If you’re somehow sending emails without using Gmail as your host address, then Gmail’s latest updates might sway you to convert from to the electronic mail platform. We’ve been ogling at Gmail’s revisions since Google’s been hyping up its redesign earlier this year. Whether you’re still figuring out the perfect email etiquette or you’ve mastered the professional email since your high school years, Gmail’s newest updates are meta email hacks in themselves and here’s everything you need to know to refine your updated Gmail experience.
If you’re technological inept and still trying to get a handle on Instagram’s ever-evolving features and camera effects or you’re still coping with learning Insta’s latest algorithm shift, don’t worry: Gmail has streamlined its security and email process. Regardless, there are some key components to this update.
1. Boosted security
According to The Verge, Gmail has armored its two-factor authentication process with a new feature that allows you to see an expiration date for specific messages. So, if you have an important embargoed contract or a time-sensitive email to send, you can secure your content even after you hit send.
If you have a secretive message to send someone, just click the locked timer symbol at the bottom of your in-progress email. A pop-up screen titled “Confidential mode” will appear, where you can select the expiration date of your email to protect your content and attachments. Plus, you can set up an SMS passcode to ensure that only the recipient can view your email with an automated Google-syndicated code.
After all, who doesn’t want to better secure their Gmail account from potential hackers who could grab hold of your precious Avenger-related conspiracy theories G-chat messages?
Beyond this supplementary defense, Gmail has improved its phishing alerts, so you don’t have to waste time clicking a scam-induced email when you’re still scrolling through your notifications in the morning. Now, phishing scams are automatically identified with bright red boxes, so it’s their plows are even more obvious.
2. Retconning your typos
Sure, Grammarly helps prevent us from misplacing commas and virtually yells at us when we mistakenly confuse “coma” with “comma.” Regardless, typos and hasty emails slip through. Thankfully, these latest updates allow us to literally undo our emails.
While the undo feature has been available on the desktop version earlier this year, the Android 8.2 update brings the power to undo your email missteps on your phone or tablet. Granted, the undo feature is still a time-sensitive update—giving you approximately seven seconds to nullify your cringy messages.
The next time you accidentally send your professor your thirst traps instead of your finished lab assignment, you can hit the email equivalent of a failsafe and Gmail will undo your almost-disaster and place the original body of your email in a draft. So, you can forever remember your could-have-been mistakes.
3. A new format
Let’s take a moment to reminisce on those days our 25-strong tabs because Gmail included Tasks and Calendar into its amended design. Now, we only have to worry about 23 or 24 tabs on our perpetually opened internet browser (because tabs of adorable puppers are the only thing we can commit to atm).
If you click the right side of the screen on your Gmail—where the gear symbol is, you can enable plugins for Calendar, Keep or Tasks so you don’t have to finagle with too many tabs at any given time, Business Insider reports.
Once the shock and indignation wear off, you may find that Gmail’s redesign is… actually kind of nice. Here’s how to take advantage of all the new tricks and features. https://t.co/5J5uKGGroJ
— WIRED (@WIRED) August 28, 2018
4. Reply smarter
Do you need to respond to email but struggle with making words make sense? Because same. And Gmail has heard our struggles because the desktop version now has AI-suggested Smart Replay options. So you don’t have to actively type out, “thank you” or “Monday works for me” whenever you get an email notification.
Granted, these AI-induced are limited, so you still run the risk of sounding like a synthetic human from the Alien franchise. (Don’t worry: You probably won’t create a new intergalactic invasive species if you use these options.)
But how the f*ck do you update your email?
If you didn’t get the update notification when you were mid-email or you’ve been continually declining those recurring reminders, you can still update your Gmail manually. Plug down the gear symbol, and if your Gmail isn’t up-to-date, tap the option that says “try the new Gmail.”
And what if you (for whatever reason) don’t want these updates?
Conformity isn’t for everyone. If you aren’t ready to commit to the new Gmail design or you just like the old interface better, you can easily hit the undo button on these Gmail updates.
Similar to updating your Gmail, just hit the same gear icon and select the “go back to classic Gmail” option. After all, Gmail is all about customization so you don’t need to feel pressured into the redesign if you liked its predecessor better.
Nevertheless, the new format still gives users a variety of customizable options. Instead of the hackneyed “default” setting, you can change your Gmail mode to “comfortable” or “compact,” which allows you to cater your format to your personal needs.