14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced that it will allow Gmail users to receive emails with attachments of up to 50MB, but it won't allow users to also send them.
In a rather confusing new update for Gmail, Google admits that sending and receiving attachments is an important part of email exchanges. Given how the update works, we're guessing that "receiving" is a bit more important than "sending" for some reason.
"While Google Drive offers a convenient way to share files of any size, sometimes you need to receive large files as direct email attachments. So starting today, you will be able to receive emails of up to 50MB directly," the company says.
It then quickly adds that the sending size limits will remain the same at 25 MB, but users can continue using Google Drive to send larger files to whomever they wish.
Who's the update for?
This makes the entire change rather useless. Mainstream email clients don't really offer users the possibility of sending files that big. In fact, Yahoo has a limit of 25MB, Outlook caps it at 20MB, while Yandex climbs up a step higher to 30MB.
Sure, there are solutions out there, but none of the big names. In fact, most advises regarding emailing larger files focus on instructing people to upload the file to a cloud service and share the download link to whomever you want.
That being said, it does leave us wondering just who the update is meant for since there really aren't all that many ways to receive a 50MB file.
There is still hope, however, that Google will one day lift that 25MB limit on emails sent to others. Then, it will make sense to lift the cap on received emails. Or perhaps Google simply has some inside information that one of its competitors is planning to start allowing larger attachments in the near future.