Gmail Unveils Preview Pane: Browse Emails While You Reply to Them

 by Ben Parr

Gmail is taking a few cues from its tablet apps with Preview Pane, Google’s newest Gmail Labs feature.

Preview Pane, which is now available in Gmail Labs, allows users to simultaneously preview parts of an email while reading or replying to others. Users of Gmail for iPad or Android will instantly recognize the interface — its design is directly inspired by the email service’s mobile web apps.

Activating Preview Pane opens up a three-window panel for Gmail, with the Preview Pane in between the navigation and email panes. Activating the horizontal split places the preview pane at the top and emails below the preview pane. Users can change pane settings with a button that appears on the top right corner of Gmail.Google‘s Official Gmail Blog suggests that users with higher-resolution screens will get the most out of the feature.

The concept of a Preview Pane sounds intriguing, but my initial tests lead me to conclude it’s a clunky and incomplete product. It breaks up my Gmail Labels in a way that keeps them from lining up with Gmail’s navigation pane, leading to a ugly and cluttered look. The standard two-pane system is cleaner, although you probably can get through more emails with Preview Pane activated.

Will you be switching to Preview Pane? Test it out and let us know what you think of it in the comments.

Gmail Now Lets You Make Multiple Calls at the Same Time

 by Charlie White

Remember those old multi-line phones with all the buttons across the bottom? That gave you access to more than one line at a time, a feature now available in Google‘s Gmail.

According to the official Gmail Blog, this new multi-call capability will let you put callers on hold with Gmail’s phone service, picking up another call at the same time. Too bad there’s no music on hold to entertain that first caller.

Also imitating conventional phone systems is call waiting, where you receive a notification of an incoming call, and then it’s up to you whether you’re going to answer it or not. The only limitation with this new capability is that you’re only allowed two outgoing calls to physical phones at the same time.

Best of all, U.S. and Canada calls using the Gmail phone and video system will be free through 2011, and all these new multi-line features work with Gmail’s phone, voice and video calls.

Gmail Priority Inbox Now Available on Mobile Web

by Ben Parr

Google is bringing Gmail’s popular Priority Inbox feature to Gmail’s mobile web interface.

Priority Inbox is Google’s attempt to solve e-mail overload. It algorithmically chooses the e-mails that are the most likely to be important to you and brings them to the top of the page, placing them in the “important and unread” folder. Priority Inbox is currently available for desktop and Android devices.

Now Google is bringing Priority Inbox to the Gmail mobile web app. Users with the feature enabled will be able to access their priority inboxes from the Menu screen in the mobile app. Users can read through their important and unread or starred messages, or they can simply check out all of their high-priority e-mails. Gmail for mobile also labels important items with the familiar yellow arrow icon.

Oh, and good news for those who have customized Priority Inbox with a custom label: It will be accessible through Gmail’s mobile app as well. Priority Inbox for mobile is available for phones that support HTML5, primarily Android and iOS devices.