Pay your respects to Inbox, Google’s email innovation is getting discontinued

Yesterday, Google announced that they will be retiring Inbox early next year invoking deep emotions ranging from gratefulness to anger and disappointment among existing users of the app.

Inbox by Gmail is an email service which was developed by the Google team, first purely on the basis of limited invitation-only on October 2014. However, the general availability to the public was made in May 2015. Interestingly the same group of people who developed Gmail built Inbox--which served as a completely different type of inbox offering a more personalized email app designed to focus on what really matters.

The platform is available on all major internet media such as Web, and mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS. It provides improved email productivity through several key features. However, lately, new approaches added to the Inbox haven’t been quite novel when compared to stellar Gmail upgrades, including the big redesign feature in April 2018.

Why is Google sunsetting Inbox?

Inbox has always been Google’s most bold and exciting email application. If we look at the evolution of Gmail and Inbox, Gmail has stayed the same over the years while Inbox was always full of exciting unique features.

Inbox worked as a sort of incubator for trying out new approaches to email service. But recently, Gmail has been getting all the attention in terms of redesigning and the feature support on Android such as customizing swipes to mark as read, delete, snooze, and more. This has made many suspect the eminent demise of Inbox. Google, now officially announced that they will be discontinuing the Inbox by the end of March 2019. According to the product manager Matthew Izatt, the company wants a more focused approach to email, leaving Gmail as the lone survivor.

This is a surprising move by the Google, especially after the announcement which was made after the big Gmail redesign. They said with respect to the upcoming new features in Gmail, there are no changes to Inbox by Gmail. It is a great product for users with specific workflows and is one which allows them to test innovative features for email. Seems like Google used Inbox to beta test the features before rolling them out to Gmail. Apparently, the beta test is now over. Makes one wonder if Google losing the advantage to experiment in the future with new email functionalities that’s tough to do with a billion-user base.

Moving on to Gmail

Most of the Inbox initial set of features like Smart Compose, Smart Reply, organized folder bundles, and Follow-ups are already available in Gmail. You might not lose any major functionalities when opting for Gmail instead of Inbox. After the redesign, with large buttons and a friendlier look, the interface for Gmail has become somewhat Inbox-like. Google gave Gmail a major overhaul this year which absorbed a lot of features that made Inbox special. All these features on Gmail ensure it provides a better user experience when dealing with their emails. Since there are still a few months left until Inbox disappears, Google team has provided a transition guide for Inbox users to move to the new Gmail easily.

What’s next?

Google is, of course, no stranger to discontinuing apps and services. If you have been using Inbox by Gmail for all these years, you will surely not be happy with this news. However, Gmail has been slowly and steadily adopting many of the Inbox’s features. You will be surprised to see how Gmail has changed over the years. But people who don't like Gmail and are looking for an official alternative will now have to find a new email app to satisfy their expectations.