The latest update to Inbox only served to rub some salt in the wound as it was prepared for its impending demise, but maybe clues from the latest Gmail update will provide some solace. There aren't any changes jumping out after installing, but some hints inside the app to point to early implementations for some of the features people love from Inbox.

Teardown

Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are wrong or inaccurate. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that products could change or may be canceled. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released.

The features discussed below are probably not live yet, or may only be live for a small percentage of users. Unless stated otherwise, don't expect to see these features if you install the apk. All screenshots and images are real unless otherwise stated, and images are only altered to remove personal information.

Flight schedule cards

Inbox had become incredibly popular for travelers thanks to the introduction of Trip Bundles. Basically, a card that showed you the dates and times for upcoming stages of a trip, and by tapping on the card, you had immediate access to the emails where this information came from. Good news, Gmail is on the way to having that, or at least something like it.

The opening clue for this is a simple pair of labels for flight departure and arrival times. Granted, that's not much, but Inbox served up bundles without much static text or code, it was all generated from emails, so this may be as much as we'll get to see. Nevertheless, it shows Gmail will be detecting flight times and presenting them much like Inbox did.

<string name="topic_card_flight_arrival">Arrival</string> <string name="topic_card_flight_departure">Departure</string>

This one probably doesn't deserve a topic of its own, but there wasn't a better place to put it. Perhaps an aspect of Inbox's organizational approach is also coming to Gmail. There will be a way to view "related messages," which could imply that there's going to be bundles for general message types. This is just speculative, but it seems fairly practical.

<string name="topic_constituents_label">Related messages</string>

No doubt these are just the beginning of many Inbox features making the transition to Gmail. There are about five months remaining before the shutdown, which should be enough time for most of the core experience to make its way over, and the rest will soon follow.

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The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

Gmail Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
4.2
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