GMail

09.01.26. Gmail gets AI Inbox and AI search.



GMail has got a new AI inbox mode that lets you "talk to your inbox." It's located in a separate tab and has two sections: "Suggested Tasks" and "Topics to Review." The first section displays summaries of the most important emails that require action, such as a reminder to pay a bill tomorrow or to call your dermatologist to confirm the mailing address for a prescription. In "Topics to Review," you'll see updates like "Your T-shirt order has arrived" and "Your annual report is now available in Wealthfront." Gmail has also added AI overviews to search: users can now search their inbox using natural-language questions. A smart spell check feature similar to Grammarly has also been added.


2026. GMail to discontinue support for receiving email from external accounts via POP3



Starting from January 2026, GMail will stop supporting widely used "Check mail from other accounts" feature via POP3 requests. This means Gmail will no longer be able to be used as a web-based email client for external accounts like Yahoo or Outlook. Google recommends setting up automatic forwarding instead of POP3. The Gmail mobile app for Android, iPhone and iPad will continue to support adding third-party accounts via standard IMAP connections. Users will still be able to read and send emails from other providers in the mobile app. For enterprise and educational institutions, Google recommends that administrators use the data migration service to continuously migrate email data to Google Workspace, rather than relying on continuous data retrieval.


2025. Google allowed Gmail users to change their email address.



Google has added the ability to change your Gmail email address once a year. If you change your email address, you will still receive emails to your old address - in the same new inbox. Until December 2025, this option was only available to those who transfer from third-party email, while Gmail address owners were forced to permanently use their chosen username. For many internet users, this is a long-awaited opportunity to update their Gmail address, getting rid of outdated or irrelevant nicknames, while maintaining their existing Google account, all correspondence, contacts and accumulated Gmail data.


2025. Gmail Adds End-to-End Encryption for Business Users



Enterprise users of Gmail can now send end-to-end encrypted emails, not just to users within their domain and not just to Gmail users, but to users of any email service (in this case, the user will have to click a link to read the message on GMail private area). To encrypt a message, sender simply needs to click the "Advanced Encryption" button and Gmail will do the rest. Google encrypts the message on client-side before sending it to the cloud, meaning that no one, neither Google nor any other organization, except the recipient, can read its contents. This complies with various data regulation laws.


2024. Gmail users on Android can now chat with Gemini about their emails



Google introduced a new functionality called Gmail Q&A, enabling Gmail users on Android devices to chat directly with Gemini about their emails. For instance, you can request Gemini to summarize emails by saying phrases like, “Update me on the emails about quarterly planning.” Additionally, you can utilize the feature to search for particular details, such as asking Gemini, “What was the company’s expenditure on the last marketing event?”. Gmail Q&A is rolled out to users who pay for Gemini $20 a month It’s improbable that Gmail Q&A will be available to free Gmail users in the near future. Instead, Google is promoting features like Gmail Q&A to persuade users that the steep monthly subscription fees for Gemini are justified. The company is also integrating Gemini into all its existing products, including Google Docs, Google Calendar and more — though it all comes at a cost.


2024. Google brings its Gemini AI to Gmail to help you write and summarize emails



In a move that would likely baffle most sentient beings in the galaxy, Google is introducing a new Gemini AI side panel in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive—presumably to assist poor earthlings in the eternally complex task of drafting emails, summarizing threads and locating crucial bits of information. With the sheer ease of a Vogon poetry reading, this brilliant yet mildly terrifying feature allows users to effortlessly generate emails, receive suggestions they never asked for and pose deep, existential questions about purchase order numbers or that peculiar expense from the office party. While Gemini happily provides prompts of its own design, users are encouraged to question the AI, probably wondering whether they themselves are still needed in this equation. And, as always in such matters, this functionality is available only to those privileged few Google Workspace customers with specific Gemini or Google One AI Premium subscriptions. Probably a good thing, as too much efficiency might throw the entire universe into chaos.


2018. Google discontinues Inbox by GMail



Google officially announced that Inbox by Gmail, the company’s experimental email client for Gmail, will shut down at the end of March 2019. Google says it’s making this change to put its focus “solely on Gmail.” While that makes sense, it’s a shame to see Inbox sail into the setting sun, given that it pioneered many of the features that have now become part of the new Gmail. While the new Gmail now has most of Inbox’s features, one that is sorely missing is trip bundles. This useful feature, which automatically groups all of your flight, hotel, event and car reservations into a single bundle, is one of Inbox’s best features. Google plans to bring this to Gmail early next year — hopefully well before Inbox shuts down.


2018. Google launches a lightweight Gmail Go app for Android



Gmail Go is the new app in the Android Go line. It takes up less storage space on users’ smartphones and makes better use of mobile data compared with the regular version of Gmail. The app also offers standard Gmail features like multiple account support, conversation view, attachments, and push notifications for new messages. It also prioritizes messages from friends and family first, while categorizing promotional and social emails in separate tabs, as Gmail does.


2013. GMail, Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail and Zoho Mail: small business email news



Over the past few days the number of interesting news came from the most popular email services for small business - GMail, Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail and Zoho Mail. First of all, last week Yahoo Mail together with website-hosting Yahoo Small Business was down for several days, and of course left a lot of small business customers mad as hornets. Now many of them are going to move to another service. And Microsoft (shortly before this event) decided to entice users from GMail and Yahoo. But, unfortunately , they began with GMail and now can't fully seize the moment. However, their new tool for importing emails and contacts from GMail to Outlook.com is already working. ***


2012. GMail integrates with Google Drive, Outlook.com comes to Android



Competition - is good for customers. When competition is strong, vendors stop being lazy and even forget about their political principles. And we've got the very interesting competition here: GMail vs Outlook.com. Microsoft recently turned its "mail for blondes" Hotmail into a solid and practical Outlook.com and now (as Microsoft says) it entices GMail users every day. Outlook.com advantages over GMail (according to Microsoft) are better spam protection and cleaner design. And different GMail features (discussion threads, hotkeys, themes ...) are gradually coming to Outlook.com. Today Outlook.com added an Android-application. Of course Android - is the competing platform, and so what? ***