It appears one of Google's unannounced announcements didn't go unnoticed at Google's annual I/O developers conference.
During one of the Internet search giant's developer session videos, some sharp-eyed viewers noticed something peculiar about the Gmail application on an Android phone in a video: a redesigned Gmail application.
The application, according to Android Police, which first broke the story, appears to feature a new navigation drawer, which comes in the form of a three-line button in the top left corner of the Gmail application. From that drawer, users can quickly access their inbox, priority inbox, important labels, starred emails and a variety of other labels and email filters. Typical features like trash, spam and drafts aren't found, but Android Police suspects the new navigation drawer will let users scroll to access more functions.
Other changes are to the application's user interface. Gone is the bottom action bar, which is now consolidated to the top of the screen where the navigation drawer also resides.
But the Gmail redesign doesn't appear to be limited to only Google's Android application. Screenshots, and an anonymous interview, obtained by The Next Web's Ken Yeung suggest Gmail's website could also be undergoing a complete overhaul.
The website redesign will include tabs, allowing users to easily micromanage their emails. The new redesign will include five default tabs defined by Google. Those tabs include Main, Social, Offers, Notifications and Forums.
Each tab, as their names imply, will have different functionalities. Main will be used for email from a user's friends, family and particular emails which can't be stored elsewhere. Social will contain all emails relevant to social media like Google+, Facebook, Twitter and others. Offers will feature emails sent by retailers, daily deals from websites like Woot and other e-commerce sites.
Similarly, Notifications will contain emails notifying you of any important updates to travel information and Forums will contain all of your emails from any newsletters or forum updates you may have singed up for.
Overall the design falls well within the typical Google style: clean, sterile and well thought out.
If the Gmail website redesign proves to be true, users, Yeung reports, can expect to see changes to Gmail roll out within the next couple of weeks, though users can keep the older version of Gmail for an extended period of time if they please.
It's unknown when, and if, the revised Android application will hit the mass market. It could, after all, be a simple mock-up that a Google employee made for their Google I/O presentation.
