Screenshots Suggest Google is Redesigning Gmail, And it Looks a Bit Like Android
The Gmail you know and use every day may soon look very different, if recent reports of a design overhaul are to be believed.
According to Geek.com, Google has invited a select audience of users to test a wildly new, and oddly Android-like redesign for its popular mail client. Geek.com must be part of this beta group, as they’ve taken a few handy screenshots to give the rest of us a closer look.
The new Gmail look, which may never release if user feedback is unsatisfactory, features a fluid and clean design that departs designs as old as the service itself. For instance, the sidebar that lets you select folders, lists, and actions has been replaced with an Android-esque navigation drawer that slides into view. The “compose” button for beginning an email draft is now secluded to the right corner with other action buttons.
More notably though, Google Reminders seems to be a forthcoming feature in Gmail, which, like in newer builds of Android, reminds you at a future date to perform a certain action. In the case of Gmail, these reminders would notify you to respond to a certain email or thread so it doesn’t fall to the wayside.
Google’s messaging platform, Hangouts, has also found incorporation into the design, though it’s been part of Gmail for several months.
Other miscellaneous features include the ability to “snooze” an email so that it reappears later, a replacement of email starring with email pinning (and have pinned emails stay atop your inbox), and the addition of tabs for Travel, Purchases and Finance for organizing your mailbox.
As mentioned, this classy layout may never see the light of day. But given how cool we think it looks, we’re rooting for its release so we can put it through its paces ourselves.
