Google's Gmail hits 900 million users, opens up Inbox

SAN FRANCISCO — Extending the lead of the world's most popular email service, Gmail now reaches 900 million around the globe, more than double the 425 million monthly active users that it had three years ago.

Google's senior vice president of products, Sundar Pichai, made the announcement Thursday during the Internet giant's annual I/O developers conference.

More than three-quarters of Gmail users are logging on from mobile devices.

Seizing on that momentum, Google is opening up a new version of Gmail to the public, this one redesigned for mobile devices.

Called Inbox, it launched as an invitation-only service in October. Google says it's a smarter way to sort through the daily torrent of messages.

Inbox is making its public debut with new features that Google hopes will entice people to try it.

Silicon Valley is looking to refresh decades-old email technology now that people are spending so much of their time squinting at small screens.

For Google, that has meant building a service "from the ground up for the mobile world" that shoulders more of the busy work for people, Alex Gawley, director of product management for Gmail and Inbox by Gmail, said in an interview this week.

The idea: to make email "as powerful on their phone as on any computer," he said.

Inbox helps users stay more organized by grouping together bank statements or receipts from purchases so they can be quickly reviewed then swiped away without going into the message.

It highlights important information from e-mails such as photos of a newborn or a document from a co-worker, without having to open the email.

Users can create tasks or add reminders to the top of the inbox such as pick up milk or the dry cleaning. To help users complete a task, Inbox uses "assists." Make a restaurant reservation online, and Inbox adds a map to the confirmation e-mail. Book a flight online, Inbox gives a link to check in.

Email and reminders can be snoozed so they only return to the inbox when you arrive at home or the office or at a specific time.

Inbox also displays useful information that isn't in the e-mail, say the real-time status of a flight booked online or of a package being delivered.

On Thursday Inbox is rolling out new features. Among them: bundling all of your emails for a trip and surfacing critical information such as real-time flight times and hotel reservation numbers; taking back an email right after you send it if you have second thoughts; and the ability to add custom signatures to emails.

These kinds of mobile-friendly features have bubbled up as startups and Internet giants alike innovate to meet "a well-known need for a better email client," said Forrester Research analyst TJ Keitt.

Google is "road testing what they want Gmail to be in the future," Keitt said. "But I am not entirely sure what they have at this point is broadly appealing to the marketplace."

So far the email service has received mixed reviews, with some people abandoning Inbox to stick with Gmail.

Gawley refused to say how many people have downloaded Inbox or how many of those people ended up switching to Inbox from Gmail.

Inbox launched in October as an invitation-only service to gather feedback from users. The gradual rollout is similar to how Google introduced Gmail a decade earlier and is designed to create an aura of exclusivity.

"You can take it as an indicator of how happy we are with the success of it that we are opening it up at this point," Gawley said.

People getting the most out of Inbox are those "feeling overwhelmed with Gmail and struggling to stay on top of it," he said. "It comes down to: Do you feel like you have a perceived need for something?"

Inbox may help Google compete for people's time and attention with e-mail services from Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple.

Gmail is the No. 1 email provider in the U.S. on mobile devices and desktop computers, according to research firm ComScore.

Yahoo Mail has 225 million monthly active users, Yahoo spokeswoman Anne Yeh says. Outlook.com has more than 400 million active accounts worldwide, according to Microsoft spokesman Jordan Bergstrom.

Google is also hoping Inbox will be popular with business customers, perhaps even be a carrot to lure business customers away from Microsoft Office.

On Thursday, Google said it would now offer Inbox access to Google Apps for Work customers who want to try it out. Google began allowing a limited number of Google Apps for Work customers to try Inbox in February.

Google is not pitching Inbox as a replacement for Gmail — at least not yet. Instead it's positioning Inbox as email "for the next decade."

But, said Gawley, "we hope over the long run that users will tell us they want to switch to Inbox."

That won't happen overnight, he conceded.

"This is the start of a long journey with our users," Gawley said. "We recognize people have work flows that they use. We don't expect anyone to change their work flow overnight."