Gmail, which turned 15 last week, celebrated the milestone by giving users the option to schedule the sending of their emails and, bringing improvements to Gmail’s Smart Compose function.
Google unveiled Smart Compose, which suggests ways to finish sentences in emails, last May. The updated version can now adapt to the way you write by matching your individual writing style.
Smart Compose can now remember your preferred way to greet certain colleagues, and will also be able to suggest subject lines based on the body of your email. According to statistics from Google, the Smart Compose feature has so far saved people from typing over one billion characters each week on the web and the feature will now be available on Android devices.
Another 15th birthday gift from Google is the ability to schedule messages. Users will now be able to click on the arrow next to the ‘Send’ button in the ‘Compose’ window to bring up the scheduler and choose presets like ‘tomorrow morning’, or specify a particular time and date.
While users could previously schedule emails on Gmail through third-party extensions, it is definitely much more convenient to have power built directly in to the client. The feature is especially handy for communicating across time-zones or setting up reminders for friends and family.
One could say they are just minor updates, but updates such as these that add to the user experience are probably what makes Gmail so popular 15 years after its launch.