You can now write messages in a cleaner, simpler experience that puts the focus on your message itself, not all the features around it. Here are some of the highlights:
- Fast: Compose messages right from your inbox.
- Simple: Redesigned with a clean, streamlined look.
- Powerful: Check emails as you're typing, minimize drafts for later, and even compose two messages at once.
Try it out!
Once you click the
Compose button, click the "
new compose experience" link right next to the Labels button at the top of the message. Until the change is fully launched, you'll be able to choose whether you use the new or current experience.If you change your mind or if you need to use a feature that isn't available yet, you can switch back to the old experience at any time. Here's how:
- Click Compose
- At the bottom corner of the message pane, click the More menu icon
next to the Discard button. - Select "Switch back to old compose."
Details of the compose window
Instead of taking up your entire Gmail window, clicking
Compose now opens a smaller window at the bottom of your screen. Here are some of the features that you'll see:
- Recipients: Click this text field to type email addresses. You can also click the Cc orBcc links to add a new set of recipients. Drag and drop recipients from one field to another, or click the "x" to remove them from your message. Hover over the recipient to see details about them, or double-click on them to edit their address.
- Text formatting: Click this icon
to add formatting like font size, bold, underline, and bullets. Or, use our new formatting keyboard shortcuts. Hover over each button to learn the keyboard shortcut you can use for that option. Alignment and indentation options are now collapsed under the alignment icon. - Attachments: Click the Attachment icon
to attach files to your message. Hovering over the Attachment icon will also open the insert options menu. - Insert options: Hover over the plus icon
to embed photos, links, emoticons, and Google Calendar events. This menu will also open when hovering over the Attachment icon. - Discard: Click the trash can icon
to delete your draft. - More options: Click this menu to see other tools such as spell check, plain text format, print, adding labels, and including original attachments. Some options may not yet be ready; you’ll see them in grey until they become available to use.
- Window size: The writing pane grows as your message gets longer. If you want the window to be bigger, click the middle icon at the top right of the pane to open the message in a new window. Use the other icons to minimize or close the window (which will also save your draft).
- Saving: Gmail automatically saves your drafts while you’re writing, so we've removed the "Save now" button (but you can verify that it’s saved if you see the word, "Saved" next to the Discard button). Your draft will also be automatically saved when you close the compose window.
- Send mail as: If you use Gmail to send mail from another address (like your work address), click into the "To" field, then click the "From" link to select which address you’d like to send mail from.
Changes when replying or forwarding
You’ll also see some differences when replying to or forwarding messages. Most of the changes are similar to those that you'll see when composing a brand new message. Here are a few additional changes:
- Recipients: To change who your message should be sent to, click into the recipient field when you’re replying.
- Type of response: Click the arrow
next to the recipient’s name to choose whether your message is a reply, reply all, or forward. - Subject: To change the subject of your message, click the arrow next to the recipient’s name and click "Start separate conversation."
- Respond inline: If you want to see the previous message within your reply, scroll down until you see the "Show trimmed content" icon
and click it.
Coming soon
A few familiar features aren’t yet available yet, but we're working hard to make them available to you soon.
- Insert emoticons and event invitations
- Print drafts from the More menu
- Add labels to outgoing messages from the More menu
- Send read receipts (Google Apps users only)
- Canned responses
