In a disappointing move, Google announced today that it will kill Inbox, the simpler interface for Gmail, at the end of March 2019.
“Four years after launching Inbox, we’ve learned a lot about how to make email better, and we’ve taken popular Inbox experiences and added them into Gmail to help more than a billion people get more done with their emails everyday,” Google product manager Matthew Izatt writes. “As we look to the future, we want to take a more focused approach that will help us bring the best email experience to everyone. As a result, we’re planning to focus solely on Gmail and say goodbye to Inbox.”
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Ah boy.
As you may know, I use and recommend Google Inbox on both mobile and the web, and I find it to be exactly the right user experience, and one that nicely balances functionality with simplicity. Gmail, by comparison, is very busy, even the new version. Not Microsoft Outlook busy. But in that ballpark.
So this is disappointing. I’ll take a look at Google’s transition guide. And I have six months to mull this over. But. Not good.
Stooks
<p>Personally I hated it. Then again I do not like Gmail to be honest. Replies at the bottom and the lack of a folders vs their tags has always turned me off. Conversation mode is not my thing either.</p><p><br></p><p>The worst part is you simply can't rely on any Google product being around for long. Their reader was loved, so was Picasso. Their messaging app strategy is a train wreck of abandoned products. Their music/video offerings are another massive train wreck. Google Play music, youtube music, youtube red, youtube….youtube TV, Google Play video..Google Play books.</p><p><br></p><p>Google Chrome, Youtube (for videos online), search and maps are great products. Everything else they do is just so "Meh" and temporary. </p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#321651">In reply to furrypotato:</a></em></blockquote><p>Let's face it. Google makes free products to gather information to feed its real business, "targeted ads". </p><p><br></p><p>If a free app, like Inbox, is not pulling in the data based on the effort behind it, it is discontinued. Inbox was probably only used by a small set of Gmail users so it probably cost too much (data collected via the software vs cost to maintain it).</p>