If you’re a Gmail user, I’m sure you’ve already received the notification from Google to try out its “new compose” interface. Gmail actually begun rolling out this new feature last October 30 and I was a bit skeptical at first to try it out, but since I enjoy checking out new things, I decided to give it a go! And I’m just so happy I did.
The Gmail’s new compose and reply interface lets you write messages in a cleaner, simpler experience that puts the focus on your message itself, not all the features around it. Here are some of the highlights:
- Fast: Compose messages right from your inbox.
- Simple: Redesigned with a clean, streamlined look.
- Powerful: Check emails as you’re typing, minimize drafts for later, and even compose two messages at once.
New Compose Window
When you click the “Compose” button, instead of taking up your entire Gmail window, it will now open a smaller window at the bottom of your screen. From here, you can check emails as you’re typing, minimize drafts for later, and even compose two messages at once!
The new compose window still includes all the features that you can find in the old one like the text formatting, attachments, insert options (photos, emoticons, etc).
New Reply Experience
Replying/forwarding to emails also has a new layout and most of the changes are similar to those that you’ll see when composing a brand new message. To change the type of response, just click the arrow next to the recipient’s name to choose whether your message is a reply, reply all, or forward.
If you’re not comfortable with these new changes, you can still revert back to the old layout by clicking the “More menu” icon next to the Discard button and choose “Switch back to old compose”.
More features coming soon
Here are some additional features that we can expect soon:
- Insert emoticons and event invitations
- Print drafts from the More menu
- Add labels to outgoing messages from the More menu
- Send read receipts (Google Apps users only)
- Canned responses
Source: Gmail Support
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It has had that ability to open a separate window for composing email for years now. But what they have done now has given its users a better user experience. The same as they are providing better security by implementing other new features, one of which is the most important, Two-Step Authentication which allows us to telesign into our accounts. I know some will claim this make things more complicated, but the slight inconvenience each time you log in is worth the confidence of knowing your info is secure.