Google rolls out new layout with integrated view for Mail, Chat, Spaces, Meet

Google has started rolling out Gmail’s new “integrated view” to users who have turned on the Chat feature, the company said in a blog post. It puts four of the most used features in the Gmail app — Mail, Chat, Spaces, and Meet side by side in a vertical order on the left side of the screen offering a “single, unified view” to users. 

Google said that it has made these changes as millions of people around the world are frequently moving between email, messaging, group chat and video calls daily due to Covid-19 led the shift to remote and hybrid work. 

The company had shared a preview of the new “integrated Gmail view” with users in January. 

According to Neena Kamath, Group Product Manager at Gmail, the company received tons of feedback from users along with suggestions to improve it further.

Users can also customise the order of the tools based on their requirements. 

In addition to the integrated view, Google claims to have refreshed the Gmail layout, inspired by the Material 3 design, which is the new design language introduced by Google with Android 12 last October. It includes new colour-coded labels.

In terms of new features, Google is rolling out something called Search Chips in Inbox. It improves search results by narrowing them down. According to Google, if a user is looking for an email from a colleague, they can use search chips such as attachment type (document, spreadsheet, pdf) or a specific time frame during which the email was sent to narrow down the search. 

Kamath pointed out that users can enable the integrated view and new layout over the next few weeks using the new visual configuration option in Settings. Users who do not want to update to a new layout anytime soon can also choose not to upgrade and keep the existing layout.