HACKER Q&A
📣 michaelmior

Why don't emails seem use interactive Gmail features?


I'm referring primarily to things. Firstly, is Actions[0] where an email can embed metadata which causes a button to show in the inbox which can complete an action without even opening a message.

The second is AMP for Gmail[1] which enables interactive components within the message itself.

I understand that any users need to be approved by Google, so I'm wondering if this might be the bottleneck? It just seems like with the large number of Gmail users, this could lead to some easy boosts on conversion rates, but I rarely ever see any senders make use of either of these features. On one hand, I'm thankful since it could make things very cluttered. But I'm still left wondering why this is the case.

[0] https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/actions/actions-overview [1] https://developers.google.com/gmail/ampemail


  👤 mikecoles Accepted Answer ✓
Who would use a proprietary system with email? Spammers? Marketers (spammers with fancy clothes)?

I have seen a few in the past. They provide no value to users.

If a marketer wants it, I do not. If a marketer uses them, no business will be done. I also permanently ban any business that cold contacts or contacts after the initial information, that I requested, has been delivered.


👤 byoung2
I have wondered this as well. Nearly 10 years ago I applied to yCombinator with an idea for a new type of email that was based on semantic markup in messages that would enable hundreds of these types of actions to be done right in the message view, without ever leaving the app. At the time we identified Gmail actions as a major threat, since they had I think 4 actions. I fully expected that in a decade, there would be hundreds of them and they would be commonplace. Things like book now, buy now, answering a multiple choice question, etc. But 10 years later and adoption seems to be less, not more.

👤 housemusicfan
Using GMail-proprietary extensions in email is probably one of the worst ideas ever conceived.