How I replaced Inbox by Gmail - Trip bundles


Trip bundles in the Inbox iOS app.
In the first episode of this short series, we proposed a Gmail setup to replace the reminder integration functionality of Inbox. Admittedly, it is not as appealing as Inbox in terms of elegance and graphical style , but it gets the job done quite nicely!

 The setup will further improve with the addition of customizable swipes to the Gmail iOS app, so for available only to Android users. This update is supposed to be rolling out as we speak. By the way, today, 3 April 2019, the Gmail iOS update has not yet reached my iPhone. And the Inbox app is still working!

 In this article we focus on the replacement of another beloved feature of Inbox: Trip bundles.

Inbox conveniently created a bundle for each trip, elegantly displayed on the left side of the inbox. One tap and you would get all the details of your reservations, neatly organized, as well as the related email messages below.

How can we replace this functionality after Inbox’s departure? (oh yeah, see what I did there!)

Which trip related features does Gmail have out of the box?

Hotel details in Gmail iOS app.
Hotel details in Inbox iOS app.

On the iOS Gmail app you get to see the details of flight, hotel or car reservation with a similar look and feel to Inbox. However, this happens only when you open the reservation email. That is, unlike Inbox , such emails will look exactly like any other in your list. Moreover, it seems that on the web version of Gmail, this functionality is limited only to flights. Whilst this implementation might sound disappointing, it suggests that the engine parsing the reservation emails is alive and kicking even within Gmail, which is good news for a potential future update.

How can I get other trip related features? The Google Trips App

To get closer to what Inbox offered, you will have to install another app. Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome to Google Trips! Well, maybe just lukewarm, yet another app... but I must admit it looks gorgeus. Moreover, it goes well beyond storing reservation details and emails. It provides ideas on what to do and even suggests daily plans for your trip.

Which Inbox features are missing?

Well, surely we’ll miss the convenience of having emails and trips info all in one place, together with our emails. Be it in the app or on the web, Inbox provided all in the same interface. Now you will have to use two apps, Gmail and Google Trips. And on the web, oh wait...there is no Google Trip web version! Oh my dear..

Another feature I will miss, is the possibility to manually add and move emails to a trip bundle, bundle. In Inbox, you could just move any email to a trip bundle, in case the algorithm made the wrong guess.

Conclusion

Trip bundling in the after Inbox era leaves a sweet sour taste. Whilst Gmail and Google Trips can replace most features, the missing integration into a single app and the absence of a web version are regrettable.

All in all, I am relatively satisfied with the new setup, but the question to Google remains the same: WHY!?!??!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first Hackintosh: Mojave Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming Coffee Lake

Image
Last month I decided to replace my ageing 2015 iMac with my first Hackintosh...and what an experience has it been!  I invested a lot of time in getting it up and running but now it works like a charm and I want to share with you my working configuration. You may find this useful if you have identical or similar hardware. I will focus on the Clover configuration, drivers and kexts specific to this hardware and provide links to the guides I used for more general info on Vanilla installations. !IMPORTANT! Please note that many guides for the Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming use an unsupported memory fix driver called OsxAptioFix2Drv-free2000.efi .   The developer of this driver says that you should never ever use it, as it can cause serious issues to your system ( here's his post ). After a lot of and trial and error...I managed to use the standard memory fix driver contained in Clover r5033 ( OsxAptioFix3Drv.efi ) , by changing one little setting in the BIOS! -------------------------
Read more

My first Hackintosh: Update to Catalina Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming Coffee Lake

Image
During summer 2019 I replaced my ageing 2015 iMac with my first Hackintosh and shared with you my working configuration. You can find the full post here: My first Hackintosh: Mojave Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming Coffee Lake Since then, many things have changed and I would like to provide an update so that the information stay relevant: Upgraded from Mojave to Catalina.  The mainboard received a major bios update (from version F7 to version F9e,  but had to revert to F7 in  Jan 2020!! )  Updated Clover from version r5033 to r5101 Updated all kext (except custom USB) Updated Hackintool from version 2.7.1 to 2.8.8 Everything still works after the updates. The hardware remained unchanged. Please refer to the original post to get the full details. Here I am just highlighting what has changed! Hackintool Update (2.7.1 to 2.8.8) Hackintool should check automatically for updates and propose to install the current version. To check manually, open Hackintool, then select from
Read more

How I replaced Inbox by Gmail - Emails and Reminders still in one place

Image
If you are like me, you have been using Inbox by Gmail for the last few years. And you loved it. Sadly the service is shutting down in a few days... 💔 I enjoyed in particular one feature, which became part of my routine to deal with everything I have to do: emails and reminders all in the Inbox. Everything in one place. Handy, isn't it? So, first thing first, I sent feedback to Google to reclaim this lost feature. Yes, lost. Whilst Google suggests that most of Inbox features have been subsumed in Gmail, that is not entirely correct...at least not all in one mobile app... Second, I  looked into alternatives email apps, like Outlook , Spark , Edison , Newton , Spike ,  and many others... Although I found some of them appealing (Spark for example seems rather polished), they did not really tick all the boxes. In particular, none of them seemed to recognize the existing snoozed emails from Inbox or Gmail. That is, if you snoozed an email in Inbox/Gmail, you would n
Read more