A (165)

Apps

st will also show any that have

oogle Now

menu includes bundle categories for

essages

Missing one or two

features, but on the

whole it works really well

Performance

Design

Value

»specification

Designed forPhone and tablet

Requires Android4.1

PriceFree

» verdict

W

e’ve lost count

of the number

of third-party

email apps we’ve tried,

many of which boldly claim to

revolutionise the way in which we use

email, and now Google itself is getting

in on the act. Its new Inbox app aims to

streamline your inbox. To this end, it

has a few tricks up its sleeve, including

the ability to bundle similar messages,

add reminders for tasks and snooze

emails until a later time.

The app does come with a few

restrictions, however, the most

obvious being that – unlike the latest

version of the Gmail app – it only

works with Gmail accounts. And,

while you can add multipl

there’s no combined inbox view. Also,

at the time of writing, Inbox is still in

public beta via an invite (although you

can email Google to get one).

Once you’ve got it working, the

fi rst thing you’ll notice is how the app

highlights photos, videos and other

attachments in your inbox – a really

nice touch that enables you to fi nd

them more easily while also making

it look less dull. As in many rival apps,

you can swipe an email to perform

certain actions, although here it’s

limited to two: marking it as Done or

opting to Snooze it. The former

archives it to the Done list, while the

latter enables you to set a date and

time for the email t r

Snoozing is a good way to declutter

your inbox, as is the clever bundling

feature. The app automatically

bundles similar messages together

into preset categories – Travel,

Purchases, Finance, Social, Updates,

Forums and Promos. This means, for

instance, that all those social network

notifi cations don’t clog up your inbox,

but are aggregated together into a

single message space. The automatic

sorting seems very accurate and we

didn’t notice any mistakes – but if you

do see any, you can move a particular

message in or out of the category to

improve its future accuracy. You can

also turn notifi cations on/off for each

category, or turn off bundling

altogether for it. In addition, you can

create your own custom bundle

categories for messages coming from

certain email addresses. So it’s all

very fl exible.

So far so good, but now let’s take

a look at what is probably Inbox’s

trump card: its reminders system.

For any email, you can add a

reminder note. While it’s not possible

to add a particular time for it, this will

place your reminder at the top of the

inbox and add a pin – simply toggle

the switch at the top of the inbox to

only see pinned messages. With the

Reminders list also accessible from

the left menu, this effectively turns

your inbox into a to-do list. Helpfully,

any Google Now reminders you’ve

set also appear in Inbox’s Reminders

list, although not vice versa.

While it lacks the sophisticated

feature set of the latest Gmail app

(including third-party account

support), Inbox is a joy to use and

works well at streamlining your inbox.

Inbox by Gmail

Google’s own alternative email app

BOXER – FREE EMAIL INBOX APP » This third-party client offers

lots of gesture-based actions, plus support for most email accounts

e

e

Photos and other

attachments are

highlighted in the inbox

Want your money back?

You’ve got 2 hours to decide!

keep refund

2 hour wonder

»0-40 minutesWe love

howithighlightsallthe

email attachments

40

12080

!

»40-80 minutesThe

snooze and reminder

facilities are handy

40

12080

!

»80-120 minutes^ No way

to add a signature to

outgoing emails

40

12080

!