Automatic Translation and Smart Mute Now in Gmail

Gmail Labs have always been a source of interesting features and tools. Many of the experiments were destined to live their lives part of Labs as few of them graduate. But Google has chosen three which have now become a part of Gmail proper. However, it also killed off many of the less popular experiments.

The biggest new feature is automatic translation for emails that are in another language. The page title has also been changed to make it easier to spot how many unread messages you have straight from the browser tab.

Gmail translation

The automatic message translation experiment proved very popular. The feature integrated Google Translate into Gmail. Any message that was in a foreign language could be translated via a simple link in the header.

Since constantly getting translation notices can be annoying, as Chrome users are well aware, you can disable the feature for individual languages, if you already know them.

Alternatively, you can enable the feature to always translate for any given language. The translate feature is also available from the drop-down menu next to the Reply button, top right.

Better tab title and smart mute

The second lab experiment to graduate is a new page title. "The tab now reads 'Inbox (20) - user@example.com - Gmail' instead of 'Gmail - Inbox (20) - user@example.com'," Google explained.

Finally, Smart Mute is now part of Gmail. Muting a conversation will remove it from your inbox, but will not block messages from coming or even mark them as read. You can rejoin the conversation and recap on previous messages. Messages addressed to you specifically will also be added to your inbox even if you muted the conversation.

"In addition to graduating these three labs, we'll also be retiring some less popular labs over the next few days: Old Snakey, Mail Goggles, Mouse Gestures, Hide Unread Counts, Move Icon Column, Inbox Preview, Custom Date Formats and SMS in Chat gadget. Please note that the SMS in Chat lab is not being retired, just the gadget associated with it," Google added.