My Week with Google Inbox

During the dial-up modem internet age my tech-rage was mostly spent on punching the keys harder in vain and getting even more frustrated. Fast forward ten years later as a grown-up “adult” my tech-rage still persists, mostly in silence as I open up my inbox every morning.

Now you understand my excitement at Google’s new Inbox that claims to ‘work for you’. So I went about actually putting that to test. Here’s my whole week of using Google’s Inbox and how it worked for me!

For those of you who’ve been living under a rock (and by that I mean those who aren’t app-crazy like me!) here’s some info about Google’s new venture. Its an email app available both on iOS and Android as well as a desktop version for those who prefer it. It takes email to another level by categorising or putting them together in ‘bundles’ to help you process them better. Now you can’t just access it via your Gmail yet I’m afraid, you can either request an invite from Google directly or ask your friends for one if they’ve managed to get one already.

What’s Great!

One of the things which was lacking in Gmail’s previous mobile app was the function of creating new folders within the app and what’s better with Inbox you can create Bundles on the fly (something which was previously lacking in the old Gmail App), making it easy to categorise and manage the clutter that is email.

What’s nifty about ‘bundling’ emails is that you can delete or archive them all at once with a single touch (or click) and more importantly, a feature I’ve taken to a lot is the ability to turn off notifications for certain bundles which means you won’t be annoyed by a spam email or even a newsletter coming through in the middle of an important meeting.

Google has certainly moved with the times by viewing emails as a ‘to-do tasks list’ and has built in some wonderfully detailed features to help you perform better. You can have geolocations for email alters, create to-do reminders and my favourite of them all ‘pinning an email‘. When you pin an email it automatically puts it into a folder you can go back to when you need it. This has been godsend for me to return to important-but-not-yet-so-urgent emails at the end of the day.

I must admit I have taken a fancy towards ‘snoozing’ an email, it provides me with a strange kind of joy as if I am indirectly dealing with an email whilst remaining productive – now that’s a joy! You can snooze emails for a later time just by a simple swipe action and as you can see from the screenshot you can access all snoozed emails as well as reminders even if they aren’t structured into the day.

In the web version you’ll have to find your way a bit by figuring out where Hangouts is now and you get a selection of recently emailed contacts when you press the red + to compose which is a nice touch.

What’s Not-So-Great!

I know it looks like I’ve fallen head over heels in love with Inbox from what I’ve said so far, but surprisingly, Google has a long way to go in its app development if it wants to create an efficient email management system. But depends what you want really!

Besides not having the ability to snooze emails and to put them into separate folders (which was one of my main reasons for quitting the app) my biggest concern or rather everyday battle was attachments. If you’re like me and live on the cloud to attach documents in emails and share files Inbox is seriously lacking in support, it only allows you to attach photos and videos. Not sure about you but I highly doubt my colleague wants to see my holiday photos, right? So I guess unless you’re a photographer or deal with no attachments whatsoever this is going to be a dealbreaker.

I was surprised to discover that you cannot search your inbox without a wifi or 3G connection although I must point out this is one step up from Gmail’s old app which simply did not even load if you happened to be offline. At least now you’ll still be able to browse through the emails currently on the screen but not search through them.

To-Do or Not-To-Do?

Now for the big question, I understand there’s been a big deal made about the app itself and a lot of buzz created around it but should you download it? I’m not going to lie, I certainly have it on my phone and I’ll probably keep it but its not going to replace the email app I currently use. Why? I’m going to keep it because the best thing about Inbox is the ability to delete an entire bundle of emails thereby clearing your inbox immediately BUT I can snooze using my current email app, I have set reminders AND it allows me to upload files from a variety of sources on the go whilst syncing with ALL of my calendars so that’s a pretty difficult thing to beat! Bear in mind there might be a reason Google is keeping invites to a bare minimum, I like to stay positive and believe that there’s something better in the works when they finally release Inbox access to everyone.

Of course you should download it if you love sharing images and are constantly getting spammed but if Gmail is your primary email account where you send files back and forth therefore need something that’s not reliant upon network reception then there are plenty of other options out there. Or just do what I’ve done, keep them both and get the best of both worlds.

What Makes Email Work For You?

I think I’ve rambled on enough, I want to know what you look for in the perfect email management tool or app what-have-you?! Or even if you disagree with EVERYTHING that I’ve said above – I want to know. Obviously people use email differently and I just love discovering the unique ways that we work! So drop me an email here or find me on the Twitter universe @bhaesa and tell me how or what email systems work for you?