Google’s so-called “email killer” Inbox is a fantastic new service from the search and software giant that aims to take some of the sting out of email. The app apes some key features found in a number of similar apps such as Mailbox, mixes in a few original functions, and wraps it all up in a user interface that is positively gorgeous.
One of the key limitations for Inbox so far has been the lack of support for Google Apps accounts, so business users and people with their own domains have been unable to test Inbox. Starting soon, however, that will begin to change.
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Google on Monday afternoon announced on one of its official blogs that Inbox will soon begin a long journey with the ultimate goal of being made widely available to Google Apps users.
Work email is approached much differently from personal email, of course, and Inbox is currently designed to help users avoid having to deal with newsletters, chain emails and other non-urgent communications. People with Google Apps accounts generally have different priorities and pain points, so Google needs to work to determine exactly how it should approach work email in Inbox.
“Of course, every company and every person is different, so we want to get more input on how Inbox will work at your company,” Gmail and Inbox boss Alex Gawley wrote. “Starting next month, we’ll begin enabling Inbox for a small group of Google Apps customers to learn about their needs, challenges and use cases.”
Google then posed three specific questions:
- Do you want to use Inbox as your primary email at work?
- Are employees at your company heavy mobile users?
- Most importantly, do you want to partner with Google on user studies to help build the new work Inbox?
Google Apps account holders who answered yes to each of those questions are invited to send an email to the Inbox team requesting that their domain be added to the early beta trials. Emails should come from the Google Apps for Work administrator account, and they should be addressed to inboxforwork@google.com.
“To start, we plan to work very closely with the early adopter companies, so not everyone that applies will be accepted right away, but the program will continue to expand over the coming months,” Gawley added.
Early beta access will be made available to some accounts beginning next month.
