In the name of convenience, Google has added many smart Gmail features this year, but not everyone’s excited about them. One such example, is the nudges to reply to emails you – or your recipient – are yet to follow up on.
The feature pushes the email chain back to the top of your inbox, so you’ve probably noticed it flagging 4-5 day-old emails, in case you’ve forgotten about them, or if you want to ‘nudge’ (read: pester) someone to get back to you.
In theory, it’s great. However, in many cases, those nudges are for conversations that have already reached their natural end. Also, if you’re patiently awaiting a reply from the other party, seeing their name back at the top of your inbox – without a new message – is downright annoying.
Thankfully, you can disable the nudges feature within the Gmail settings menus. You can choose whether you want to disable nudges for emails you’ve yet to reply to, and also for those who’ve yet to reply to you.
Read more: Google I/O 2018
Doing so is easy. On the Gmail web client, simply go to Settings > and scroll down to Nudges. There you can untick the ‘Suggest emails to reply to’ or ‘suggest emails to follow up on’ options (via LaptopMag).
In the Gmail app, you need to go to Settings > Your Account > Nudges > Replies and follow-ups and do the same. And it’s really that simple.
Nudges is the latest AI-based feature Google has added to Gmail throughout the year. It arrived in May alongside the offline mode, which allows users to perform actions like write, delete and archive emails while offline. All activities are synced when the user comes back online.
This year, Google also added the suggested Smart Replies, which stirred a little controversy for creating some dodgy responses, but in the main it’s handy for fast-moving folks looking to fire-off a quick answer.
Is Google’s Gmail now literally too clever for its own good? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
