Gmail Blog

Take action right from the inbox

2013-05-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

Posted by Shalini Agarwal, Product Manager

Email is an important part of how we get things done -- from planning an event with friends to organizing that family vacation to Costa Rica. And today, getting those things done is getting a little easier with new quick action buttons in Gmail, designed to help you tackle your digital to-do’s as quickly as possible.
These buttons appear next to certain types of messages in your inbox and let you take action on an email without ever having to open it. For example, you can RSVP to your friend's party invitation or rate that restaurant you went to last night all right from the inbox. You’ll be checking things off that to-do list in no time.

Flight confirmation emails are also becoming a bit more useful. Whether you’re frequently up in the air or just the occasional traveler, when you open a flight confirmation email in Gmail, all the important information about your flight will be displayed right at the top. You’ll be able to see whether your flight is on time, when your connection is and more -- no scrolling required.
These quick actions will roll out over the next few weeks, and we hope to add even more useful actions moving forward. If you are a developer and want to add actions to your emails, check out developers.google.com/gmail/schemas to learn more.

Send money to friends with Gmail and Google Wallet

2013-05-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Posted by Travis Green, Product Manager, Google Wallet

Paying back your friends is now as simple as sending an email, whether you’re chipping in for lunch or reimbursing your roommate for your share of the rent.

Google Wallet is now integrated with Gmail, so you can quickly and securely send money to friends and family directly within Gmail -- even if they don’t have a Gmail address. It's free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet Balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card.

To send money in Gmail, hover over the attachment paperclip, click the $ icon to attach money to your message, enter the amount you wish to send, and press send.
While sending money in Gmail is currently only available on desktop, you can send money from Google Wallet at wallet.google.com from your phone or laptop. You will need to have set up Google Wallet to send and receive money, and Google Wallet Purchase Protection covers you 100% against eligible unauthorized payments.

We’re rolling out this feature over the coming months to all U.S. Gmail users over 18 years old, so keep an eye out for the $ icon in the attachment options. You can also get earlier access if your friends have the feature and send money to you.

To learn more, visit our website.

Try out the new Hangouts experience in Gmail

2013-05-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

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

2013-05-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

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

2013-05-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

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

2013-04-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2013-04-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

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

2013-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

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

2013-03-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

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

2013-03-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

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

2013-03-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

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

2013-03-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

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.

Free calling within the US and Canada through 2013

2012-12-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

Posted by Mayur Kamat, Product Manager

Many of you call phones from Gmail to easily connect with friends and family. If you're in the US and Canada, you'll continue to be able to make free domestic calls through 2013. Plus, in most countries, you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at insanely low rates.

Drop in and get a call from Santa

2012-12-18T22:21:00.000-08:00

Posted by Patrick Glover, North Pole Operator

With the big day right around the corner, activity in the North Pole is hitting a fever pitch. Yet, Santa will always make time to send a personalized holiday phone calls from Santa to your friends and family via his personal Google Voice line (aka Send a Call from Santa).

To send a message, find the Call Center in Santa’s Village. You will be prompted to answer a few fun questions, then Google Voice will do the rest! The system will create a tailored phone call from Santa himself, and send it to whomever you wish.
To get an idea of what to expect, listen to a sample message.

And don’t forget: If you want to keep up with Santa as he travels around the globe delivering presents on Christmas Eve, you can track his journey on Google Maps’s Santa Tracker.

Happy holidays from all of us at Google!

Get the whole family together over the holidays, from anywhere

2012-12-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

Posted by Kevin Maguire, Product Marketing Manager

‘Tis the season for tree trimming, gift giving, recipe sharing and catching up with loved ones over a cup of eggnog. For families that are spread out over cities or even countries, it can be a challenge to get everyone together during the holidays. This year, we’ve teamed up with the creators of Wallace and Gromit to add a little extra holiday magic to Google+ Hangouts with a custom invitation builder and a Holiday Effects app.

Click this link to schedule your holiday family hangout and we’ll send all your invitations out with a custom Wallace and Gromit video. Since hangouts let up to 10 people video chat at once, right from Google+ or Gmail, you can invite the whole family to join---and maybe a few friends too!

Don’t forget to put on a Santa hat, reindeer antlers or even wear Gromit’s ears by adding the Holiday Effects app to your family hangout.

Happy holidays from the Google+ and Gmail teams!

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0

2012-12-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

Posted by Matthew Izatt, Product Manager

Six months ago, our team set out to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad to give you you a faster, sleeker, and easier experience on iOS. The result? Version 2.0. With version 2.0 of the app, you'll get a totally new look and feel, plus a bunch of improvements like profile pictures in messages, numerous new animations from swivels to transitions and infinite scrolling in the message lists.
The app also adds many new time-saving features. For example, when you search, autocomplete predictions will appear as you type, shaving off precious seconds (and typos). Plus, you can RSVP to Google Calendar invites as well as +1 and comment on Google+ posts directly from the app.
Last, but certainly not least, we've added a feature many of you have been waiting for: multiple account support. You can now login to up to five Google Accounts from the menu and switch between them with a couple taps.
You can download the app right now from the App Store. We're excited to hear what you think!

Gmail and Drive - a new way to send files

2012-11-27T09:20:00.001-08:00

Posted by Phil Sharp, Product Manager

Since Google Drive launched in April, millions of people have started using Drive to keep, create and share files. Starting today, it’s even easier to share with others: you can insert files from Drive directly into an email without leaving your Gmail.
Have you ever tried to attach a file to an email only to find out it's too large to send? Now with Drive, you can insert files up to 10GB -- 400 times larger than what you can send as a traditional attachment. Also, because you’re sending a file stored in the cloud, all your recipients will have access to the same, most-up-to-date version.

Like a smart assistant, Gmail will also double-check that your recipients all have access to any files you’re sending. This works like Gmail’s forgotten attachment detector: whenever you send a file from Drive that isn’t shared with everyone, you’ll be prompted with the option to change the file’s sharing settings without leaving your email. It’ll even work with Drive links pasted directly into emails.
So whether it’s photos from your recent camping trip, video footage from your brother’s wedding, or a presentation to your boss, all your stuff is easy to find and easy to share with Drive and Gmail. To get started, just click on the Drive icon while you're composing a message. Note that this feature is rolling out over the next few days and is only available with Gmail's new compose experience, so you'll need to opt-in if you haven't already.

ᎭᎴᎾ ᏗᏓᏴᎳᏛᏍᎩ ᎬᏗ Gmail ᏣᎳᎩ (Get started with Gmail in Cherokee)

2012-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Posted by Craig Cornelius (ᏇᎩ), Software Engineer

What happens when you put a Google engineer in a car with a member of the Cherokee Nation? Well, something we think is pretty amazing: Gmail in Cherokee, or ᏣᎳᎩ (pronounced "jaw la gee"), Gmail’s 57th language.

It was just coincidence that I, a Google engineer working on the internationalization of Google products, ended up carpooling back to San Francisco with Vance Blackfox, member of the Cherokee Nation (CN) from an event we’d both attended. But that coincidence kick-started a collaboration that would result in Google Web Search in Cherokee and, starting today, Gmail in Cherokee.

After a 2002 survey of the Oklahoma Cherokee population found that no one under 40 spoke conversational Cherokee, the Cherokee Nation saw an opportunity to use technology to encourage everyday use of the language among the younger generation. Vance connected me with the language technology department at the Cherokee Nation, and the Gmail team worked closely with their highly organized team of volunteers, which ranged from university students to Durbin Feeling--Cherokee living treasure and author of the Cherokee-English Dictionary. Together, we were able to find and implement the right words for hundreds of Gmail terms, from "inbox" (ᎧᏁᏌᎢᏱ) and “sign in” (ᏕᏣᏙᎥ ᎰᏪᎸᎦ) to “spam” (ᎤᏲᎢ).

Gmail in Cherokee and the Cherokee version of Google Web Search both include a virtual keyboard for typing the syllabary writing system invented by Sequoyah in the early 1800s. Now Cherokee students can easily contact their tribal elders, e.g., “Joseph wants to chat” (“ᏦᏏᏫ ᎤᏚᎵ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ”) and connect instantly. As Joseph Erb, Language Technologist at the Cherokee Nation put it, “Projects like these give more life to our language in our communities. It is not just about preserving our language and culture. It is about using our language each day and every day and continuing who we are as a people. And this give us that chance each time we check our email.”
So if you speak Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ) or know someone who does - or if you are just interested in learning more, you can switch to Cherokee in Settings.

Search for emails by size and more in Gmail

2012-11-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

Posted by Christian Kurmann, Software Engineer

We're always looking for ways to make it faster and easier for you to find your messages using search in Gmail. So starting today, you can now search emails by size, more flexible date options, exact match and more.

This means, for example, to find emails larger than 5MB, you can search for size:5m or larger:5m or to find emails sent over a year ago, older_than:1y.
These changes go hand in hand with other recent enhancements to search such as the improved autocomplete predictions and a field trial for instant results from Gmail, Google Drive and more as you type.

Introducing the new compose in Gmail

2012-10-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by Phil Sharp, Product Manager

We're always trying to make Gmail faster and easier to use, so today we're introducing a completely redesigned compose and reply experience that does just that.

Faster
How many times have you been writing an email and had to reference something in another message? Saving a draft, opening the old email, and then reopening your draft wastes valuable minutes. The new compose pops up in a window, just like chats (only larger).This makes it easy to reference any other emails without ever having to close your draft. You can even do a search or keep an eye on new mail as it comes in. And because the compose window works the same way as chats, you can write multiple messages at once and minimize a message to finish it later.

Easier to use
The new compose is designed to let you focus on what's important: your message. The controls are still there when you need them but get out of the way when you don’t. We’ve even added some new features like the ability to easily insert inline images and have more to come.

And, when you add recipients to your message, you'll see profile pictures of your contacts in autocomplete helping you find the right person faster. You can also drag and drop the new address chips between to:, cc: and bcc:. When you’re done adding recipients, the address area collapses automatically to get out of your way.You’ll also see these same changes when you respond to a message. The reply experience has been designed to fit better inline as part of your conversation -- replies take up much less vertical height, intelligently expand to fit your content, and always keep the recipients and other controls in view no matter how long your message gets.

We're rolling out a preview of the new compose and reply today. After we've added some finishing touches over the coming months, we’ll enable it for everyone.

Bringing Google Calendar to the Play Store

2012-10-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

Posted by Michael Chan, Tech Lead

Previously available only on select Android devices like Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, you can now download the official Google Calendar app for Android from Google Play. Google Calendar makes it easy for you to manage all your calendars in one place, including those from your Google accounts and other calendars synced to your Android device.

Beyond supporting the basics such as creating, editing, deleting events and responding to invitations, the new Google Calendar app has extra features that help you manage your time and communication more easily:

Snooze events directly from a notification if you’re not quite ready and want to be reminded later.
Use predefined messages to send quick "I'll be late" updates to your event participants directly from the notifications or the event itself (of course, you can always write your own).
Pinch to zoom in and out of a day.
Set a home time zone to help you manage your time better when traveling.

In addition, we also expanded the sync period so you can review past events from up to one year ago directly on your device. Download Google Calendar on Google Play today for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3+) or Jellybean. Use the Google Feedback feature in the app to let us know how we can make Calendar work better for you! (Cross-posted on the Official Android Blog)

Find your stuff faster in Gmail and Search

2012-10-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

Posted by Bram Moolenaar, Software Engineer

When you’re looking for something, you should be able to find what you need quickly and easily without needing to think about where it might be, whether it's in your email or out on the public web. That’s why this past August we opened a field trial allowing you to sign up to get information from Gmail right from the Google search box.

We’ve gotten very positive feedback from those of you testing it out -- such as this note: “The Gmail results feature is awesome! The fact that it's all integrated into one screen is huge.” Many testers have requested being able to find Drive files as well -- as one of you put it, “It would be awesome if I could search my google drive from google search as well :)”.

So starting today, you can sign up for a new and expanded field trial that makes it easier to find your stuff across Google, whether you’re searching on Google.com or searching in Gmail.

In Gmail, as you begin to type into the search box, you'll instantly start seeing relevant emails from Gmail as well as results from Google Drive, Google Calendar, and more:
Similarly, when you search on Google.com, your results will include relevant information and messages from Gmail (something familiar to those who joined the original field trial) and now -- new in this field trial -- also files, documents, spreadsheets and more from Google Drive:
To give this a try, please visit the updated field trial page and select Join the field trial. Please note that this trial is only accessible in English and for @gmail.com addresses (not available on Google Apps accounts). And keep the feedback coming!

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search Blog)

Communicate more easily across languages in Gmail

2012-10-09T09:00:00.002-07:00

Posted by C. Andrew Warren, Product Manager

Finding the right words can be difficult, especially across languages, and once you choose them, finding a way to type them can be even harder. Try emailing family in Germany, chatting with friends in China or adding a Russian business partner's name to your contacts and you may find yourself limited by the language of your keyboard.

That's why today we’re adding more than 100 virtual keyboards, transliteration and IMEs—collectively called input tools—in Gmail. These tools enable you to type in the language and keyboard layout you’re accustomed to, making it easy to keep in touch with family, friends and coworkers from any computer. You can even switch between languages with one click.
To try it out, check the box next to Enable input tools under Language in Settings.

Once you’ve enabled it, you’ll see the Input Tools icon next to the Settings button in your toolbar, and you can turn on and off any Input Tool from there.
With these new virtual keyboards, Gmail supports typing in 75 languages—a big jump from the five languages that were initially supported when we introduced Indic transliteration in Gmail in 2009.

Gmail’s users are from all over the world—and language should never get in the way of a good conversation. If you'd like to use Input Tools in other places, try out the Chrome extension, the Windows desktop client or the Android apps.

A new way to sync Google Contacts

2012-09-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by Jeff Ellingson, Product Manager

For many years, we've supported two open protocols for accessing Gmail and Calendar from mobile apps
and devices: IMAP for email and CalDAV for calendar. These protocols, combined with the options to
access Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts with your desktop or mobile browser and via native apps on iOS and
Android, help ensure you have a great experience regardless of the device you use.

Starting today, we're adding CardDAV - an open protocol for contacts - to that list. CardDAV enables 3rd
party clients, like the iOS contacts app, to sync your Google contacts. By supporting IMAP, CalDAV, and
CardDAV together, we’re making it possible for 3rd parties to build a seamless Google Account sync
experience.

To sync your Google Contacts on iOS using CardDAV, please follow these instructions in our Gmail Help
Center.

Hangouts in Google Calendar

2012-08-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by Boris Khvostichenko, Product Manager

Do you use Google Calendar to schedule catch ups with distant friends and family? Now, if you've upgraded to Google+, you can schedule a face-to-face video chat right from Google Calendar using Google+ Hangouts. It takes one click to add a hangout to an event and another click to join the hangout.