This week, Google unveiled its new Quick Replies feature. Gmail This is a feature coming to the Android app soon. The big change here is that replying to an email no longer takes you away from the email you were reading to a new screen. For me, at least, this is a pretty big improvement.
The screenshot below shows what this will look like once it's on your device: As you can see, when you click the reply button, it stays within the open email and embeds an inline reply box. Some controls are still there, such as the full-screen option, which opens the more formal reply screen you're used to.
What's the point? It's great for quick replies that don't require a formal response. Most of the replies I send in Gmail tend to be short and don't require a lot of formatting to keep the conversation going. I think it's great to be able to hit reply and quickly say “Thanks!” (just kidding).
According to Google, the rollout of this change on Android started yesterday (August 26th) and will spread gradually over the next 15 days. Google Workspace users may be the first to be affected, but we suspect that general Gmail users will also be included in the Workspace rollout. Keep an eye out and let us know if you notice anything.
For iOS users, the change won't be visible until “later this year.”
Google Play Link: Gmail