Google to Shut Down 'Inbox by Gmail' on April 2

[Krocmoe]

Aren't they shutting down google plus as well? Actually they may have taken it down already.

 

[atikalz]

Google will shut down its "Inbox by Gmail" app on April 2, the company has confirmed to users of the email app.

Google announced in September that it would be shuttering the app toward the end of March 2019, but didn't give a set date for when that would happen.

However, as noted on Reddit, users of the app yesterday began being notified that the app would be "going away in 15 days," which points to April 2 as the end date.

Inbox by Gmail was an experimental email app, offering users features like snoozing emails to check later, Smart Reply, high-priority notifications, and more.

Google says that in the four years of the app's life it "learned a lot about how to make email better," adding some of the most popular Inbox features directly into its main Gmail client, to which the company is directing existing Inbox users.

To help users transition from Inbox to Gmail, Google has set up a guide on its support website. Google says the new Gmail app, launched in April 2018, will be a good home for former Inbox users as it incorporates many of the same features as Inbox, in addition to new ones.

Article Link: Google to Shut Down 'Inbox by Gmail' on April 2

One of the worst decisions from google. Gmail is crap in comparison to inbox.
[doublepost=1553006668][/doublepost]

Good decision by Google. I personally found it to be a worthless feature that I never used, and I’m willing to believe ‘Smart reply and annoying emails to check later’ never really appealed to others.

Inbox is no feature, it’s a product. And by far better UX than gmail.

 

[69Mustang]

Good decision by Google. I personally found it to be a worthless feature that I never used, and I’m willing to believe ‘Smart reply and annoying emails to check later’ never really appealed to others.

You'd be wrong there. Smart reply and snoozing emails were two popular features of Inbox that migrated over to GMail. Almost everything good from Inbox was migrated to GMail... 'cept the UI. Inbox wasn't exactly a "feature". It was a full fledged email app. Things like 3D Touch, Night Mode, or Split Screen are features.

 

[C DM]

Why does Google continually shutdown their best services?

Quite a few of their services are more along the lines of them experimenting or trying something out and then taking what they learned and applying it to various existing services to enhance them in one way or another.

 

[kasper99]

For the best inbox alternative, join thousands of ex-inbox users and try the Spike app. It's available on any platform: iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and web.

It has all the important features you need to be more productive, such as Priority Inbox, snooze, pin messages, instant replies, built-in calendar, unified inbox and tons more. Check it out

 

[C DM]

I can no longer trust Google. If Google comes up with some amazing new service, I'm not going to use it much, and not get too attached because I know it will go away in a few years.

It can definitely depend on the service. Certainly Gmail (as in the mail service) wouldn't be something that that would really apply to, for example.

 

[le_cagou]

If you guys are looking for an alternative, try our Spark app. We're launching the Android version in the beginning of April (now it works on Mac and iOS).

Spark has snoozes, email scheduling, quick replies, customizable swipes and notifications. And with its Smart Inbox, you see the important emails at the top and can quickly clear the rest.

@MHenyk: spark sure looks nice. but the spark app is for "free". I suppose readdle is not a branch of the salvation army and developing and maintaining spark sure isn't a cheap undertaking. so how do you guys make money? the only thing you get from users is their data. so selling that data would be my guess ...

 

[Robert.Walter]

Avoiding April 1st termination like a Boss.

 

[tmmacops]

If you guys are looking for an alternative, try our Spark app. We're launching the Android version in the beginning of April (now it works on Mac and iOS).

Spark has snoozes, email scheduling, quick replies, customizable swipes and notifications. And with its Smart Inbox, you see the important emails at the top and can quickly clear the rest.

Spark stinks when it comes to O365, or O365 in a Hybrid environment. I can easily setup Thunderbird, or any other client using standard IMAP settings, and it works. Spark continues to throw errors that it can't connect, or invalid credentials, etc. Not worth the headache...

If they [Readdle] ever figures out how to connect to O365 natively, without the foolishness, I'll reconsider.

 

[JetTester]

Google seems to be in the business of buying technology, running it for a while, and then shutting it down. Lose money on each service, make it up in volume.

 

[zorinlynx]

Google seems to be in the business of buying technology, running it for a while, and then shutting it down. Lose money on each service, make it up in volume.

Or just buying it up and killing it completely for no apparent reason. Like they did with Sparrow.

I still miss Sparrow. Sparrow could have been the best E-mail client on any platform. But freaking Google. And I don't even blame the creator; who can turn down being a sudden millionaire?

 

[44267547]

Google seems to be in the business of buying technology, running it for a while, and then shutting it down. Lose money on each service, make it up in volume.

I was thinking the same thing. Almost to the point where they’re like gambling with various services to see what ‘sticks or not’, but then again, I think they realize that there are certain implementations that will work and other things that won’t, but honestly, I think Google doesn’t care one way or the other. I mean, that’s the nature of technology, not everything comes to fruition and other things come to an end abruptly.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I used Inbox when it first came out. What I liked most about it? I could swipe stuff easily and keep a clean inbox. Everything else, I really didn’t care about. It was easy to schedule something for later too.

But, I was the only one in the small group of people I know who liked it.

 

[deebinem]

EDIT: Never mind. Mods, delete at will!

 

[341328]

Why does Google continually shutdown their best services?

Because unless they can reach XX million users, they don't care about a product. Or end users.

 

[Juiceboy]

I've been using it everyday since it launched. I don't like regular gmail at all and i will keep ignoring the notice until the very end

 

[fairuz]

This makes it sound like they're shutting down... the Gmail inbox. Really could've picked better naming there. Just like how less techy people were freaking out about the Google+ shutdown making it look like their Google account was going away.
[doublepost=1553066971][/doublepost]

Why does Google continually shutdown their best services?

To be fair, they moved a lot of Inbox features into Gmail. Probably the ones that were used the most. And really it's pointless and confusing that there were two mail clients for Gmail, one of them called "Inbox" of all things. So it had to die. I wouldn't doubt that this was an experiment all along, but if so, I would rather they had told users about that instead baiting them once again.
[doublepost=1553067007][/doublepost]

Because unless they can reach XX million users, they don't care about a product. Or end users.

Yep. Ironically, Gmail is used by billions, yet they release an update adding a slow loading bar when you start it. That and it's really heavy now. Solidifies my choice of sticking with the Mac Mail app. I like Apple's stuff cause you can leave it alone and expect it not to change too much or break.
[doublepost=1553067394][/doublepost]

Spark works faster and looks cleaner and more intuitive. For me, the main difference is that I can quickly achieve the Inbox Zero with Spark. It sorts emails from all my accounts into three categories, and I can archive all newsletters and notifications with a single swipe. Then, I can focus on personal emails.

There are many other cool things. You can select different types of notifications for each account, manage your calendar right in Spark, create smart folders to automatically sort emails (e.g. emails from Ann with attachments from the last month).

Plus, Spark has lots of unique features for teams. You can delegate emails to other people (like tasks), discuss an email privately in comments under the thread, write drafts together in real time (like in Google Docs).

AFAIK, Gmail has all those features

 

[le_cagou]

This makes it sound like they're shutting down... the Gmail inbox. Really could've picked better naming there. Just like how less techy people were freaking out about the Google+ shutdown making it look like their Google account was going away.
[doublepost=1553066971][/doublepost]
To be fair, they moved a lot of Inbox features into Gmail. Probably the ones that were used the most.

and what features would that be?

I'd say that bundles are THE feature of inbox. haven't found those in gmail yet.... they say we should use manually set up filters (like grandpa used to do back in the dark ages) and priority inbox as some sort of substitute for bundles. unfortunately you can't mark mails as important/unimportant in the gmail app, so that alternative only exists for desktop users.

the brilliantly integrated reminders? nowhere to be seen in gmail. instead google asks us to use a separate app (!!) for that.

they kind of gave snooze functionality to gmail, that's true. but for no reason whatsoever they refuse to integrate a swipe gesture into the gmail app. in inbox it was one swipe to snooze something. with gmail you have to go through that tiny three dots menu with two taps.

 

[rodpascoe]

[doublepost=1553005513][/doublepost]We have an app called Flo that is currently in public beta for iOS, and will soon be available to iOS beta testers on Mac. It does more than just email but the email component has some useful features such as tracking for non-response (which allows me to send-and-forget). Also allows multiple accounts including your gmail.

http://floware.com

Just looked over your website and signed up for the beta, Flo looks awesome!

 

[fairuz]

and what features would that be?

I'd say that bundles are THE feature of inbox. haven't found those in gmail yet.... they say we should use manually set up filters (like grandpa used to do back in the dark ages) and priority inbox as some sort of substitute for bundles. unfortunately you can't mark mails as important/unimportant in the gmail app, so that alternative only exists for desktop users.

the brilliantly integrated reminders? nowhere to be seen in gmail. instead google asks us to use a separate app (!!) for that.

they kind of gave snooze functionality to gmail, that's true. but for no reason whatsoever they refuse to integrate a swipe gesture into the gmail app. in inbox it was one swipe to snooze something. with gmail you have to go through that tiny three dots menu with two taps.

The bundle is the important thing that's missing. Would be surprised if they didn't just put it into Gmail.