Google shares closed lower Tuesday ahead of the new Gmail update

The new Gmail is available today for all personal Gmail users and G Suite early adopter program (EAP) customers, but all are meant to boost team productivity, according to David Thacker, VP Product Management for G Suite.

Rumors of a major Gmail update have been floating around for a while, and while the changes are primarily aimed at business customers, many of them will be coming to the free consumer version of Gmail, as well.

Security is the top priority in new Gmail. When the sent mail is opened, the link will be fetched and displayed if you mailed another Gmail user, while other email users will only see the link; in both cases the security measures you set will be in force. You can’t stop anybody from taking a picture of the screen of course, but what’s maybe more important here is that if anybody ever hacked the recipient’s account, that email with your confidential information will be long gone. The mail can also be set to destruct after a set period of time to help the sender stay in control of the information.

Gmail will now tell you to follow up and respond to messages that you’ve been putting off.

Gmail will now even ask users whether they want to unsubscribe to mailing lists, if it notes that they get a lot of emails from a particular list but never read them. The improvements are designed at making Gmail more user-friendly, as Google looks to take a larger chunk of the email segment away from Microsoft’s Outlook. Gmail is also getting a new built-in offline mode since it’s now a fully fledged progressive web app. You’ll be able to access the snooze option – along with commonly used options like archive, delete, and mark to send – via a new hover menu.

Google also seems to be actively working to reduce phishing attacks by incorporating machine-learning algorithms to run rigorous safety checks on every email. Those immediately available include smart replies (similar to the Gmail mobile version), the option to snooze emails as in Inbox and a new tool panel on the right side of Gmail’s interface for easy access to Tasks (also revamped) and Calendar.

One other AI-powered addition to Gmail is a nudging feature. Now Gmail is adding more offline support, so users can read, write and reply to emails offline.

Refined UX. The Gmail for web interface has been fine-tuned with a new look and feel.

One of the most exciting new features is a “confidential mode” that prevents people from copying, forwarding, downloading and printing the emails you send them. You simply click the cogwheel for settings in the top-right corner and select “Try the new Gmail“.

Gmail on mobile will get new high-priority notifications to highlight messages Google believes shouldn’t be ignored, and will even start to suggest when users should unsubscribe from newsletters or offers that are no longer of worth.

Since Gmail is now a progressive web app, it can function entirely offline as well.