It looks like there will be big changes to Gmail soon. Twitter user Tahin Rahman posted leaked slides (first seen by 9to5Google) detailing a merger between Gmail, Google Docs, Google Chat, and Google Meet that appears to be hitting the Web and mobile devices soon. Google’s “Cloud Next 2020” conference started yesterday and will continue for the next three weeks, and we’ve heard rumors in the past detailing exactly this, so the slides seem to have leaked early.
The point of all this is to make Gmail a one-stop productivity site, where you can chat or chat individually, Slack-style, make video calls, edit documents, and send emails. The desktop site is receiving additional controls in the top header and sidebar, while the main panel, which normally displays the inbox or message, appears to be able to be swapped for other content, such as Google Docs. Meet can be viewed in full screen or hover in a picture-in-picture style window. Don’t forget this is it in addition to the right-side panel that was introduced in the 2018 redesign, which also allows you to open Google Calendar, Keep and Tasks within Gmail. With this design, it is like having all the Google productivity applications (Gmail, Chat, Meet, Calendar, Keep and Tasks) grouped in a single page that makes you wonder why it is even called “Gmail”.
Gmail has had a side-by-side two-panel view for a while, showing an Outlook-style inbox on the left and a message on the right. With this redesign, there seems to be more focus on the two-panel view. The “Chats” page uses this two-pane view by default, and can display “Chat,” “Files,” or “Tasks” in the left pane, with a document or something else in the right pane. It seems that Google is taking the design of Gmail and using it for all kinds of other functions.
The Gmail mobile app is also being revamped, with lower tabs for “Mail”, “Chat”, “Rooms” and “Meet”, all in the single Gmail app.
A sticky future
Since Gmail is one of Google’s most popular and “sticky” products (meaning people spend a lot of time on it), it is often used as a Trojan horse for less popular Google products. In this case, along with everything related to productivity, Gmail is being used to power Google Meet (the company’s Zoom competitor) and Google Chat (the company’s Slack clone, formerly Hangouts Chat). Both apps fall victim to Google’s need to constantly tear down and rebuild their messaging apps over and over, making it difficult to create any kind of user base. Chat and Meet are fairly new and immature apps, and they weren’t ready in time to face the work-at-home video chat craze brought on by COVID-19.
Previously, we have seen Gmail become infected with Google+ and Google Buzz, when Google was using Gmail to chase the latest Internet craze, social media. Productivity additions make Gmail look a lot more complicated, but at least they fit some kind of reasonable workflow.
We will probably hear more about this during Google Cloud Next, which is happening for the next three weeks. July 21st starts the “Productivity and Collaboration” week, which sounds like a good place to formally announce these changes. A talk called “Communication in G Suite: The Future of Gmail, Chat, Meet and more” sounds like the must-see.
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