E-commerce is a flourishing industry, and for shoppers, it can be difficult to keep track of all the awaited deliveries. You could install one of the many available package tracking apps, or just use the emails every seller sends you. Just ahead of Black Friday last year, Google announced a new package tracking feature for Gmail that intelligently compresses communication from sellers and shipping services into glanceable package tracking data. We now have a way to enable this feature manually.
For a long time now, Google has summarized product and seller details from the email in a box below the subject line, complete with a quick link to track a product. This information panel has now been further refined, as 9to5Google notes. It includes Material You dynamic theming elements, quick links to package tracking and order info, and a three-step progress bar showing the status of your order (placed, shipped, and delivered). The card title includes the product name and an estimated date of arrival in green. We also see the latter under the email subject line in the inbox list view.
Left to right: Old package tracking card; new package tracking card with progress bar; new package tracking card in inbox; new package tracking card without the progress bar.
Curiously, the progress bar did not show up for all pending online orders in our testing. Instead, we've only spotted a more condensed version of the original design so far. Sometimes this card stated that an order is expected even though it has already been delivered. This could be because some mail may not contain all the required information to display the progress bar, but it could also be a design change Google hasn't talked about yet.
The new interface is already rolling out, and you should see a related prompt show up in the app. However, if you’re not seeing it, there are a few easy steps to enable it right away:
- Open the Gmail app on your Android device.
- Tap the hamburger menu in the upper-left corner to open the navigation drawer.
- Scroll to the bottom and select Settings.
- Tap your email address.
- Scroll down, and enable the Package tracking option under the General section.
A similar implementation is in the works for Gmail’s web interface, but Android and iOS users can enjoy this feature right away. The new inclusion makes Gmail a smudge more useful for the average user and also ensures new features stay consistent with Google’s Material You design guidelines.