Google has announced some new features for Gmail before the holiday shopping season. These new Gmail features are meant to simplify delivery tracking and help users find relevant deals and offers.
Gmail is getting a new "Purchases" view that consolidates all of your purchases and delivery updates into a single place. It"s like having a "bird’s eye view of all your upcoming package deliveries in one simple, organized list," the company said.
This builds on top of existing Gmail features, such as summary cards in purchase emails, which give a quick overview of your package"s delivery status. When you see a summary card, you can also click the "Allow" button at its bottom to activate the optional order tracking feature. Once enabled, the summary cards in Gmail start including updates from shipping carriers.
Gmail also displays upcoming deliveries within 24 hours at the top of the primary inbox, which will continue to work the same way. The Purchases view, accessible via the left menu, shows all purchase-related emails and package updates in a streamlined interface. The feature has started rolling out to all Gmail users globally on Android, iOS, and the web.
The search giant is also updating the "Promotions" tab in Gmail as part of the latest update. It"s one of the categories in Gmail that automatically filters and displays emails related to promotions, deals, special offers, and newsletters.
Google will soon add two sorting options to the Promotions tab: most relevant and most recent. Promotional emails and deals from senders and brands you regularly engage with will show up higher on the list when you select the "most relevant" option. The other filter will populate emails like they appear today.
The Promotions tab will also nudge you with cards such as "top deals for you" displayed at the top of the screen. These new options will be available in the coming weeks to all Google account users on Android, iOS, and the web.