14 DAY TRIAL // It wasn’t too long ago that Google launched Inbox by Gmail, a new tool that’s supposed to make your email handling that much easier since it prioritizes your messages and changes the way you interact with the service altogether.
It’s not so much about the differences in the interface, especially since the latest Gmail update has brought that app quite close to Inbox anyway. While it may take some time getting used to Inbox, as opposed to how you’re already used to handling your Gmail, you should soon get accustomed to the differences.
Getting an invite…
The first and biggest challenge is, however, getting an invite to use the app since, much like Gmail used to be back in the day, you need one of these special welcome mats just for you.
Technically, this shouldn’t really be an issue, but at this point, it is. You have two options to get an invitation – one is to have Google give you one after you’ve made a request to an email address you can see after installing the app. The company hasn’t exactly been the fastest when it comes to getting back to the people making such requests, with the waiting time expanding to more than a week for those who are lucky.
Another way is to get an invite from a friend. Technically, everyone who gets to use Inbox should get some invitations to send to their buddies. The place where the invite button should be, however, is filled with something else, and people don’t get access to them immediately. Over here, at Softpedia, we noticed that it took about a week before the button turned up for one of our editors, while others are still waiting.
Or bypassing the invite…
That being said, there’s a third way. All you need is a friend with access to Inbox and a willing heart to help you out.
If this friend has the app activated on his or her device, all you’ll need to do is borrow their phone for a second. Then, you’ll be able to add your account on the list and switch the account on Inbox to yours. You then need to remove your account and go back to your own device.
There, you have to open Inbox by Gmail and use the same credentials you did on the friend’s phone. And voila! You now have access to the famous tool that everyone is talking about.
We did this for a few curious colleagues and it worked every time.