Google overhauls Gmail to lure businesses

Company calls it an expensive overhaul two years in the making to adopt security and offline functionality

Alphabet Inc’s Google yesterday unveiled its first Gmail redesign since 2013, capping what the company says was an expensive overhaul two years in the making to adopt security and offline functionality and better resemble Microsoft Outlook.

It is Google’s most extensive update to software in its G Suite workplace bundle since accelerating efforts to steal business from Microsoft Corp’s dominant Office workplace software suite. Previously, G Suite added instant-messaging and spreadsheet features.

With Gmail, Google said it restructured email storage databases, unified three duelling systems for synching messages across devices and upgraded computers underpinning the service.

That shift to Google’s self-developed Tensor processing chips enables smart assistant features such as “suggested replies” to messages and “nudges” to respond to forgotten emails.

The changes also fulfil another top demand of business executives — message expiration.

Users who enable a “confidential” option when sending an email can timelimit its access to recipients and also require they enter a one-time passcode sent to their phones to read it.

“This is an entire rewrite of our flagship, most-used product,” said Jacob Bank, product manager lead for Gmail, which 1.4 billion people use each month.

Unreliable offline access to email has long discouraged would-be customers, while recent high-profile corporate data breaches have increased their desire to lock down email.

Analysts estimate G Suite generated about $2 billion in revenue last year, 10 times behind Office.