Some time ago Google released a major email game changer with introduction of Inbox application. Well it was not like email redefined, like Google Wave was, it is more like mail organisation automation.
"Inbox is soinnovative nosy that it almost categories almost all of your email, bye bye seeing though mail by the subject, now you can see them in broad category like "purchases" and "finances", It was always tough to use a appropriate subject, now by using Inbox, you don't have too."
It is the same beloved google mail at back but a whole new UI at front. This time instead of giving us a Beta! version of Gmail, Google has release Inbox in parallel. For Android there is a separate app, and for Desktop there is a separate URL inbox.google.com
Inbox does not innovate email, instead it creates a sudo wrapper on your gmail and organise your emails into different labels, like finance, promos, social updates, travel, etc.
You can only use this application if someone invites you to it. Either one of your friend who already have an Inbox for few days (inbox invitation feature do not activates right away) or google it self invites you to it, you have to drop a email to inbox@google.com to get a invitation from google, but it is not certain.
It would have been a great concept if most of us who seriously use emails doesn't already have labels for such stuff, and the original Google mail really provide nice colouring for it.
I have used google inbox for a 2 weeks now, made it my default mail application, so I just use this one and can really like what in there for me.
What I found out is little bit disappointing, it might be a good start if you are 13 and just opened you first email account and started to get mails. Because the way Inbox works is that it
want to to mark every email which you have read marked "done" and "done" is nothing but a another label created by google for the emails which no longer belong to your inbox, kind of like Archive option in original gmail. If you are not "done" with it, set up a reminder to take action on it later and you can spare it for a while.
Which means until you mark your mails "done" every type of email label, you will see a number of mails remaining, not how may unread, but number of emails not "done". The more frustrating things is that label count is always remain 25+ until there are mail less than 25.
One more not so intuitive thing is like the useless email group label like "promos" which I hardly read always remain on top, because this section got bombarded the most.
Now there is option to "bulk done" or "bulk delete" but but then you will just miss the point of be so organise.
Other than that one feature I can be positive about is that you can pin the email to Inbox. I have some tax mails with information I need time to decipher, I can pin those email to be read for later, but this functionality is nothing more but a replication of Star , and after one too many pin ups the inbox will clutter up.
There is a feature to set reminder for a mail to be "done" or read later. It look really great but in all practicality it is certainly not a deal maker feature, because if you can't really tell when you will have time to read a important mail later, which does not seems so important now, plus such feature can easily be given in original gmail rather than creating a separate application like Inbox.
The one more nice thing about the Inbox that it groups your mail based on the context, like if they don't have same subject, like it grouped order and shipping purchase in for a item in a same view, even though these have different subject.
When you open it up it will show a grid in a new window type view, but showing so much information makes you feel that you have control but you really don't the information is not at all useful.
It put some new and innovative features on table, but very far away from being actually useful. This is my personal view that this type of dynamic automatic labeling will certainly be very useful in organisation (landing page will be still disaster), but for personal email, not so great.
Inbox is created with mobile interface and people busy life in mind but Inbox does not seems like a threat to gmail, certainly not in its current condition, Google really push its innovation limits to beat a its one of its own best application ever made.
"Inbox is so
It is the same beloved google mail at back but a whole new UI at front. This time instead of giving us a Beta! version of Gmail, Google has release Inbox in parallel. For Android there is a separate app, and for Desktop there is a separate URL inbox.google.com
Inbox does not innovate email, instead it creates a sudo wrapper on your gmail and organise your emails into different labels, like finance, promos, social updates, travel, etc.
You can only use this application if someone invites you to it. Either one of your friend who already have an Inbox for few days (inbox invitation feature do not activates right away) or google it self invites you to it, you have to drop a email to inbox@google.com to get a invitation from google, but it is not certain.
It would have been a great concept if most of us who seriously use emails doesn't already have labels for such stuff, and the original Google mail really provide nice colouring for it.
I have used google inbox for a 2 weeks now, made it my default mail application, so I just use this one and can really like what in there for me.
What I found out is little bit disappointing, it might be a good start if you are 13 and just opened you first email account and started to get mails. Because the way Inbox works is that itwant to to mark every email which you have read marked "done" and "done" is nothing but a another label created by google for the emails which no longer belong to your inbox, kind of like Archive option in original gmail. If you are not "done" with it, set up a reminder to take action on it later and you can spare it for a while.
Which means until you mark your mails "done" every type of email label, you will see a number of mails remaining, not how may unread, but number of emails not "done". The more frustrating things is that label count is always remain 25+ until there are mail less than 25.
Now there is option to "bulk done" or "bulk delete" but but then you will just miss the point of be so organise.
Other than that one feature I can be positive about is that you can pin the email to Inbox. I have some tax mails with information I need time to decipher, I can pin those email to be read for later, but this functionality is nothing more but a replication of Star , and after one too many pin ups the inbox will clutter up.
There is a feature to set reminder for a mail to be "done" or read later. It look really great but in all practicality it is certainly not a deal maker feature, because if you can't really tell when you will have time to read a important mail later, which does not seems so important now, plus such feature can easily be given in original gmail rather than creating a separate application like Inbox.
The one more nice thing about the Inbox that it groups your mail based on the context, like if they don't have same subject, like it grouped order and shipping purchase in for a item in a same view, even though these have different subject.
The biggest problem I can see is the landing view of Inbox is very cluttery. Until you are super organised and mark "done" every mail you are done with the horizontal bold subject for the unread mail are very hard for your eyes to look for relivent subjects, and so If you are even little bit of unorganised, it is very easy loose an important email in the labels. For example like the way it organise the "finance view", by highlighting the attachments and putting the subject in horizontal line, it is just not right! I see lot of information but I can't just figure out what is what.
When you open it up it will show a grid in a new window type view, but showing so much information makes you feel that you have control but you really don't the information is not at all useful.
My Verdict:
The landing page of Inbox is just disaster, it does not give any relevant information and you will take 2 -3 clicks to even see what actually landed in your box.It put some new and innovative features on table, but very far away from being actually useful. This is my personal view that this type of dynamic automatic labeling will certainly be very useful in organisation (landing page will be still disaster), but for personal email, not so great.
Inbox is created with mobile interface and people busy life in mind but Inbox does not seems like a threat to gmail, certainly not in its current condition, Google really push its innovation limits to beat a its one of its own best application ever made.
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