Here is the day Google's Inbox is going to die
Anyone who logged into Google's Inbox app on Tuesday was greeted by a notification telling them to just download regular Gmail already. It also warned users that Inbox will not be available after April 2.
The move was first announced back in September, but Google apparently felt the need to reiterate that Inbox will die soon to anyone still using the app.
Though the two apps are functionally similar, Inbox and the regular Gmail app served different audiences. Inbox leaned heavily into productivity-minded users by giving people some handy ways to clean up their messy inboxes and never spend too much time drafting a response. It was the birthplace of the auto-generated Gmail reply, for those who would rather say "Thanks!" by pressing a button than typing it out.
That was one of the Inbox features that eventually made it over to the default app, but not all of them did. For example, Inbox also allowed users to sort similar messages into "bundles," something that hasn't been fully replicated in Gmail just yet.
The app was originally launched in 2014 on an invite-only basis, but became available to the public later. It can still be downloaded and used for now, but it's probably inadvisable to fall in love with Inbox just two weeks before its destruction.
As you might expect, the death of Inbox has made some people pretty unhappy. An online petition to stop Google from shutting down Inbox was created late last year and actually got a boost in signatures on Tuesday morning after the death notification went out. At the time of writing, it was about 500 signatures away from its goal of 10,000.
Inbox fans took to Twitter to mourn the outgoing app and vent their frustration.
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Topics Apps & Software Google
Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Alex can be found on Bluesky at yelix.bsky.social.
