Google Inbox impressions: Bundle of (mixed) joy

No company rolls out the giant, invite-only drool carpet quite like Google. Doesn't matter if that comes in the form of gems like Gmail and Voice or bummers like Wave; the company's early-bird offerings always attract a ton of interested eyes, not to mention rushed conclusions from people who arrive for the mystique, not the product.

Most of Google's limited beta launches have come from entirely new apps at a given time, which you might imagine adds to the mystique factor. But there's one bigger way to get attention: hijack and remix the look and feel of an established product like Gmail, which is exactly what Google Inbox aims to do.

We received a Google Inbox invite within minutes of the app's announcement on Wednesday, and we didn't hesitate to load it on our Android phones and desktop Web browsers to test Android SVP Sundar Pichai's claim that the combination e-mail/task manager would help us "focus on what really matters."

Hitting the snooze bar

Inbox was introduced with a lot of fanfare about how it would handle events and dates listed in e-mails, but that might lead potential users to believe that Google has pumped a lot of calendar functionality into the new app.

As it turns out, Inbox is a message-first service, and it mostly delivers on the idea that Gmail introduced last year of automatically breaking received e-mails down into multiple categories. What used to be "primary," "social," and "promotions" has exploded into a larger pool of default categories, known here as "bundles," which you can add and delete at will.

From our early experience, Bundling will require some user control and finer tuning to work automatically, which seems like an obvious design headache on Google's part after growing from only three default categories. In my particular case, spam and work e-mail are sometimes intertwined, and if something passes through Gmail's spam filter, it can be anything from utter junk to a legitimately interesting e-mail. Finding those two extremes mixed up in the "notifications" bundle—which also included useful stuff like Uber cab receipts—didn't make sense. But after a full day of use, we liked that the stress on bundles meant one fewer click or tap to move a message to a new category—and simultaneously archiving that message.

In terms of tasks, however, Inbox doesn't try to outdo Outlook's messaging and calendar integration (let alone Gmail and Google Calendar's own take). Instead, think of Inbox as an app for people who don't otherwise bother with calendar apps, who could use a hand with quick to-do notes and eternal e-mail procrastination.

The app's compose button hides a "reminder" icon; tap that to type out a simple task, like "call mom" or "pick up eggs at the grocery store." Add a "snooze" date and time, and you'll receive a notification from Inbox at that time. Honestly, we think this to-do functionality came mostly from the fact that this snooze button can be attached to any e-mail in your inbox. It's a genius option, because it makes a lot more sense in a hectic schedule than a generic "flag for later" icon. We love deciding exactly how urgent a given e-mail is with the snooze button.

If the reminder you write is too vague for Google's liking, it'll sit in Inbox as plain text, but the right phrase, like "make a reservation at Delancey," will bring up pertinent details such as a restaurant's phone number and hours of operation that day. Similarly, certain e-mails will receive headers full of relevant details, as well, but Gmail users will largely recognize that functionality, especially with flight details (gate number, on-time status, etc).

However, again, this is not a legitimate calendar app, meaning you can't look at a weekly or monthly grid of appointments and reminders built within Inbox. Worse, Google Calendar doesn't import your Inbox reminders, and there's no telling whether that will change.

Inbox thinks Tab is gross

The launch web version of Inbox includes Hangouts (really, we figure the Hangouts devotees at Google would shoehorn the chat app into stuff like Google Play Music if it could), but it's a frustrating implementation for people who like to have chat within their mail. For one, users' online status can't be seen in a minimized IM window, and when those are opened normally, status is only visible as a very thin line beneath the user's name. Currently, hitting the Tab key while typing in one IM doesn't shift focus to other IMs (which we hope will see a quick fix), while IM windows waste a lot of white space, whether between sentences or around their individual windows. (The IM windows stack on top of each other if the screen gets too crowded, at least, but they also get themselves into that stacking too quickly for our liking.)

In fact, the web version's general waste of space, and its lack of options to condense UI elements, makes us think this implementation wasn't Inbox's highest priority. The interface, both in use of white space and in wanting to bundle similar content, makes way more sense on a smaller phone screen, where a user can only see six or seven threads at once. (Also in this vein, the web interface defaults to new tabs when clicking on a video or other content within a message header, which makes more sense for a mobile device loading a new app than a web browser that should be able to embed content.) If I just want to quickly glance at new messages, or spend time on the bus efficiently sorting a glut of old receipts and event invites, Inbox's Android implementation actually works quite well.

We've only put the app through a single day of heavy use, so we're sure a few issues fell through the cracks, but a few things we noticed: Yes, you can schedule a recurring reminder to nag you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. No, you can't compose plaintext e-mails, though otherwise, the Gmail message interface remains largely unchanged. No, you can't load and browse your full contact list while composing an e-mail (surely you remember every name that you might invite to your kid's next birthday party, right?). No, you can't customize Inbox's look with things like themes or preferred font sizes. No, Google Labs is nowhere to be seen (and we are not giving up the "undo" function any time soon).

Last of all, no, you can't integrate a non-Gmail account to Inbox... at least, not yet. Android Police's pre-Inbox report on what to expect from the app surmised that the app was being built to entice users to dump their favorite e-mail accounts into Google's ecosystem. While the beta has launched as a Gmail-linked venture, we wouldn't be shocked if this eventually became a separate entity to accomplish that goal.

For now, everything I liked about Inbox, I wanted to see rolled into the design, functionality, and Google Calendar compatibility of Gmail. I'd appreciate one fewer click to shuffle an e-mail into a category; I like a reminders system as opposed to my usual habit of e-mailing myself when I need to remember something; and I want to snooze e-mails all day. We can only hope that these smart ideas find their way to Gmail (maybe through Labs!) sometime soon.