What if Gmail became… a WhatsApp-style instant messaging system?

Google wants to simplify the management of your mailbox. A new feature deployed on certain accounts Gmail attempts to transform the service into an ersatz instant messaging service WhatsApp.

If, like a large part of the population, you receive too many emails and you never have time to respond, Google’s latest experiment might interest you. As noted by the specialist media Android Police, the company is reportedly testing a new interface for its Gmail application on Android. Instead of the traditional “Reply” and “Reply all” buttons, Google has pasted an input field like on WhatsApp or your favorite SMS application.

An email that appears as an SMS

While the rollout of such a feature seems to be very limited at the moment and Google has not officially mentioned its existence, it is interesting to see how the search giant is trying to solve the universal problem of saturation of email. Rather than starting to write (often formal) a new email, this interface wants to give you the impression that you can respond in the blink of an eye, without having to open a composition window with the recipients, ‘object and the history of the exchange.

Let’s be clear, the message sent remains in the form of an email, but, by directly offering a response field below the email, Google is surely hoping to reduce friction in the email response process. According to screenshots collected by Android Police, it’s still possible to open an old-fashioned compose window, but by default the interface shows you the small text field with just the option to “Reply » or “Reply all” in a drop-down list.

Can Google shake up the world of email?

The advantage of such an interface is that it is possible to keep in front of you the content of the email to which you are responding rather than having to juggle between your window for viewing the email and that for composing a response. The disadvantage, however, is that this could push certain users to respond in a succinct and rapid manner, whereas email has rather established itself in recent years as a slower and more formal communication medium.

Could a simple change of interface on Gmail change the etiquette attached to writing emails? Doesn’t offering a solution to respond more quickly risk further increasing the volume of emails that flood our inboxes? When your name is Google and you operate the most used email solution in the world, the flapping of wings of a user interface in Mountain View can cause tornadoes among email providers all over the globe.

Source : Android Police