

I can understand why google don't want to push this on large organisations in
case it results in expensive support, but as a paying google customer It'd be
nice to have the choice.

------
jerkywez
I went to a google IO event when wave was the next best thing to email
clients. Like many things, it died off because of adoption rates and bloated
UI trying to achieve world domination. On the flip side i loved the talk like
a pirate channel bot ;p Lets hope Inbox does not go down the same path..

------
hadoukenio
5 star reviews in the Google Play Store from people who haven't even got an
invite? The system is broken.

~~~
ssijak
1 stars also

------
maram
I really have no idea how this thing is going to help me organize my life.
Google failed to explicitly highlights the difference between INBOX and other
things like Reminder, Notes, google calendar, gmail. And on top of that using
a name that is making it more confusing.

------
Angostura
Is it just me, or do all these attempts to mould e-mail to avoid cognitive
overload just create cognitive overload.

"E-mail - a list of messages from people, by default displayed in the order
they arrived." Isn't that simplicity refreshing?

~~~
scep12
If e-mail were indeed only messages from _people_ we'd have no need for these
products. But it's not realistic to expect that anything we pay close
attention to won't be thwarted by some form of spam or advertising in this day
and age.

------
rocky1138
Mods can you change the URL of this post to
[http://www.google.com/inbox/](http://www.google.com/inbox/) ? It's way more
informative and actually details what the app does.

------
jinushaun
Man, no wonder Google has a diversity problem. This video was a montage of
young millennial hipsters partying. Somewhere in there email was involved.

On topic... Looks a lot like Mailbox. I'd be worried if I was Mailbox.

------
andygambles
So my question is this an App only or will it be part of the Gmail interface?

~~~
richbradshaw
It's accessible via inbox.google.com, so works on Chrome as well as iOS and
Android.

------
aagha
What's the "sync" between Gmail and Inbox like? If you Snooze an email in
Inbox, what happens to it in Gmail? If you put it in a bundle, what's that do
to it in your inbox?

~~~
aiiane
[https://support.google.com/inbox/answer/6098273?hl=en&ref_to...](https://support.google.com/inbox/answer/6098273?hl=en&ref_topic=6067565)

------
NicoJuicy
I'm wondering if the inbox is integrated with Google Keep for tasks and if
there will become API's available?

It's to bad Google Keep only has an internal API (that isn't available to us)

------
nagarjun
I can't wait to try this out. I'm drawing a few parallels to Acompli (when it
comes to how Inbox handles attachments) and I love Acompli. Hope they add
Google Apps support soon.

------
n72
Sounds to me very much like the Active Inbox plugin, which I've been using for
a couple of years and proselytize mercilessly. It's based on the GTD way of
doing things.

------
whoisthemachine
These bundles, categories, etc. that are being introduced really just seem
like re-hashed labels. Why did they need to introduce these other methods of
grouping e-mails together?

------
arenaninja
I haven't tested it, but watching the video with no sound it looks like making
email more like a social network. Either way, how about going back to the way
email used to be? I dislike composing e-mails inline, I dislike having to dig
through a menu to pop out a modal, or having to memorize everyone's icons
because apparently text isn't cool anymore.. how about giving me a page
dedicated to composing, instead of adding another layer to the current page
and hiding the options from plain sight? From what I've seen on this so far,
it appears that this moves in the opposite direction of that

------
frogpelt
The UI looks a lot like Twitter.

That doesn't attract me for some reason.

------
algorithm_dk
This looks awesome! Now I won't be able to decide between this, myMail and
Mailbox :'( Can anyone shoot an invite to andrew(at)algorithm.dk? Thank you!

------
scottmcdot
Does anyone know how to merge my old 'starred' emails from Gmail and make them
all 'pinned' emails in Inbox?

------
KhalilK
Meta note: That is one of the smoothest and pleasant scrolling experiences
I've had on the web! Kudos to the web devs!

~~~
M4v3R
It's funny, because for me the scrolling on their page
([https://www.google.com/inbox/](https://www.google.com/inbox/)) doesn't work
at all, on Safari 8.0/OSX.

~~~
om2
It works for me, and doesn't obviously glitch in the sense of dropping frames,
but it feels wrong. The animations all start really slow, and the curves are
way off the curves of OS-native features that do a page-at-a-time swipe. Also,
if you continuous scroll with the trackpad and backtrack your fingers even a
little, it jumps back a section. Still, I am not sure it is easy to fix these
issues given what the web platform offers today, and kudos for not blatantly
dropping frames.

------
Illniyar
Judging from this:
[http://www.google.com/inbox/](http://www.google.com/inbox/) , we have:

* Folder and Rules (with the only distinction of having some pre-populated ones, I think)

* Some smart content extraction from known emails (reservations, invoices, etc...) - probably going to be a privacy nightmare

* Todo and reminders ( what's new about this? outlook/gmail calendar/thunderbird-lightning all do this)

* Snooze for reminders - yeah...

------
Demiurge
I really hope this means that if I disable this "Inbox" in Gmail clients I can
get back my ASCII email...

------
Siecje
> You can even teach Inbox to adapt to the way you work by choosing which
> emails you’d like to see grouped together.

Finally!

------
wy
The latest product from Sparrow? I've been already into the refreshing UIs of
Inbox.

Can't wait for the invitation.

------
shafiahmedbd
If you happen to have invites, could you send me one too? Thank you. My
e-mail: shafiahmedbd@gmail.com

------
ParadoxOryx
They didn't show the web interface, I wonder if it will just be baked into the
Gmail mobile apps?

~~~
DannyBee
No, it's web as well.

------
coffeemug
Could someone please invite me -- coffeemug@gmail.com. I'd _love_ to play with
the product

------
SergeyDruid
No support for Gingerbread on play store (I have an Ace Plus but I'm about to
buy a Moto G) :(

------
dschiptsov
A "new way" to push a "sponsored content" to me, like FB's feed does?)

------
gosukiwi
And here I am with a Windows Phone.

------
valanto
Anyone got an invite to spare? Would be great to get one! (my email is
valanto@gmail.com)

------
truebosko
If anyone is offering invites, I'd love this. bart.ciszk@gmail.com -- Thanks!

------
simcop2387
Don't hurt me too much, if anyone has an invite: simcop2387@gmail.com

------
bxio
I'd love to get an invite, if anyone has an extra lying around.

------
N0RMAN
You can request an invite by sending a E-Mail to inbox@google.com

------
sgy
pretty much inspired by PG?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ITLdmfdLI#t=450](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ITLdmfdLI#t=450)

------
supergirl
video made me cringe

~~~
sparkie
I watched it without sound. Definitely enough to put me off forever.

------
rusbus
I opened Inbox and it crashed within 10 seconds. :-(

------
insanemac
Not getting a invitation yet, pity

------
vs4vijay
Can not find the Invite option..

~~~
clarkm
I don't have Inbox yet, but I don't think everyone gets invites immediately.
Anyways, here's some info:

> _Once you have an invite, you can hover over the red create button and you
> will see a gold ticket - Invite to Inbox. Select that to enter your friend
> 's email address and send the invitation._ > _Quick note: if you received an
> invite from a friend today, your 3 invites to share won 't be available
> until this Friday._

[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gmail/nCtyOEbZH...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gmail/nCtyOEbZHh8/vxMeQSj75XUJ)

------
thomasfl
E-mail is constantly changing.

------
afandian
There were bad Google outages earlier today (at least in the UK). I wonder if
these were connected?

------
cottonseed
> designed to focus on what really matters

So it has open and auditable secure end to end encryption?

~~~
mankyd
Not exactly what you want, but there is at least this:
[https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/](https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/)

~~~
magicalist
also [https://code.google.com/p/end-to-end/](https://code.google.com/p/end-to-
end/)

------
wslh
Does it read RSS feeds?

------
aroch
Is Inbox going to be broken on GApps accounts like Now is?

~~~
dmayle
Disclaimer: Googler

In what way do you think Now is broken with GApps accounts? I use Now with
GApps, and don't know what you're referring to.

~~~
dagar
"Gmail cards are currently not available when using Google Now with a Google
Apps account."

[https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2839480?hl=en](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2839480?hl=en)

~~~
abraham
Not supported is not broken.

------
jaysonelliot
Slightly off-topic, but can we talk about that video? I would love it if
Google could just sell me on the idea of their products for once, instead of
trying to sell me on a twentysomething Brooklyn lifestyle.

When I get hit in the face with these cheap emotional ploys that feel like an
early 2000s Microsoft Zune ad, I get distracted from the actual product being
touted. My resistance goes up.

Does this approach work for anyone? If you really are a Williamsburg hipster,
I'd expect this kind of pandering would feel off-putting. If you're not, it's
alienating.

There's certainly a place for emotion in ads. But how about a bit more
_product_ , and respect for our intelligence?

~~~
gk1
The video actually caused me to laugh from how cliche it is: A racially
diverse group of 20-somethings doing "active" things like skateboarding and
running on the beach.

~~~
ryandrake
Is that what 20-somethings do (or aspire to do) these days? Skateboarding and
hanging out on the beach? Most of my peers and I spent our twenties busting
our ass studying and then busting ass establishing a career. I must be getting
old--watching that video I couldn't help but think, "It's daylight. Shouldn't
you guys be in the office?"

~~~
unlogic
Ads are aspirational, not representational according to mostly everything
wrote by thelastpsychiatrist. While they are bust-assing their studies they
still aspire to look cool, friendly and careless. Hence the add.

------
notastartup
Google really knows how to toy with my emotions with these videos.

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rashthedude
Google please stop trying to be everything to everyone.

------
volandovengo
I'd love to see the data behind why this justified a team of 100+ people
making more than 100,000 per year to re-invent email.

Does the typical email user have an inbox which is half empty? Do users just
read email that seems exciting? Do users want to just glance at their email
periodically?

------
skyjacker
Seriously folks, who cares. It's a minor change to gmail's workflow.

No really, think about it. It's just email.

------
alimoeeny
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

    
    
         inbox@inbox.gmrservice.ext.google.com

... The error that the other server returned was: 550-5.2.1 The user you are
trying to contact is receiving mail at a rate that 550-5.2.1 prevents
additional messages from being delivered. For more 550-5.2.1 information,
please visit 550 5.2.1
[http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?answer=6592](http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?answer=6592)
fl6si3394876qcb.0 - gsmtp

Anyone knows what that "rate limit" is?

------
motters
Today, we’re introducing something new. It’s called Exfil. Years in the
making, Exfil is by the same people who brought you Gmail, but it’s not Gmail:
it’s a completely different type of inbox, designed to focus on what really
matters.

Email started simply as a way to send digital notes around the office. But
fast-forward 30 years and with just the phone in your pocket, you can use
email to send your most intimate thoughts, feelings and sexual fantasies to an
undisclosed warehouse in Utah where our expert systems will analyse it for
signs of emerging criminality, non-normative behaviour or just any juicy
information that we can sell to some dude who's willing to pay.

With this evolution comes new challenges: we get more email now than ever,
important information is buried inside messages, and our most important tasks
can slip through the cracks—especially when you use encryption. For many of
us, dealing with encryption has become a daily chore that distracts from what
we really need to do - so we decided not to use it and to make sure that your
email is always stored in plain text so that we can read it easily and hand
out copies in bulk to all our friends, associates and subcontractors.

