How is this only now a feature?
Google is adding the ability to automatically recognize addresses, phone numbers, and contacts to the Gmail website and mobile apps today (including Inbox), in the rollout of a feature that seems so blatantly obvious that I refuse to believe that Gmail didn’t have it already.
But yes, somehow in the year 2017, Gmail did not have this incredibly basic functionality. A feature that the company — which makes one of the most used email services on the planet — has been beaten to the punch with what I have to assume is every single other email application ever made, including the awful trash heap that is Apple’s default iOS one. Seriously.
Android and iOS have actually had phone number linking for a while through an OS level function, but the rest of it (including phone numbers on web) are totally new to Gmail, at least in Google’s native software. How did this happen? Did someone at Gmail just realize now that this was something that wasn’t possible using Google’s own apps and websites? I’m completely baffled by this!
Honestly I’m not even sure what else to say about this now. Click on a street address? It’ll open in Google Maps. Email address? A compose window for a new email. Phone number? It’ll open the default dialer on your device to make a call. Congratulations on playing catch up, Google.
Idoko Enenche
October 3, 2018
