Google Weighs in on The Future of Inbox Messages

To appreciate the way so many of us feel about Google today, we need only remember the words of perfectly adequate 80s rock band Great White: Once bitten, twice shy. 

Google makes some really great apps and services. It also isn't afraid to kill off said apps and services when it sees fit, regardless of how users may react. The inevitable question, then, is always: What's next? Which Google app or service will be given a death sentence that'll send its dedicated users into a tizzy?

Right now, a lot of folks seem to be placing their bets on Inbox — the alternative Gmail interface that made its official public debut nearly three years ago. It's easy to see why Inbox could look like a target: First, a major Gmail redesign is essentially now confirmed to be looming — and leaked screenshots show the app adopting one of Inbox's key distinguishing features: native email snoozing. Gmail also got the Inbox-initiated Smart Reply feature a year ago.

According to Google, though, all the fretting over Inbox's future is much ado about nothing. With respect to the upcoming Gmail announcement, there are no changes to Inbox by Gmail," a Google spokesperson tells me. "It remains a great product for users with specific workflows and one in which we test innovative features for email.