Significant changes may soon come to Google"s widely used email platform, Gmail, as leaked screenshots have revealed Google"s email service will have a new design based around five main tabs.
You only need to ask the standard Gmail user to know that there are many annoying issues with the service, most notably the lack of categorising and archiving capabilities. For users that receive lots of email communication, important correspondence can sometimes get lost in the hoards of messages that seep through the spam filters.
If leaked screenshots published by The Next Web are any indication, Gmail will soon be based around five default tabs: Primary, Social, Promotions/Offers, Notifications/Updates and Forums.
"Primary" Tab
Here"s where you"ll find messages from friends and family members, as well as direct emails that can"t be obviously sorted into a category. While you might want to create a custom category depending on friends, family, and work colleagues, "Primary" will intelligently filter out corporate or product-related communication leaving a stream of "real" people that want to speak to you. Or complain about you – you might even want to create a category for that. The possibilities are endless.
"Social" Tab
If you"re a user of numerous social networks and choose to receive updates via email notifications, the "Social" tab will definitely come in handy. Messages relating to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Google+, Zynga and similar networks will be accumulated into this category.
"Promotions"/"Offers" Tab
Daily deal sites like Groupon, and online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, whilst useful, are notorious for packing our inboxes full of largely uninteresting emails. In the eventuality you"re the mood to shop, the "Social" tab collects up merchant communication for your delectation.
"Notifications"/"Updates" Tab
Urgent messages that pertain to bills being paid, restaurant reservations, flight alerts and similarly important emails will show up in this tab. You"ll probably find yourself navigating to this area often.
"Forums" Tab
Of course this isn"t for everyone, but if you happen to a member of a Forum or a mailing list (such as those provided by Neowin), any emails pertaining to that will be displayed here.
The tab-style layout won"t just be available in the web version of Gmail – the above categories will naturally be making their way into the iOS/Android mobile apps.
The current iOS Gmail app has an existing navigation drawer that will be dutifully updated with the new categories, whilst the Android app will see the addition of the navigation drawer for the first time. This also corroborates with recent reports by Android Police regarding leaked screenshots of the update during Google"s I/O conference. Judging by the above screen captures, the Android update appears to drop the stock bottom bar in favour of a full-screen email experience.
Source: TNW | Images via TNW