Google is discontinuing Inbox • Hacker News Board

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#411

Post by explainplease » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 12:15 PM UTC

wanderr wrote: post #265

tdfx wrote: post #157

I don't mean to throw out the same old "you can't get attached to Google products because they kill them at any time" thing, but holy shit, this one feels like a real kick in the balls. Email is one of my most important workflows and I've spent a great deal of time over the past few years attaching myself to the zero inbox mindset through the bundles feature and having my reminders as first class citizens in the inbo…

I never even tried Inbox because I didn't trust that it wouldn't get killed. Ironically I was just thinking about finally giving it a try since it survived longer than I expected.

Yep. I was reluctant to try it for this very reason. I just started using it recently, and started liking it. Now I realize that, of course, I shouldn't have bothered.

If only I could easily use something like notmuch/isync on my phone...

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#412

Post by sammorrowdrums » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 12:34 PM UTC

sammorrowdrums wrote: post #402

klandergren wrote: post #110

Inbox changed my relationship with email and it is unbelievably frustrating to hear it is being shuttered. I was a better digital person because of the app: I never forgot to reply, I kept years of ideas and small notes in reminders, and I could quickly triage and clear all incoming mail. These things in particular made Inbox stand out: * UI - simple, uncluttered mobile and desktop experience with uncomplicated keybo…

Lots of features are possible in the new gmail, but everything is nested in a menu! On the android app you swipe left or right to archive an email (instead of the inbox one way to snooze, one way to archive), and you actually have to open an email, and then click a sub-menu to snooze it! Even adapting my workflow to the new tools, everything is nested - like you want a note in keep, or a task in tasks (and deciding b…

Ah. Swipe customization. Well I guess that's a little better. It's so feature heavy though. All this stuff is pretty buried.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#413

Post by detuur » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 12:52 PM UTC

tiglionabbit wrote: post #252

ProAm wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> users didn't adapt product on large enough scale Because users know it wont be a product that gets any updates and will be shutdown in 2 years.

Not to mention that it launched with a lot of missing features that existed in Gmail.

None of which I missed. I'm a poweruser in most of my computer interactions, but e-mail isn't one of them. I actually really liked Inbox's restricted feature set.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#414

Post by yebyen » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 12:53 PM UTC

What is with this trend of "discontinuing" products that are already receiving little to no maintenance? Google is not the only one guilty of this.

From the announcement, I get the idea that if I use Inbox today, it will be gone and I will no longer be able to use it after the EOL date is passed. Is it really that hard to keep the lights on, for a product for which development has already been finished?

People like this product and it has features that no others do. I don't want to go back to using the Gmail app on my Android either. There are tens of thousands of unmaintained Android apps from developers who may have even died, or at least we may never hear from again. So why should this one need to be formally sunsetted?

I am far more likely to quit email altogether, than to embrace a vanilla Gmail experience at this point.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#415

Post by boomskats » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 1:07 PM UTC

I gave up on using Inbox a few months ago as I started to find it too slow, and absolutely _loved_ the refreshed Gmail and Calendar interfaces.

However, I really hope that they fold the Reminders functionality from Keep into Gmail now, as the reminders integration across Inbox/Keep/Cal was one of my main reasons for sticking with it for as long as I did. That new Tasks interface is pretty, and I get what it's doing by trying to be a bit more like Todoist, but I think bringing full-on Reminders to Gmail as 'first class citizens' would make a lot of people miss Inbox much less, and probably get me to drop Todoist.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#416

Post by Communitivity » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 1:16 PM UTC

I hate that they did this to Inbox, after they did something similar to Wave. But, I think this is how they operate. Their strategy seems to be to build a product, launch it, see if it reaches some hidden very high threshold of use, if it doesn't then discontinue it, and then either shelve it or open source it. I can't fault them for that strategy, even though I don't like the results, because I think that may be how they have to operate at their scale. I do wish they would have a policy of always open sourcing a product that they kill.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#417

Post by luord » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 1:27 PM UTC

I'm really going to miss the remainders feature from inbox. Tried the task app for gmail and it doesn't even allow setting a time, just date.

It also doesn't have anything like pinning links.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#418

Post by wink » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 2:10 PM UTC

dingle_thunk wrote: post #318

deegles wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Promotion Driven Development

I wonder if I should collect a bunch of these... Off the top of my head, I've observed: - Resume Driven Development: wherein enterprise contractors and developers inject as many fad frameworks, architectures, and uncalled for features unnecessarily. - Vendor Driven Development: wherein the application architecture is tie to a cloud solutions billing model as much as possible. - Search Engine Driven Development: where…

Hope Driven Development - everything sucks right now, but it must get better. Right? RIGHT?

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#419

Post by daveFNbuck » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

Ajedi32 wrote: post #325

kaushalmodi wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like incorrect unread counts lying around. I then cannot distinguish between truly unread emails and the emails that I swiped as Done in Inbox, but still left unread in Gmail.

The unread count is correct; you didn't really _read_ those emails. The problem is that the UI is placing undue emphasis on the number of emails you didn't read; that's a pretty irrelevant statistic. Half of the emails I receive don't need to be read; just glancing at the subject is enough. Inbox got it right by not showing unread counts and just letting you mark emails as done when they're no longer needed.

Under your definition, the unread count is too low. Gmail counts something as read after you load its contents, not after you read it.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#420

Post by z0r » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 2:50 PM UTC

peeters wrote: post #363

Ajedi32 wrote: post #185

This is really unfortunate. Inbox's primary differentiator was never in any one individual feature like Snooze or Smart Reply. No, the real value of Inbox was that its design was built around a fundamentally different philosophy on what email is and how it should be managed. Gmail takes a traditional approach to email management. Messages come in, you read them, maybe organize them with labels, then archive them, del…

> Inbox on the other hand is very opinionated. It was designed around the idea that your inbox is a to-do list, and everything from the UI to features like pinning, snooze, and reminders is built around that assumption. Yeah this is a massive gut punch for that reason. Inbox is how I organize my life right now. I reply to myself, snooze emails for a specific day, track bills, all through Inbox. Say what you will abou…

Web apps are programs running on other peoples machines that you have no control over. If you enjoy the use of software and you don't even have the power to choose to downgrade when you don't like an upgrade, you're in a very poor position indeed. You're here on hacker news, you shouldn't be scared. This is just another reminder that Richard Stallman was right and an opportunity to form a community to create a replacement that respects user freedoms.