Google announced that it would be graduating three more features from its Gmail Labs project in a Google+ update on Thursday. There’s no roll-out period for these new features so you can hop straight on over to Gmail and use Default Reply to all, Quote selected text and Send and archive right now.
Default Reply to all is particularly handy if you use Gmail to communicate with multiple parties or mailing lists, and sets the default reply action to include all parties rather than the person who sent the last message only. Send and archive is another feature designed to save time by adding a button marked, unsurprisingly, Send and Archive to Gmail alongside your usual Send button, which sends then archives the current thread immediately with a single click.
Both of these features must be turned on under Settings, unlike the final addition which is active by default. Quote selected text makes it easier to comment on only certain parts of on email – simply highlight text in an email with your cursor, hit reply and watch Gmail automatically import your selected text.
Google Labs, which launched way back in June 2008, continues to add extra functionality to Google’s web-based email service with experimental new features. These features tend to take a while to leave the Labs stage though, much like Gmail itself, which was in beta phase for more than five years.
Do you use these or any other particularly cool Labs features? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Gmail on Google+
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Thanks for the info
thanks for the update.
I would have to go & disable them,, as I hardly need their use.
Nah, they’re disabled by default. You have to turn them on if it’s something you want to use! :)
Back when I had a Gmail account I used to use Send & Archive frequently. Nice to see that it has actually (and finally) made out of Labs.
Yep, I’d like to see canned responses make the leap soon too. Think they could probably have included it in this update, but maybe next time!
I have several labs enabled. I have the calendar widget on the side. Right-side chat enabled. My favorite of all though is an the archive button lab. That is a truly useful feature.
Now if only they would make Tasks more robust.
Correction, the calendar widget is on the left. My mistake. Either way it is helpful.
Always improving is Gmail. Probably the most used google product and one which we take for granted sometimes. Love these new additions.
Well, let’s not forget Google Search of course ;)
But yes, it’s probably the most popular Google product, though I imagine Analytics isn’t far behind.
Thanks for Default Reply – I have missed it
It’s very hard to believe that EVERY email program does not have a “send later” feature. Any idea why this (seemingly obvious) useful feature is not ubiquitous? It baffles me.
Isn’t that what your drafts folder is for?
I don’t really see why you’d want to send an email later when you can send it now. I mean if you really want to do that I’m sure you could use IFTTT or something. That, or save it in drafts until you’re ready to come back to it. The time of delivery isn’t really that important, is it?
I can see myself using “quote selected text” quite a bit. I often play e-mail tennis with several clients, all of whom insist on replying with the entire thread. This gets kind of cumbersome after a few volleys. Hopefully this will allow me to cut out the chaff.