15 years ago, on April 1, 2004, Google surprised many with the launch of Gmail, its own web-based email client. With 1 gigabyte of free storage, conversation-based grouping of messages and enhanced search features, the service was superior to most, if not all competitors at the time, making its eventual success look inevitable in hindsight.
With 1.5 billion users, Gmail has grown into one of Google’s most successful products and one of the most popular email clients in the world. According to data published by email analytics firm Litmus, Gmail is only beaten by Apple’s native iPhone email app in terms of usage. According to Litmus’ analysis of 834 million email opens worldwide, 26 percent of those emails were opened within Gmail, while 28 percent were opened in the iPhone email client.
1st April 2004 – Google launches GMAIL with 1GB storage space.
2005 – Google celebrates the first anniversary of GMAIL by doubling the storage space.
2006 – Google brings new chat and calendar feature to Gmail. Google introduces new ‘Gmail for your domain’ for schools and enterprises. Google adds support for 40 languages with the addition of Arabic and Hebrew. Google also began offering a Java-based application of Gmail for mobile phones.
2007 – Google begins the process of rewriting parts of Gmail code, making services faster and adding new features. Google spreads the love on Valentine’s Day by opening sign-ups worldwide. Gmail becomes one of the first email providers to offer free IMAP for all devices.
2008 – Gmail gets first Android app. Gmail offers video chat feature directly from the inbox.
2009 – Gmail is available offline. Gmail leaves beta.
2010 – Gmail introduces Two-step verification.
2011 – Priority inbox makes prioritising makes easy. Gmail gets new look. Google launches Gmail app for iOS.
2012 – Gmail hits 425 million active users – Hangout supports ten-person video chat – Gmail increases storage limit to 10GB – Google introduces Drive for file sharing.
2013 – Google adds handwriting input support to Gmail – Google Wallet integrates with Gmail – Google announces overall merger of storage across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ Photos, offering up to 15GB storage between the three services – Gmail introduces new tabs to inbox: Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums – Google improves handling of images sent through email.
2014 – Google announces 100-percent encryption of emails moving internally through company systems – Gmail becomes the first app on Play Store to hit 1 billion installations.
2015 – Inbox by Gmail becomes publicly available – Gmail interface supports 72 languages.
2016 – Gmail reaches one billion active users – Gmail app for iOS platform receives complete design overhaul.
2017 – Google announces machine learning technology to identify emails with phishing and spam – Google puts an end to contextual Gmail content for advertising, solely relying on data collection.
2018 – Gmail reaches 1.4 billion users – Google announce the end of Inbox by Gmail – Gmail gets design changes and several feature improvements.
Source: Statista, Moneycontrol
