Rumours surfaced online that Google might be killing off Gmail in August 2024 after an image supposedly from Google said the company is “sunsetting Gmail”. But is this true? Gmail is a flagship product of Google, and is therefore integral to many people’s professional life. So naturally, news like this is sure to raise some concern. But there is good news for those concerned regarding this announcement. The rumour, though not entirely untrue, is false. But this begs the question, how much of it is true? Here's what we know:
The rumour, though not entirely untrue, is false as confirmed by Google itself in a post saying gmail is “here to stay”.The image has since been discovered to be fake. But the rumour is partially true as there is indeed a feature of Gmail that Google said would be discontinued in 2024. But Gmail itself will continue operating as is "here to stay."
The feature of Google that is actually being killed this year is the HTML view. This was confirmed back in September 2023 when Google's support page said that after January 2024, the default mode for all users to access Gmail would switch from HTML view to Standard view. The HTML view was where you could check your emails in the simplest way possible. It was there to allow users to access their emails when they were in a low network areas and couldn't load the standard view.
The HTML version lacks a lot of features such as chat, spell checker, search filters, keyboard shortcuts, and rich formatting. Google has not yet confirmed whether it plans to add another mode for people in low network areas.
Google is currently focusing on infusing AI-powered features into its products, including Gmail. the company launched a Duet AI feature to help users write emails last year. It also allowed the Google Bard chatbot to integrate with Google accounts so you can ask questions about email history. A few weeks ago, the company unveiled a powerful upgrade to its spam detection system named RETVec (Resilient and Efficient Text Vectorizer). It represented a major leap forward in text classification technology, specifically designed to counter "adversarial text manipulations". This refers to tricky spam tactics, such as emails containing special characters, emojis, and typos that could slip through Gmail's defences.