Gmail

Despite the prevalence of instant messaging, group chat, and video conferencing platforms, email remains the standard of communication in the workplace, both within the same company and across different entities. The protocol hasn't exactly evolved over the decades, and users have been forced to rely on special features provided by email clients and service providers on top of the standard. Take, for example, today's update to Gmail on the Web that will help make sure employees and organizations send the right emails to the right persons.

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How in the world has this not already been a feature for Google accounts on all platforms? Today Google released a new system for profile imagery in Google accounts of all sorts, starting with Gmail. Google Illustrations are a collection of images provided by Google to the public for free to take the place of what'd otherwise be a profile photo.

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The amount of information that we're bombarded with every day is almost a sure-fire way for important things to slip through the cracks. While many will rely on their brainpower to remember things, it has been proven that the majority of people tend to forget too easily. Unsurprisingly, there is no shortage of technological solutions that try to give as a nudge about forgotten but important tasks, and Google is bringing one such solution to its Messages Android app after baking for years in Gmail.

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Google sent out a note this week about some of the oldest Android devices, saying they'll cut off service soon. If you have an Android device that's a certain age or older - or more specifically, running a very old version of Android - it may finally be time to accept that it's no longer worth keeping in your dresser drawer. Unless, of course, you're just using the device like a virtual photo album. That'll still work.

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Today we're taking a peek at a bunch of newly renovated emoji delivered with Android 12. Google made a set of emoji ready for all platforms in their collection, including but not limited to apps like Gmail and YouTube, as well as operating systems like Android and Chrome OS. The first and most clear change came with the "motorway" emoji, which now no longer has yellow lines on BOTH sides of the motorway - because that does not make sense.

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There are many ways to share photos these days and most use social media for that purpose. Of course, those are mostly public by default and harder to control, and some resort to just sharing links to their online photo storage in private. Still, others go old-school and send photos by email. That can be a hassle for recipients if they end up having to upload images to Google Photos anyway but, fortunately, Google has finally heard the cries of Gmail users or at least some of them.

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This morning a variety of Google services had a bit of a kerfuffle. Status for Google Drive, Google Dogs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Classroom were marked by Google as having a "Service Outage." Per the Google Workspace Status Dashboard, it was only these services that were having a full "outage." However, a significant number of Gmail users reported issues starting at around 8AM central time.

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This week Google sent notifications to users about policy changes that'd be going into effect in the year 2021. These changes affect users of all Google services, including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, and the rest. If you're the sort of person who works with a Google One membership, you've got little or nothing to worry about. If you've been using Google services for a long time and never thought to delete an old email, you're going to need to pay attention.

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Prompted by the droves of people working from home, Google has spent much of 2020 rolling out some new features for Gmail. We've seen things like a new quick settings menu and even a unifying redesign for Gmail and Google's other apps, but today, users are getting a rather important new feature that allows them to quickly determine whether or not they want smart settings and personalization within Gmail turned on.

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In the tech services world year it became clear that the free ride is over. We're talking about everything from email to music streaming, photos to files. That which seemed too good to be true was indeed too good to be free. Now is the point at which you'll do well to consider which services you cannot do without, and which services you should end - before they start burning a hole in your pocket.

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Google reminded us again of the terrible, inevitable truth of cloud storage and services. You cannot depend on any one company to hold your data forever. Allowing your photos and videos and whatever other files you've got resting in Google's servers, be it in Google Drive, Google Photos, or even Gmail - Google holds the keys. Google made the case for downloading and/or keeping your files to yourself multiple times over the past year - now's the time to exit.

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Google has created a suite of "lite" apps that are designed for its Android Go special configuration for more resource-constrained phones. Everyone, however, could probably do with such lightweight alternatives to Google's core apps, presuming they're also willing to live with the compromises. Google has, fortunately, made some of those apps available outside of Android Go phones and, for at least a day, it seemed that Gmail Go would become one of those. Unfortunately, that joy was short-lived and Google has pulled out the plug on the app's accidental availability.

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