Are you one of those who feel overwhelmed, just looking at number of mails received in the (gmail) Inbox? Well, if you are not an Email person, you might want to overlook them but if you are amongst those individuals who run on Emails, there is no other option but to arrange them. And this can be time consuming. But now, Google is coming up with a new solution called Priority Inbox to help you manage and organize your Emails.
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How will it Work?
Priority Inbox will split your inbox into three sections: Important and unread, Starred and Everything else. So, instead of merely showing the unread e-mails in the inbox, the first section will show priority e-mails which require your attention. As e-Mails come in, Gmail will automatically flag them as Important and will put them at the top of the email queue. Gmail will use a variety of signals like sender information, people you email most, your actions including replying, using stars, archiving, deleting to categorize your mail. Even the words contained in the mail will be used in predicting the importance.
The second section will show those mails which have been read and marked by you for future references. This will make sure that these marked mails don’t get pushed over to the next page upon the arrival of the not-so-important mails. The third section will show the rest of your unarchived inbox. You will also have the option to assign the importance to your mails by using ‘important’ and ‘not important’ buttons. And as you use these buttons, Gmail will get better at categorizing these mails for you.
Customization
According to Google, priority inbox will be highly customizable. You will be able to limit the number of messages seen per section, hide or add a section altogether or even turn the priority index off. These options will be available through the Gmail settings menu and also in the Gmail interface.
Availability
Google plans to roll out Priority Inbox to all regular Gmail accounts and Google Apps users over the next week. According to Google however, Limited support will be available for those who use
- Gmail (gmail.com) in the web browser on Android or Apple devices
- Gmail using the built-in email program (IMAP or Google Sync) on most devices.
Usefulness of Priority Inbox
Priority inbox will certainly prove to be useful for so called Gmail Power users. Though Gmail filters are used by some users for managing their e-mails but even these filters have certain limitations. Priority inbox will address these limitations by categorizing and organizing the mails by itself so that the user spend more time in reading them and less time in trying to locate them. If the functionality works the way it is advertised by Google, It will certainly allow users to be in control of their e-mails.
Priority Inbox can change the way you access your Gmail.What do you think?
