In November 2023, Google started testing a chat-style user interface for replying to emails in Gmail for Android. According to a new post from AssembleDebug on X/Twitter, the company has now started rolling out the redesigned UI to the public. The new UI is arriving with an update to the app that bumps the app’s version to 2024.01.14.599541078.
The redesigned UI has a text box at the bottom of the email viewing screen for replying to emails, similar to the one you find in Google Messages or instant messaging apps. You can click on the box and start typing a reply. Once you are done writing the reply, you can tap the send button on the right-hand side of the box to send it.
The text box also has Reply, Reply All, and Forward options to let you choose to whom you want to send the email. To the right-hand side of the box, you have the emoji button, and on the left-hand side of the box, you have the attachment button. The new UI makes replying to messages feel like having a conversation in an instant messaging app. That makes sending an email feel less serious compared to the traditional way of doing it.
At the moment, there’s no information about when Google will start rolling out the new UI to Gmail for iOS. Expect that to happen in the next few weeks.
