Gmail will soon help you make sense of your messy inbox, Inbox-style
It's like getting a lowdown from an assistant who reads your emails for you.
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google has announced a new AI Inbox feature that will organize important emails from your Gmail inbox into handy to-do lists.
- AI Inbox will prioritize emails from VIPs, such as those you email frequently or people in your Contacts.
- In addition to heads-up for important events, the feature will also offer summaries based on different conversations about a related topic.
For more than a decade, Gmail has automatically sorted your emails in different categories, using labels such as Primary, Social, Promotions, etc. The method has been effective, but given the bloated influx of emails, both spammy and useful, Google has determined it needs to step up. This is why it is piloting a new mechanism that not only sorts and prioritizes your important emails but also provides a summary of what’s important, so you stay on top. And as you’d expect, it is powered by Gemini.
Google is calling this new Gmail experience “AI Inbox,” perhaps because it is built on the same productivity-focused ethos as the now-entombed Google Inbox. It says AI Inbox is identical to being briefed by a personal assistant for your most important commitments and getting them to organize emails in a sort of to-do list.
AI Inbox filters important emails or information through the noise by focusing on emails from your “VIPs,” Google says. These can be people you interact with frequently or who are in your contacts. The feature can also attempt to infer importance from the email’s content. Besides important people, AI Inbox will also emphasize important stuff, such as any bills that are due soon, approaching doctor’s appointments, any incoming deliveries, or any changes to events. It will also remind you of emails you snoozed or missed responding to, just as it currently nudges with labels.
AI Inbox will segment emails into two sections: To-dos and Topics, and the latter will organize information from different emails into sections based on their relevance. In a way, this is identical to Google’s AI Mode, but strictly based on what’s in your inbox.
Google insists that all processing occurs securely and is confined to Gmail. That means, while AI Inbox will pull up information based on the Calendar invite you receive via email, it will not access entries in your Calendar app directly. The same also applies to other Google apps.
Additionally, Google tells us that it identifies whether you’ve already looked at the tasks suggested by AI Inbox based on signals such as reading, archiving, or deleting the email. It will also bring a “Mark as done” option to the feature in the near future.
Gmail’s AI Inbox is currently available only to a handful of carefully selected “trusted testers,” with broader availability coming later in the year. Google doesn’t comment on availability in mobile apps.
Furthermore, Google is refining search in Gmail by letting you look for specific messages using natural language rather than searching for keywords. This is already coming to users with Google’s AI Pro and Ultra plans. Lastly, it is also expanding existing AI features in Gmail, such as Help Me Write, Smart Replies, and AI Overviews, to all Gmail customers at no cost.
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