Google is integrating artificial intelligence into your Gmail inbox, whether you like it or not. As of Thursday, it is rolling out an AI-powered “smarter search” layout globally, which prioritises what it thinks you most want to see.
When you input a search term, Gmail will no longer list the related emails in chronological order, from newest to oldest; instead, it will list the emails based on its own relevancy ranking, which takes into account recency but also the most-clicked emails and frequent contacts.
“Most relevant” will be available for users with personal Google accounts accessing their inbox on the web and in the official Gmail app for Android and iOS. Business users will be granted access later on. You will still have the option to turn this “most relevant” feature off and show “most recent” instead by using the new dropdown menu just below the search bar.
“With this update, the emails you’re looking for are far more likely to be at the top of your search results — saving you valuable time and helping you find important information more easily,” Google said in a blog post about Gmail’s upgraded search features.
SEE: How to Mass Delete Emails on Gmail: Best Way to Declutter
Will this Gmail update be better received than similar Mail app changes?
The fact that the Google announcement opens with “if you’ve ever struggled with finding information in your overflowing inbox, you’re not alone” is fairly ironic. The search features in both Gmail and Outlook inboxes have been a point of contention for years. Users complain they find it difficult to locate emails even when using hyper-specific search terms.
However, Apple recently made a similar change to the Mail app with the iOS 18 update to mixed reactions. The Categories inbox layout has four tabs: Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. Mail decides which category each email falls into, with Primary containing the most important ones and acts as the default category.
Users complained that if Mail mistakenly deems an important email as, say, a newsletter or payment receipt, they might miss it, especially as it was hard to see when new emails were received in categories other than Primary. Gmail may encounter similar grumbles if its AI decides whether an email is relevant or not, independent of the user.
Gmail’s bigger AI push goes beyond search
This isn’t the only AI feature Google has added to Gmail in the past few months. Users can chat with Google’s chatbot, Gemini, about the content of their inbox or draft a response. They can also use Gemini to add events to a Google Calendar directly from an email.
In October, Gmail introduced “summary cards,” which appear at the top of an open email and enable users to perform related actions directly within their inbox. These include tracking packages, checking in for flights, and paying bills.
