Gmail notifications are about to become a lot better on Galaxy phones

Despite Gmail being one of the most used apps from Google and Android being its own platform, Google has been infuriatingly slow in adding new features to the Gmail app on Android devices. Just recently, it added the ‘Mark As Read' button in the notifications, making notifications more useful. Now, the company has added attachment previews to make notifications even more useful.

As spotted by 9To5Google, Google has added email attachment previews to notifications from the Gmail app. In its retracted form, Gmail notifications show a paperclip symbol if an email contains an attachment. When the notification is expanded, it shows images and other attachments.

For PDF files, the notification displays a pill-shaped element that mentions PDF and the name of that file. This is the same way most instant messaging apps, like WhatsApp, display previews for attachments.

Earlier, the app showed the name of the sender, the email subject, and a bit of text from the email body. And the new notification layout hides the email body text, which is something that some people might have preferred. It would be better if the Gmail app offered a setting that lets users select whether they want to see the email body or attachment previews in the notifications.

Google should have brought this feature long ago, but it has been too slow over the past few years in bringing new features to its apps on Android. For example, Google Keep and Google Tasks still doesn't have a bottom navigation bar like other Google apps do.

Image Credits: 9To5Google