Google’s new Gmail feature will change how you type your sentences

We absolutely adore Gmail’s Smart Reply, a feature that helps users reply faster to emails by choosing from a bank of automated responses. But Google didn’t stop at Smart Reply. In a May 8th blog post, Google revealed its latest Gmail feature, Smart Compose. Thanks to some snazzy new artificial intelligence, Smart Compose will help you draft emails faster than ever.
Similar to Smart Reply, Gmail will soon suggest sentences to plug into your email after you type the first few words. For example, Smart Compose will recognize who you’re sending an email to and suggest, “Hey [their name]” before you begin typing the body of your message. Wild!
Then, as you continue to draft your message, Smart Compose will guess where you’re going with any given sentence and try to complete the message for you. Simply hit the “tab” button to go with Smart Compose’s suggestion, and it will be added to your email.
"Smart Compose helps save you time by cutting back on repetitive writing, while reducing the chance of spelling and grammatical errors," Google product manager Paul Lambert wrote in the recent blog post. "It can even suggest relevant contextual phrases. For example, if it's Friday it may suggest 'Have a great weekend!' as a closing phrase."
A new feature powered by AI, we're launching Smart Compose in @gmail to help you draft emails more quickly by providing interactive suggestions as you type → https://t.co/nJIWG29M0T #io18 pic.twitter.com/DKjqDdl5ts
— Google (@Google) May 8, 2018
We can’t tell if this is super cool or toeing the line of kind of creepy — but either way, we love how Smart Compose is going to save us so. much. time.
Google will begin rolling out Smart Compose to Gmail users over the next few weeks. And G Suite users will see Smart Compose pop up in the next few months.
"One of our core products that we're redesigning with AI is Gmail." Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduces Smart Compose which will auto-complete emails for you. Rolls out in May 2018 #io18 pic.twitter.com/K368CIxqw2
— VentureBeat (@VentureBeat) May 8, 2018
To make sure your Gmail is ready to put Smart Compose to work, head to Gmail’s Settings and click “Try the new Gmail.” Then head to the general settings tab and click to enable “experimental access.”
The future is now, people.