Interesting Gmail Features You Might Not Know About

Formatted Subject Lines

Now you can create custom subject lines for regular emails in Gmail. To do this install the extension Formatted email subject lines by cloudHQ, and the new feature gets instantly available in your Gmail account. Just start composing an email, write down the subject line, highlight the text you want to format, and click the Style subject icon on the right.     

There are ten custom formats you can apply to your subject lines, bold, italics, underline to name a few. They can be useful not only to send fancy messages to your friends and workmates but also to spruce up your commercial emails.

Such subject lines as "Important! Your contact lenses expire in two weeks.  Find a new summer digest inside. Hot sales included as well.Claim your GIFT. $80 care kit is now $10 only." would definitely catch more attention than regular writing.

Dark Mode

Dark Mode is the functionality that enables to shift the Gmail interface background from light to dark. It doesn’t change or invert colors but adds more contrast to them against the dark background. To use Dark Mode for desktop, go to your Gmail Settings > Themes, and pick Dark. You can also install Dark Mode as an extension: in this case, it would be applied not only to Gmail but all browser windows except Google homepage. Speaking of mobiles, as for now Dark Mode is supported only by Android 10 and iOS 13 and later, but the number will grow if the functionality gets big popularity. 

Note, that when used on PC, Dark Mode doesn’t invert the colors of the email itself, only the Gmail interface is changed. However, on mobiles all colors including the email layout are shifted. So if you plan to give this feature a wide usage in your email practice, consider adapting some elements to the dark background.

AMP for Email 

Back in 2018, Google announced a new technology promised to change the way you manage your emails - Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). In 2019, functionality got available for desktop email clients, and starting from January 2020 it’s supported for mobiles as well.

The main purpose of AMP is to enable more dynamic interaction with email content. With its help, it’s possible to make a booking or order, RSVP to an event, leave a comment or review, or browse a product catalog in real-time straight in the email body, without downloading extra pages. By the way, Gmail isn’t the only email client that supports AMP: Outlook, Yahoo Mail, and Mail.ru also support AMP-supported messages.

Google Docs users who most often watch the technology in practice. Now, when people leave comments in your document, you can see them straight in the notification email and reply in there, without opening the document itself. More options are waiting for wide applications: soon, you’ll be able to manage a big part of the eCommerce routine without leaving your email account.

Schedule Time

This useful Gmail feature allows to schedule your emails and send them at the time that is most convenient for the recipient. You can pick any date and hours, making sure your messages don’t annoy people who, for example, live in different time zones. This can be useful for international companies that have staff in different countries. Regular users who have friends and family across the globe would also find Schedule Time useful to maintain healthy email communication hygiene.  

Offline

Offline by Gmail enables to view old emails even if your device isn't connected to the Internet. You can not compose new emails or receive messages, but it’s possible to read, search, or delete old ones. 

By default, the emails over the last 30 days are available for preview in the offline mode. However, you can configure the settings and opt for up to 90 days of storage. 

Smart Compose

This AI-supported feature is enabled in your Gmail account by default, however, you can disable it anytime if needed. Smart Compose is a predictive writing functionality that offers writing recommendations based on your previous emails. They are tailored to your personal style and writing patterns and are regularly updated as machine algorithms adapt to your language. The tool can be a big time-saver if you widely use email for personal or work communication that can’t be automated.

Confidential Mode

To protect the content of your emails, you can set up Confidential Mode - the expiry date after which the email stops being visible for the recipient. 

To sum up, although Gmail isn’t a very suitable tool for commercial usage (as you can’t send more than 500 emails per day, or send to more than 500 contacts per day), you can nonetheless take advantage of its rich functionality when crafting emails for your friends or colleagues. And incorporation of such technologies as AMP benefits you as a recipient, as you get access to dynamic interaction with the email content.