Google Inbox will definitively stop on 2 April

Google has finally announced when it will stop using the Inbox app. When the app was launched, the company ambitiously called it a smarter version of email, but it never caught on. And so on April 2, 2019, the curtain will fall for the app.

Last year Google announced that the curtain would fall for Inbox. But then it seemed that the app would close in 2018. However, this process will take much longer and will now take just under two weeks. After that, Google Inbox was really finished.

End of story

Inbox users will see a message in the app as of yesterday. In it they can read that the app will stop on 2 April. The message also contains a link to the Gmail inbox, informing you that your messages are already waiting for you. So people who ever switched from Gmail to Inbox, have to go back to Gmail.

Since Google announced that it is pulling the plug on Inbox, it has brought some of the best features of that app to Gmail. These include Smart Reply, Smart Compose and Follow-Ups. Google has also provided the app with a completely new design, which is more in line with Inbox. So the transition is quite smooth for people who step back from Inbox to Gmail.

Reinventing the wheel

This is not the first time that Google has tried to reinvent the wheel of the email. In 2009, for example, it launched Google Wave, which combined functions of email with chat and other means of communication. But already in 2010 the plug was pulled from Wave.

The key question remains for Google and other companies whether e-mail is not obsolete and needs to be replaced. At the same time, some parties argue that the mail is an ideal means of communication and should be left alone. Others think that the starting point is good, but that e-mails can use the addition of chat services. Whatever the future holds, it will be without Google Inbox.