Gmail turns 15 today, and to celebrate Google is launching some minor updates: improving Gmail’s Smart Compose function and giving users the option to schedule emails.
The updates to Smart Compose are pretty vague. Google unveiled the feature back in May 2018, which suggests ways to finish sentences in emails. The updated version, says Google, “can now adapt to the way you write,” matching your individual writing style.
Google says this might mean Smart Compose remembers your preferred way to greet certain colleagues (eg “Hey Team”), but doesn’t offer more detail than that. In addition, Smart Compose will now also suggest subject lines based on the body of your email.
Google says Smart Compose has saved people from typing “over 1 billion characters each week” on the web, and that the feature will now be available on Android devices (something it announced earlier this month) and coming to iOS devices “soon.”
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A more straightforward update to Gmail is the new ability to schedule messages. Clicking an arrow next to the “Send” button in the compose window will bring up this scheduler. You can choose from presets like “tomorrow morning” or specify a particular time and date.
You could previously schedule emails on Gmail through third-party extensions, but it’s much more convenient to have power built directly in to the client. It’s handy for communicating across time-zones or setting up reminders for friends and family.
They’re minor updates, sure, but decent reminders of why Gmail remains so popular 15 years after its launch.
theverge.com
