With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, search giant Google’s email service has turned 15 today. Introduced by Paul Buchheit on April 1, 2004, the e-mail service began with a storage capacity of just 1GB/user.
Currently, Gmail allows 15GB of free storage to every user. While users can receive emails that are up to 50MB in size, including attachments, they are allowed to send emails up to 25MB in size. If you want to send large files, you always have the option of using Google Drive.
Google recently launched new features in Gmail that are designed to help you get things done quickly. With machine learning, Gmail can help you quickly draft emails using Smart Compose and reply to messages with suggested responses generated by Smart Reply. It can also ‘nudge’ you to follow up on emails with subtle reminders in your inbox and notify you to reply to threads so that you can prioritise what’s important or overdue.
As part of the new design, you can quickly view attachments, like photos, without opening or scrolling through the conversation. It’s also easier to switch between personal and work accounts, so you can access all your emails without breaking any hassle.
Since its inception, Gmail slowly surpassed Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail and Hotmail. While it’s free for consumers, the company also offers a paid suite for enterprises that includes word processing, workbooks and presentation software.
Just one year after Gmail was created, Google Maps were launched, which has now become the leading navigation service on Android, iOS and on the web.
