Tag Archives: Gmail

Technology

Free Google Chat web redesign rolls out, part of Gmail

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Last week, we spotted how the Google Chat website was getting some tweaks and Hangouts-style chat windows. This redesign of Google Chat is now rolled out for free accounts and is interestingly directly part of Gmail.

Google is starting to migrate classic Hangouts users to the free version of Chat. This builds on how Workspace customers have long been able to invite any Gmail account to select conversations. In either case, personal Google Accounts can download the Chat apps on Android or iOS, as well as the web client.

As part of this change, visiting chat.google.com is redirecting users to:

mail.google.com/mail/u/0/chat/#chat/welcome

This loads the new UI that started appearing for some last week. It looks more like the Gmail web app — down to the loading screen — than the version of Chat available for paying customers. The top bar features a search bar, settings, and a dropdown to determine whether you’re “Active,” “Do not disturb,” or “Set as away.”

A navigation drawer lists “Chat” conversations — both one-to-one and groups — and larger Rooms. There’s also a “Meet” shortcut to start or join a video call. The sidebar can be minimized by clicking the hamburger button so that only profile avatars appear.

The key improvement is the ability to dock conversations in compact windows that match the classic Hangouts experience in Gmail. Conversations start appearing at the right and can be further minimized. All functionality is available in this small window, including Google Drive insertion and video call invites. As we noted before, this is a great productivity improvement:

In addition to being very familiar to longtime Gmail users, it’s an efficient way to talk to multiple people simultaneously. For example, it’d be very convenient to have one Room in the main screen and multiple docked windows, so that constant switching is not needed.

This Google Chat redesign that integrates it into Gmail will presumably come to Workspace customers next. Alternatively, this could just be for the free version of Chat.

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Technology

Google has finally added iOS’s privacy labels to Gmail

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Google has finally added Apple App Store privacy labels to its Gmail app, almost a month after we ran an article wondering what was taking so long (via MacRumors). The app is the second major Google app to get the labels, after they were added to YouTube when it was updated earlier this month.

So how does it look? Well, that’s up for you to decide. The app apparently shares your coarse location and user ID with advertisers, as well as information about your interaction with advertisements. According to the privacy label, though, it doesn’t collect your name, physical address, or phone number (though as an email client, Gmail obviously collects your email address). Location data is also used for analytics and there are some features of the app that will request it as well. If you want to see the full label, there’s a video below that scrolls through.

For contrast, here’s the app privacy information for another email app, Hey.

The information Hey requests fits on one page.
Screenshot: The Verge

It is worth noting that Apple’s app privacy labels are meant to show all the things that the app might access, not what information that app will access. For example, an app may only use location data when it needs to show you a map, but the privacy labels don’t make that clear — it’s just a binary used/not used. Also, the information in the labels is submitted by the company itself, and Apple doesn’t make promises about its accuracy.

Strangely, Google added the labels without actually updating the Gmail app, even though it was literally crying out for an update (because of a fun bug). The last time Google updated the iOS app was two months ago.

So far, Google’s other large apps like Maps, Photos, Docs, and Chrome haven’t gotten the labels yet. But the fact that both YouTube and Gmail have had them added indicates that Google is starting to roll them out to its bigger apps.

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Technology

Gmail iOS App Has Out of Date Warning After 2 Months of No Updates as Google Delays Privacy Labels [Updated]

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Though Google has promised to update its suite of apps with App Privacy labels to comply with App Store rules that Apple began enforcing in December, many of its major apps have gone months without an update and still list no privacy information.


It’s been so long since Google last updated the Gmail app, in fact, that Gmail now displays a warning that the latest security features are unavailable. As discovered by Techmeme editor Spencer Dailey, when you go to log into a new account in the Gmail app for iOS, it gives a warning that you should update and suggests that you only continue with the sign in “if you understand the risks.”

Unfortunately, there is no update available for the Gmail app. Version 6.0.201115 of the Gmail app is the only available version of Gmail on the iPhone and iPad, and it hasn’t been updated since December 1.

Google on January 5 claimed that it would be adding privacy data to its app catalog “this week or next week,” but by January 20, most apps still had not been updated with the App Privacy labels.

Google has since quietly been adding labels to apps like YouTube, but major apps like Gmail, Google Search, Google Photos, Google Maps, and others still do not have privacy details. Even in apps that have gained with labels, there have been no feature or security updates for the most part.

It continues to be unclear why Google is taking so long to add App Privacy labels to its iOS apps, and there’s no word yet on when Gmail will get an update. Google has been regularly updating its Android apps, and the last update for the Android Gmail app was released on February 9.

There has been speculation that Google is hesitant to provide the privacy label data because of the negative feedback that other companies like Facebook have received, but there’s still no confirmed explanation.

App Privacy labels have been required since iOS 14.3 and are designed to provide customers with details about what data an app collects from them so they can make an informed choice when opting to install an app. App developers are required to self-report privacy information in the ‌‌App Store‌‌, and developers must identify all data collection and use cases.

Update: Google has pushed a server side update that removes the out of date warning when attempting to sign into a new account in the Gmail app.



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