The future of email has arrived.

Say hello to Inbox – Google’s new app that will finally bring email into the 21st century.

Think of your current email platform, but mediated by a personal assistant. The app acts as a digital secretary by bringing the most important information, like attachments and confirmation numbers, to the forefront. It also groups messages of similar content into “bundles” and can instantly create tasks and reminders based on that content.

Not only is Inbox more convenient than other email providers, but the photo-heavy interface brings life to an old-fashioned system. Giving you visual previews of your emails in a newsfeed-like interface relates more to the modern era of social media than text-only lists. Inbox is easy to navigate and is a lot less intimidating for those users that have hundreds of unread emails piled up.

One of the best features of Inbox is the seamless transition from email to a to-do list. For people like myself who use their smartphone to stay on track throughout the day, the combination of email and task list is a game-changer. Usually it’s an email that reminds me of an event or work I have to do, so now instead of taking time to jot it down in the notes app, I can create a reminder immediately after reading the email.

The “snooze” feature, which allows you to have emails reappear at a certain time or geolocation, is also pretty impressive. If you’re passing by the dry cleaner’s or post office for example, Inbox will shoot you an alert reminding you to complete your task. Forgotten emails could become a thing of the past with the option to reschedule emails for the coming days, weeks and months with just a simple swipe.

From a broader perspective, the Inbox app will go a long way in making email cool again. Email was the backbone of the beginning of the digital era, but failed to modernize with the times. This dull messaging method may not be the most popular today, but it remains a necessity for the working world. Inbox is huge step in finally combining fun with functionality.

Google is aware that people use email mostly for work and not for personal use. If Inbox plans to compete with services such as Yahoo and Microsoft, it will need to work efficiently for all types of emails.

“We initially focused on the consumer use cases,” said Gmail’s Product Director Alex Gawley in an Oct. 22 The Verge article. But there are a “ton of additional things that we will do that will make it great in a business context as well.”

Inbox is currently in the beta stage and is only available to those that receive invites from Google or an active user. In 2004, Google launched Gmail with an invitation-only system and 10 years later it hopes its new email provider can experience the same success.

Email just got a much-needed facelift, and with its stylish interface and ease of use, I could see Inbox successfully replacing Gmail in the near future. Kudos to Google for teaching an old dog new tricks.

Aarick Knighton is a junior information management and technology major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at adknight@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @aarickurban.

Published on October 30, 2014 at 12:01 am