Gmail turns 15 today

Gmail turns 15 today and, to celebrate, Google is launching some minor updates: improving Gmail's Smart Compose feature and giving users the option to schedule emails.

The Smart Compose updates are quite vague. Google revealed the feature in May 2018, which suggests ways to end sentences in emails. The updated version says Google, "can now adapt to the way you write," matching your individual writing style.

Google says that this could mean that Smart Compose remembers your preferred way of greeting certain colleagues (for example, "Hey Team"), but does not offer more details than that. In addition, Smart Compose will now also suggest subject lines based on the body of your email.

Google says that Smart Compose has prevented people from writing "more than a billion characters a week" on the web and that the feature will now be available on Android devices (something announced earlier this month) that will reach iOS devices "soon".

A simpler update of Gmail is the new ability to schedule messages. By clicking on an arrow next to the "Send" button in the compose window, this programme which can schedule will appear. You can choose between presets such as "tomorrow morning" or specify a particular time and date.

Previously, you could program emails in Gmail through third-party extensions, but it is much more convenient to have the power integrated directly into the client. It is useful to communicate through time zones or set reminders for friends and family.

They are minor updates, of course, but good reminders of why Gmail is still so popular 15 years after its release.