Google Made an Email App That Was Better Than Gmail (and Killed It)

Gmail has long been one of Google’s tentpole services, but for a brief period of time, the company experimented with a different email app. It was called “Inbox by Gmail,” and despite a loving fanbase, it eventually got the axe.

Inbox by Gmail is Introduced

The year was 2014, and it was a particularly eventful year for Google. The company acquired Nest and DeepMind AI. Android Wear (now Wear OS), Android Auto, and Android TV were all launched. Amongst all the big announcements, a new app called “Inbox by Gmail” was introduced.

Inbox was announced in October 2014 on an invite-only basis, but it wasn’t publicly launched on Android and iPhone until May 2015. This created an initial hype around the app, which was something Google tried to do a lot back then. The app was pitched as a fresh approach for those tired of the traditional, chronological view of email—and it succeeded.

What Made Inbox Different?

There were a handful of key features that made Inbox stand out from the standard Gmail app. Instead of just a list of messages, Inbox grouped similar emails together. All your promotional emails were bundled under a “Promotions” label, and your social media notifications were tucked away in a “Social” bundle. This made it much easier to see what was important and what could wait.

The app also introduced the concept of highlights, which would pull out key information from an email, like a flight number, a package tracking number, or a restaurant reservation. You could see all the important details without even opening the email. You could also set reminders directly from your inbox, and Inbox introduced a “Snooze” button so you could see an email pop up again later.

Later on, Google added an “Undo Send” button that gave you 10 seconds to pull back an email after sending. There was also a “Smart Reply” feature that automatically generated short replies. Other features included Google Calendar event information right in the email, an “Unsubscribe” card for easy unsubscribing, and a “Save to Inbox” feature for links.

My favorite feature was “Priority” notifications. Inbox would, with your help, figure out which emails were actually important to you. This meant I was able to get notifications only for the emails I really cared about. On my computer, I had the full-fledged Gmail web experience shoving every new email in my face, but when I left my desk, Inbox quieted down the noise on my phone.

A few of these cool features may sound familiar if you use Gmail today, and that was part of Inbox’s demise.

The Fall of Inbox

Sadly, Inbox only lasted five years—it was shut down in March 2019. Google said that it wanted to focus on a single email experience. This was a polite way of saying that it was bringing the best features of Inbox into the standard Gmail app. People were happy that some of their favorite features would live on, but we were sad to see the app that started it all go.

Snoozing, Nudges, Smart Replies, Highlights, bundles, and Hover actions have all made their way to Gmail. In essence, Inbox proved to be a testing ground for new Gmail features. To this day, Gmail still doesn’t have everything that made Inbox great, but it has a lot.

The discontinuation of Inbox marked the end of an era, and the core philosophy has somewhat been lost. Gmail, even with its new features, still feels like an old-school email client. Inbox felt more like a personal assistant, which is something Google has been pushing with Gemini AI. I’d love to see more experiment apps like Inbox, and less AI.