When Google killed Inbox three years ago, users were forced to move to the Outlook-like Gmail interface. Now, Gmail is getting even worse with a new update that inexplicably makes it look even more like Microsoft Outlook.
“We’re introducing a new, integrated view for Gmail, making it easy to move between critical applications like Gmail, Chat and Meet in one unified location,” a Google Workspace Updates blog post explains.
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The new UI is being rolled out to customers over time. Starting February 8, Workspace customers can opt-in to the new experience via a fly-out notification advertisement that will feel quite natural to those of us on Windows; users will be able to return to the classic Gmail interface. By April 2022, users who didn’t opt-in to the new UI will be pushed to it automatically; they will also be able to return to Gmail classic, however. But by the end of 2022, the new UI will be the default, with no way to revert.
Presumably, this change is coming to non-paying Gmail customers as well, though Google does not that it is not available to Google Workspace Essentials customers. Hm.