Gmail’s New Update Introduces Categories and Tabs

Are you fed up of your important mail getting lost somewhere in between all junk? Or your social feed overpowering your work emails? Oh and isn’t it annoying when advertising emails come in the way of your important conversations? Well, all hail Google! Google’s  Gmail is getting a revamp and it is no longer a secret. The search giant on Wednesday introduced its brand new inbox layout—available for iOS, Android and desktop—which will organize emails into tabbed categories. The goal here is to make email appear less overwhelming by giving users a more digestible inbox, and bring what’s important to the forefront. Well, let’s call it smart filtering.

By introducing categories—Primary, Social, Promotions and Updates—Google is giving users the control to read email on their terms. Instead of being bombarded with all types of messages in one single place, Google is separating specific types of emails so you can more easily sift through the noise. It’s like categorizing people into circles, or music into genres. And it is definitely more reliable and efficient than the

The new inbox is customizable, too—select what tabs you want to use, set guidelines for senders so they show up under a specific tab and easily drag-and-drop between the different categories. By organizing different mailboxes, you (hopefully) won’t miss important emails buried beneath an endless stream of promotions, but you also get the opportunity to see social messages at a glance. Yay!

Of course, if you prefer email as it is, Google also gives users the opportunity to switch everything off. Google says the new inbox will roll out gradually over the next few weeks—desktop, thankfully, will be a little sooner.