Gmailify From Google Gives You Google Now, No Gmail Required

Google has launched a product called Gmailify, giving Android Gmail app users the Gmail experience right within the Gmail app. With nearly one billion active users of Gmail, the email service has been one of the most popular in the world, but not everyone has been willing to migrate fully over to Gmail’s friendly interface, especially those more compelled to hold onto their older email addresses. That’s why the company has launched this new tool, giving these users the best of both worlds: the ability to maintain their old addresses and the friendly Gmail interface that current Gmail users have grown to love.

Gmailify currently supports Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail/Outlook.com. To get started, simply enable the Gmailify feature by opening the Android app, touching the menu icon, clicking Settings, tapping the non-Gmail account you’d like to link, and then linking the account. It appears that this functionality is only available to be set up in the Android app, but once that is done, the emails will display on the web interface, as well.

The company plans to support additional email addresses in this more automated fashion in the future, but for those looking to Gmailify their experience for other email providers on the web interface, this is already supported, albeit requiring more manual steps. To get the Gmail experience for any other email address, users can go to the Settings in Gmail, choose Accounts and Import, and set up the email addresses manually through POP, for example, or by having emails forwarded to their Gmail account and then using SMTP to send emails through Gmail, providing a seamless experience regardless of email ownership.

Still, while the functionality has existed for some time, using the much simpler Gmailify feature makes getting set up easy, taking the frustration of email configuration away from the user, and is a much-desired change, especially to experience Gmail in its fullness and to minimize the number of email tabs to manage those other addresses.