What you need to know
- Google brings new features for its Workspace apps to complement large-screen devices like tablets and foldable phones.
- Gmail gets advanced split-screen functionality as part of the new feature.
- Users can view Google Docs and YouTube links in the corresponding app side-by-side within the Gmail app.
Google is bringing new functionality to its native Gmail app for Android tablets and foldable phones, the search giant announced as part of its new productivity features for multiple apps.
Large screens are the new trend in the tech industry thanks to new big players like Google and OnePlus launching their first foldable phones and tablets. To complement those large screens, Google has announced new productivity features for its Google Workspace apps, including Gmail. The native email app can now open links or attachments side-by-side in a split-screen view, the search giant explains in a blog post.
When you open an email on a Pixel Fold through Gmail, you'll already see the split-screen view with the mailbox on the left side next to the email viewer on the right. Clicking the links or attachments in the email will minimize the mailbox and give way to viewing links or attachments in a split-screen view.
This functionality is convenient as it allows users to stay in the same app and on the same screen without needing to view links or attachments in another corresponding app. Additionally, Google is also allowing users to adjust the width of each half of the windows opened in split-screen view, which can be carried out by dragging the divider handle in the middle of the screen.
9to5Google further points out that on tablets and foldable phones, emails with Google Docs and YouTube links will open in the corresponding apps in split-screen view, similar to how Google Chrome opens any other link from the email.
The announcement also mentions new formatting tools for Docs for Android tablets and foldable phones. Google is also bringing optimizations for third-party apps like Zoom, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Dropbox, Evernote, and Todoist. All the updates from the announcement are available for large-screen devices like the Pixel Tablet and the OnePlus Open.
