Gmail users may find their inbox streamlined courtesy of Google’s newest revamp to its popular email service. The company announced in a blog post that it is bringing a revamp to its summary cards feature, ensuring that users have more streamlined access to information such as purchases, events, bills, and travel plans.
“Receipts, bills, travel confirmations, dinner reservations — important details often get scattered amongst apps and emails. While you can count on your Gmail inbox to hold all this valuable information, the sheer volume can be overwhelming. We get it,” Maria Fernandez Guajardo, Senior Director of Product, Gmail, announced in a blog post. “For years summary cards in Gmail have provided a snippet of helpful information at the top of your emails. But we know email habits continue to evolve. That’s why today we’re announcing big changes to these summary cards and new features to help you find exactly the right information, just when you need it.”
One of the key updates to summary cards is a new look, allowing users to perform functions like adding events to their Calender or setting reminders for bill payments via new action buttons. The summaries themselves will be precise and offer essential information to save the hassle of sorting through multiple, individual emails (which can save a lot of time and allow users to access essential information immediately). The cards themselves are unobtrusive, and will not clutter the inbox and are easy to dismiss.
In fact, users no longer need to depend on static information pulled from individual emails – the new summary cards will be updated in real-time to reflect changes in the real world. For example, if a users has made a purchase and is tracking the package, the summary card will provide the most recent information, such as an update if the package is delayed for some reason. If they have booked a flight, and the reservation changes, then the summary card will update itself to show the latest information.
Similarly, users can add upcoming events to their calender, and event-related summary cards will provide relevant information such as concerts or dinner reservations. Users can also view and pay bills and set reminders in Google Tasks, while travel cards will consolidate flight or hotel details with real-time details. With the categories, users need no longer fear having important information buried under a flood of less important messages.
In addition to this, Google is also introducing a new “Happening Soon” section for Gmail users. As the name suggests, the feature will provide time-sensitive cards at the top of user inboxes. “To start, purchase summary cards will appear here, and this section will only show up when it’s relevant. For example, once the estimated delivery date of a purchase is two days away, “Happening soon” will show the purchase summary card, allowing you to see when your package is arriving at a glance. If you have multiple deliveries arriving in the same timeframe, the summary cards are stacked, and you can expand, dismiss or click to go directly to the related email,” Google noted.
The new summary cards have begun rolling out on October 2, and Android and iOS users of Gmail will be able to access them. To start, only purchase-related cards will be made available, while cards for other categories will be rolled out in the coming months, alongside the upcoming “Happening Soon” section. In time, Google will also bring summary cards to its search functionality.
