Google's Kitchener team plays key role in Gmail redesign

Google's Gmail has been given a new mobile-friendly look, and if users really like it, it could permanently replace the
familiar, old-fashioned interface.

Ten years after the birth of Gmail, Google is looking to reinvent the popular email service with an alternate experience called Inbox.

Gmail users aren't being forced into using the new design andinstead can opt-in for the new interface.

It's available in Apple's App Store and the Google Playmarketplace and on the web at http://www.google.com/inbox, althoughit only works with Google's Chrome browser. Inbox is currentlyoperating in invite-only mode but early adopters can request accessto it by sending a message to inbox@google.com.

Google's office in Kitchener, Ont., is a hub of Gmail developmentand product manager Matthew Izatt says all the work for the AppleiOS Inbox app was done in Canada.

The first iPhone was still three years away when Gmail waslaunched in 2004. The current redesign -- which took years tocomplete -- was largely focused on how to improve the mobileexperience, says Izatt.

"It's the first thing most people check in the morning, theypick up their mobile device and see what's there. So it was anextremely important priority for us to make sure that the bestexperience you could have would be on a mobile device," he says.

"And to make sure that anything you might possibly want to dowith your Inbox is something you could do from a phone."

The Inbox apps and website are designed to help users bettertriage their emails, with some automated help from Google'sengineering team.

Last summer, Gmail started organizing emails into separatesubject tabs within users' inboxes (such as Primary, Social andPromotions) and more work has been done to better group similarmessages together. Users can quickly dispense with a group of emailsthat don't need reading with a checkmark icon, which moves thosemessages to a Done folder.

If users don't have time to respond to an important message, they can hit a Snooze icon to set up a reminder to reply to it later.

Users can also create a location-based reminder, so they'll get analert when their device senses they're in a particular place, like agrocery store, for example.

When users are scanning through email previews they'll also seethe most important part of the messages highlighted, rather thanjust seeing the typical sender, subject line and the first few wordsof emails. Inbox highlights photos, attachments and links toimportant content buried within the messages.

The introduction of Inbox doesn't necessarily mean Gmail will bephased out, Izatt says. But it could be if Gmail users decide theyprefer Inbox.

"I think we want our users to really give us the answer to that.Inbox is designed to be a complete rethink of how email works. Westill love Gmail, we have hundreds of millions of users and we're going to continue to innovate on it and it will certainly continueto go forward," he says.

"I think we'll really find out from our users as to what theright path is going forward."