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Posted by Pras Sarkar, Software Engineer

Life can get really busy. Inboxes too. Just think about everything inside your own inbox, from personal messages and trip itineraries to promotional offers and yes, even bills. It’s all (mostly) important, but it can be overwhelming to stay on top of everything. And sometimes, you might miss something really important amidst all the rest.

Starting today, you’ll discover three new experiences in Inbox—streamlined events, glanceable newsletters and saved links—that help you better keep track of things that matter to you and feel more in control.

Keep up with Google Calendar events
Events can be hard to keep track of in your inbox because details—and people’s plans—may change. Inbox now gathers emails from a single event together and shows you what’s changed at a glance. When you tap on an event, you’ll see a comprehensive overview, all in one place.

Stay on top of your favorite email newsletters
Similarly, it’s now easier to preview the newsletters you read often and click through to the articles that interest you most. And once you’ve taken a look at the latest, newsletters will minimize to save space in the inbox.

Store links to remember with “Save to Inbox”
Lastly, your inbox is much more than just the emails sent to you. Chances are you’ve emailed yourself a link or two (or three)—to an article you want to read later or a recipe you want to try. Now instead of sending yourself a bunch of separate emails, try the new “Save to Inbox” feature to easily save links for later.

Simply share the link to Inbox on Android or iOS, or use the new Inbox by Gmail Chrome extension on web. When you check your email, you’ll see your saved links grouped together in one place.

With these updates, Inbox helps you organize and access the information that matters most, saving time and reducing email overload. Take these new features for a spin by sharing to Inbox on mobile, installing the Chrome extension, subscribing to an email newsletter or scheduling an event.

Posted by Erick Johnson, Software Engineer

Starting this week, we’re bringing Reminders in Google Calendar to the web so you can keep track of your to-dos alongside your events.

Just like on Android and iPhone, you’ll get the following:

• Reminders stick around – If a reminder isn’t completed, it will appear at the top of your calendar until you mark it done.
• Reminders work across Google – Reminders you create in Inbox, Keep, and the Google app will also show in Google Calendar. 
• Reminders sync with mobile – Reminders created in mobile show up on the web and vice versa. So you can stay on track from just about anywhere. 
  

With Reminders alongside your events on the web, Android and iPhone, you now have a single way to manage your day.

Posted by Victor-bogdan Anchidin, Software EngineerEmail’s great, but sometimes you just wanna hit the eject button. Like those heated threads at work, when everyone’s wrong except you (obviously). Or those times when someone’s seeking group approval, …

Posted by Taylor Kourim, Software Engineer

Today, we’re bringing Smart Reply to Inbox on the web.

Just like in the Inbox mobile app, Smart Reply saves you precious time by suggesting up to three responses based on the emails you get. Selecting an option starts a reply, ready for you to either edit or send:

10% of all your replies on mobile already use Smart Reply, so we’re excited to bring this same convenience to the web. It’s particularly helpful when you’re jamming through lots of emails on your laptop.

Keep the feedback coming using the “Help & Feedback” link in the app.

Posted by Michael Landry, Software Engineer

Snoozing emails is great because it helps you focus on what you need to do now instead of what you can put off until later. Starting today, Snooze is getting a new look and two time-saving improvements — all based on your feedback.

First, Snooze is getting two highly-requested snooze times: Later this week and This weekend. These new options should hopefully save you some time, and decrease the need to use custom snooze.

Snooze’s new look
Second, just like you can set your preferred morning time to receive emails, you can now choose the weekend days that work best for you.

New weekend setting
This feature is especially useful for people living in places where the weekend spans different days of the week.

Look for these new options in Inbox over the next week. And don’t forget to continue sharing your feedback, so we can keep working on your top requests. Enjoy your snoozing

Posted by Matthew Izatt, Product Manager

These days, more than two-thirds of all Gmail users check email with their phones, so having a really amazing mobile experience is more important than ever. That’s why today, we’re introducing two new Android features to help you manage your inbox on the go: rich text formatting and instant RSVPs.

Rich Text Formatting
Now you can add bold, italic, underlined, colored and highlighted text to your email—all from inside the mobile app. These new options are great for making a point or emphasizing what’s important.

Instant RSVPs
If you use Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange, calendar invitations now include a one-tap option to show your schedule and respond. No more opening up separate apps just to see if you can squeeze in a meeting.

Posted by Michael Käser, Software Engineer

For the last year, you’ve been able to access your email from other providers, like Yahoo! Mail or Outlook.com, in the Gmail app on Android. And we’ve been getting lots of great feedback from those of you that do. Many of you would like more of Gmail’s powerful features, like spam protection and inbox organization, on these accounts—but don’t want to go through the hassle of changing your email address.

We agree. So starting today, if you use Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail/Outlook.com, you now have the option to Gmailify your inbox.

Gmailify links your existing account to Gmail so that you get all the bells and whistles—spam protection, inbox organization and even Google Now cards based on your mail—without having to leave your current address behind.

All you need to do is open the Gmail app, sign in to your email account(s), and enable Gmailify. And of course, you’re always in control—so if you ever change your mind, you can unlink your account(s) at any time, and continue to access them through the Gmail app without using Gmailify.
We’re really excited to bring the best of Gmail to more people, and we’re planning to add other email providers to Gmailify in the future.

Posted by John Rae-Grant, Product Manager

It’s Safer Internet Day, and when it comes to the security of your email, we don’t mess around. Gmail has always supported encryption in transit using TLS, and will automatically encrypt your incoming and outgoing emails if it can. We support industry-standard authentication to help combat email impersonation. And there are tons of other security measures running behind the scenes to keep your email safe.

Of course, it takes at least two people to send and receive an email, so it’s really important that other services take similar measures to protect your messages—not just Gmail. Unfortunately, not all email services do. And that’s why, starting this week in Gmail on the web, you’ll see two changes that highlight any affected messages:

1. If you receive a message from, or are about to send a message to, someone whose email service doesn’t support TLS encryption, you’ll see a broken lock icon in the message.
   

2. If you receive a message that can’t be authenticated, you’ll see a question mark in place of the sender’s profile photo, corporate logo, or avatar.
   

Not all affected email will necessarily be dangerous. But we encourage you to be extra careful about replying to, or clicking on links in messages that you’re not sure about. And with these updates, you’ll have the tools to make these kinds of decisions.

Posted by Govind Kaushal, Product Manager

Emails can contain all sorts of important information–from your friend’s new address, to a flight confirmation number or a link to pay a bill. The challenge is, these bits of info are often buried inside larger conversations. Starting today, Inbox includes a number of improvements to help you find answers even faster.

Answers at a glance
Now when you’re searching for a frequent flyer number or shipping status (for example), Inbox will show it at the top of search results–no more digging through individual emails to find what you’re looking for.

Get addresses, phone numbers, membership numbers, flights, events, bills, package tracking and more in seconds.

Streamlined search results
Underneath any quick answers, you’ll see a “Top results” section that orders emails by relevance. Below that is all the email results, ordered by date, but chances are you won’t have to look here often.

Every second counts, so start saving time with Inbox, and spend it on what matters most.

Posted by Victor Anchidin, Software Engineer

The holidays are full of traveling, get-togethers and sharing memories. Now Inbox is making all of these things a bit easier, with an update to Trip Bundles and mobile attachments.

You’ve told us how much you love that Trip Bundles summarize all of the important info about your trip. So, starting this week, you’ll be able to share those summaries with friends and family with one tap.

You can also add emails to a trip (a top feature request!) using the Move to… menu, and view trips offline—perfect for when you’re on a plane or using spotty WiFi.

While you’re traveling, you might end up taking a lot of photos. Improved mobile attachments give you quick access to your recent photos, and let you attach multiple photos at once.

These new features will be rolling out over the next week. Happy holidays!

Posted by Vijay Umapathy, Product Manager

Our calendars should help us make the most of our time — scheduling meetings at work, remembering brunch with friends, and keeping track of all our other commitments. But often our to-do list is elsewhere, separate from the Calendar that organizes our day, and we end up overcommitted or miss something important because we forgot to check our list.

Now there’s a single way to manage your day: starting this week, you can create Reminders in Google Calendar to keep track of your to-dos alongside your scheduled events.

Reminders stick around
You might already create calendar entries to remind you to call the doctor or pick up groceries on the way home. But while those entries come and go, Reminders stick with you over time so you can track them until they are actually done. If a Reminder isn’t completed, it will appear at the top of your Calendar the next day. And the next. When you do finally call the doctor or pick up those necessities, just swipe the Reminder away … and you’re onto the next to-do.

Reminders help with the details
Another way Reminders are more useful than events is that Calendar adds things like phone numbers and addresses automatically. So if you add a Reminder to make a call or run an errand, the number or address will be right there when you need it. Just like Inbox by Gmail, Calendar uses information from your contacts, as well as Google’s knowledge graph to provide this extra bit of help.

Reminders work across Google
You can also create Reminders from Inbox, Keep, and Google Now. This means you can create a Reminder when you’re checking your email and it will show up on your calendar right away. Plans change? Just move the Reminder to a better time. Or if your hands are full, you can record your Reminders in Google Now一like, “Ok Google, remind me to buy birthday candles”一then mark it as done later in Calendar.

Reminders will be rolling out this week with the latest versions of Calendar on Google Play and the App Store. And don’t worry, we’re working on bringing Reminders to the web as well.

Posted by Bálint Miklós, Software Engineer

With the holidays approaching and emails coming in at a furious pace, we can all use a little help. Inbox is already on hand assisting you with the next step, organizing your trips, and even suggesting reminders.

But when you’re checking email on the go, it can be cumbersome and time-consuming to reply to all or even some of them. What if there was a way for your inbox to guess which emails can be answered with a short reply, prepare a few responses on your behalf and present them to you, one tap away?

Well, starting later this week, Inbox will do just that with Smart Reply.

Smart Reply suggests up to three responses based on the emails you get. For those emails that only need a quick response, it can take care of the thinking and save precious time spent typing. And for those emails that require a bit more thought, it gives you a jump start so you can respond right away.

There’s actually a lot going on behind the scenes to make Smart Reply work. Inbox uses machine learning to recognize emails that need responses and to generate the natural language responses on the fly. If you’re interested in how Smart Reply works, including how researchers got machine learning to work on a data set that they never saw, you can read more about it on the Google Research Blog.

And much like how Inbox gets better when you report spam, the responses you choose (or don’t choose!) help improve future suggestions. For example, when Smart Reply was tested at Google, a common suggestion in the workplace was “I love you.” Thanks to Googler feedback, Smart Reply is now SFW

Smart Reply will be rolling out later this week on both Google Play and the App Store in English. If you’ve got a lot of emails on your plate, now’s a great time to try Inbox and get through them faster than ever.

Posted by Stella Schieffer, Product Manager

Your calendar is more than just a list of dates and times — it’s your life! That’s why Calendar adds illustrations to many of your favorite events automatically.

Today we’re improving these illustrations in two ways. First, you’ll find over a dozen more of them for events like weddings and Halloween parties. Second, illustrations will now appear in 30 languages–from Dutch and Finnish to Catalan and Korean–giving our global community of users a new way to celebrate their day.

You be the artist

Posted by Sri Harsha Somanchi, Product Manager

Sometimes you get mail from someone who’s really disruptive. Hopefully it doesn’t happen often—but when it does, you should be able to say, “Never see messages from this person again.” That’s why you can now block specific email addresses in Gmail—starting today on the web, and over the next week on Android. Future mail will go to the spam folder (and you can always unblock in Settings).

In addition, the unsubscribe option is now making its way to Android, so you’ll be able to opt out of eligible mailing lists directly from the Gmail app. It’s perfect for those newsletters you subscribed to a while back but don’t read any more.

So try block or unsubscribe when the situation calls for it. And stay in control of your inbox.

Posted by Vijay Umapathy, Product Manager

Wouldn’t it be nice if your concert ticket appeared at the top of your inbox just before the event started, or your hotel confirmation came back right before you needed to check in?

Starting today, Snooze in Inbox is getting a bit more convenient—when you snooze an email that has dates and times (like event confirmations or shipping notifications), you’ll get a one-tap option to snooze to exactly the right time, like the day of your concert or the morning your package will arrive.

You’ll see these new Snooze options on most of these types of emails:

• Package tracking updates
• Restaurant and event reservations
• Calendar invites
• Flight confirmations
• Hotel reservations
• Rental car reservations

So next time, try snoozing that email to the day before the event. Then sit back and relax, knowing your email will come back at just the right time.