Gmail
Gmail is a mailbox provider by Google. It is the largest email service worldwide, with 1.8 billion users. It is accessible via a web browser, mobile app, or through third-party email clients via the POP and IMAP protocols. Users can also connect non-Gmail e-mail accounts to their Gmail inbox. The service was launched as Google Mail in a beta version in 2004. It came out of beta in 2009.
The service includes 15 gigabytes of storage for free for individual users, which includes any use by other Google services such as Google Drive and Google Photos; the limit can be increased via a paid subscription to Google One. Users can receive emails up to 50 megabytes in size, including attachments, and can send emails up to 25 megabytes in size. Gmail supports integration with Google Drive, allowing for larger attachments. The Gmail interface has a search engine and supports a "conversation view" similar to an Internet forum. The service is notable among website developers for its early adoption of Ajax.
Google's mail servers automatically scan emails to filter spam and malware.
Features
Storage
On April 1, 2004, Gmail was launched with one gigabyte of storage space, a significantly higher amount than competitors offered at the time.The limit was doubled to two gigabytes of storage on April 1, 2005, the first anniversary of Gmail. Georges Harik, the product management director for Gmail, stated that Google would "keep giving people more space forever."
In October 2007, Gmail increased storage to 4 gigabytes, after recent changes from competitors Yahoo and Microsoft.
On April 24, 2012, Google announced the increase of storage included in Gmail from 7.5 to 10 gigabytes as part of the launch of Google Drive.
On May 13, 2013, Google announced the overall merge of storage across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ Photos, allowing users 15 gigabytes of included storage among three services.
On August 15, 2018, Google launched Google One, a service where users can pay for additional storage, shared among Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos, through a monthly subscription plan., storage of up to 15 gigabytes is included, and paid plans are available for up to 2 terabytes for personal use.
There are also storage limits to individual Gmail messages. Initially, one message, including all attachments, could not be larger than 25 megabytes. This was changed in March 2017 to allow receiving an email of up to 50 megabytes, while the limit for sending an email stayed at 25 megabytes. In order to send larger files, users can insert files from Google Drive into the message.
Interface
The Gmail user interface initially differed from other web-mail systems with its focus on search and conversation threading of emails, grouping several messages between two or more people onto a single page, an approach that was later copied by its competitors. Gmail's user interface designer, Kevin Fox, intended users to feel as if they were always on one page and just changing things on that page, rather than having to navigate to other places.Gmail's interface also makes use of 'labels' – that replace the conventional folders and provide a more flexible method of organizing emails; filters for automatically organizing, deleting or forwarding incoming emails to other addresses; and importance markers for automatically marking messages as 'important'.
In November 2011, Google began rolling out a redesign of its interface that "simplified" the look of Gmail into a more minimalist design to provide a more consistent look throughout its products and services as part of an overall Google design change. Substantially redesigned elements included a streamlined conversation view, configurable density of information, new higher-quality themes, a resizable navigation bar with always-visible labels and contacts, and better search. Users were able to preview the new interface design for months prior to the official release, as well as revert to the old interface, until March 2012, when Google discontinued the ability to revert and completed the transition to the new design for all users.
In May 2013, Google updated the Gmail inbox with tabs which allow the application to categorize the user's emails. The five tabs are: Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. In addition to customization options, the entire update can be disabled, allowing users to return to the traditional inbox structure.
In April 2018, Google introduced a new web UI for Gmail. The new redesign follows Google's Material Design, and changes in the user interface include the use of Google's Product Sans font. Other updates include a Confidential mode, which allows the sender to set an expiration date for a sensitive message or to revoke it entirely, integrated rights management and two-factor authentication.
On 16 November 2020, Google announced new settings for smart features and personalization in Gmail. Under the new settings users were given control of their data in Gmail, Chat, and Meet, offering smart features like Smart Compose and Smart Reply.
On 6 April 2021, Google rolled out Google Chat and Room feature to all Gmail users.
On 28 July 2022, Google rolled out Material You to all Gmail users.
Spam filter
Gmail's spam filtering features a community-driven system: when any user marks an email as spam, this provides information to help the system identify similar future messages for all Gmail users.In the April 2018 update, the spam filtering banners got a redesign, with bigger and bolder lettering.
Gmail Labs
The Gmail Labs feature, introduced on June 5, 2008, allows users to test new or experimental features of Gmail. Users can enable or disable Labs features selectively and provide feedback about each of them. This allows Gmail engineers to obtain user input about new features to improve them and also to assess their popularity.Popular features, like the "Undo Send" option, often "graduate" from Gmail Labs to become a formal setting in Gmail.
All Labs features are experimental and are subject to termination at any time.
Search
Gmail incorporates a search bar for searching emails. The search bar can also search contacts, files stored in Google Drive, events from Google Calendar, and Google Sites.In May 2012, Gmail improved the search functionality to include auto-complete predictions from the user's emails.
Gmail's search functionality does not support searching for word fragments. Workarounds exist.
Language support
, the Gmail interface supports 72 languages, including: Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian, Odia, Persian, Polish, Punjabi, Portuguese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh and Zulu.Language input styles
In October 2012, Google added over 100 virtual keyboards, transliterations, and input method editors to Gmail, enabling users different types of input styles for different languages in an effort to help users write in languages that are not "limited by the language of your keyboard."In October 2013, Google added handwriting input support to Gmail.
In August 2014, Gmail became the first major email provider to let users send and receive emails from addresses with accent marks and letters from outside the Latin alphabet.
Platforms
Web browsers
The modern AJAX version is officially supported in the current and previous major releases of Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari web browsers on a rolling basis.Gmail's "basic HTML" version works on almost all browsers. This version of Gmail has been discontinued from January 2024.
In August 2011, Google introduced Gmail Offline, an HTML5-powered app for providing access to the service while offline. Gmail Offline runs on the Google Chrome browser and can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.
In addition to the native apps on iOS and Android, users can access Gmail through the web browser on a mobile device.
Mobile
Gmail has native applications for iOS devices and for Android devices.In November 2014, Google introduced functionality in the Gmail Android app that enabled sending and receiving emails from non-Gmail addresses through POP or IMAP.
In November 2016, Google redesigned the Gmail app for the iOS platform, bringing the first complete visual overhaul in "nearly four years". The update added much more use of colors, sleeker transitions, and the addition of several "highly-requested" features, including Undo Send, faster search with instant results and spelling suggestions, and Swipe to Archive/Delete.
In May 2017, Google updated Gmail on Android to feature protection from phishing attacks. Media outlets noticed that the new protection was announced amid a widespread phishing attack on a combination of Gmail and Google's Docs document service that occurred on the same day.
Later in May, Google announced the addition of "Smart Reply" to Gmail on Android and iOS. "Smart Reply", a feature originally launched for Google's Inbox by Gmail service, scans a message for information and uses machine intelligence to offer three responses the user can optionally edit and send. The feature is limited to the English language at launch, with additional support for Spanish, followed by other languages arriving later.
Inbox by Gmail, another app from the Gmail team, was also available for iOS and Android devices. It was discontinued in April 2019.
Third-party programs can be used to access Gmail, using the POP or IMAP protocols. In 2019, Google rolled out dark mode for its mobile apps in Android and iOS.