You may have read our report on Google’s Project Bigtop, its an effort by the company to change how we look at email and particularly at email applications. The project has been formally announced today as Inbox. Google says its a completely different type of email client for your Android or iPhone, it works on the web as well, and has been designed “to focus on what really matters.”
Inbox has a bundles feature which expands upon the categories that were introduced in Gmail last year. It becomes easier for users to handle multiple emails of the same time at once. For example emails containing receipts or bank statements will be grouped together so that they can quickly be viewed and swiped away. Inbox can also be taught how to adapt to users’ preference of grouping emails.
Instead of displaying email like a conventional app Inbox will show highlights instead. They are basically snippets of important information which may even include information about an event, flight itineraries as well as photos and documents received via email. Inbox can then pull relevant information from the internet that isn’t part of the original email such as live status of flights and package delivers, all for providing relevant information to a user at just one glance.
Another feature called Assists provides information that may aid users in getting the job done quickly. For example if they email someone about dinner reservations Assists will attach a map and if they book an airline ticket online Assists will provide a link to check-in online. Inbox also allows users to snooze emails and reminds and view them once they find some time.
Today Google has sent the first round of invitations to those who will be allowed to try Inbox. Email the company at inbox@google.com to get into the list and receive an invite when more become available.