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Contacts have always been part of Gmail, but never has the integration been this helpful: You can now manage contacts almost entirely from Gmail. This gives you superpowers when writing emails.
Join me in this newest example of how Google is using the side panel for service integration.
No sweaty headset required. But it looks cool.
How it works
How it works
There are two ways to open the side panel:
You can just open it (!)
By hovering over a contact, you bring up the hovercard (that makes people chips so great). Click "More info" and the side panel will open and display this contact's details.
The Contacts side panel is a Gmail exclusive. Other services have side panels, but Contacts does not show up there.
By the way: We can create our own side panels
By the way: We can create our own side panels
Google allows programmers to create powerful side panels for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides that can also be used on mobile.
Be better at emailing
Be better at emailing
All contact information at your fingertips
All contact information at your fingertips
I would secretly like to be a cyborg. Not the living-tissue-over-metal-endoskeleton kind, but I would agree to a high-bandwidth uplink into all sorts of databases. You look at someone and, to your right, a window pops up and says "watch out, that's a partner! Oh, and she's from xyz, so now it's night-time for her. You might want to schedule your email to the next morning."
Gmail brings you a tiny step closer to that reality. "More info" shows you all the contact info from the directory, and anything you might have annotated yourself.
All recent interactions at your fingertips
All recent interactions at your fingertips
A proper cyborg will not introduce itself twice, only to hear "I think we met when you came to our office" (not that I would ever do that).
The side panel will give you superpowers, by displaying recent emails and calendar events you had with that contact. You can open them from here.
A window into your contacts
A window into your contacts
Manage your contacts on the spot
Manage your contacts on the spot
The side panel does not yet allow to edit contacts. But it does offer you
a shortcut to do so (by opening contacts.google.com)
contact search in the side panel.
Interact with your contacts
Interact with your contacts
Email may not be the right way to continue a conversation - scheduling a longer conversation or sending a quick message over Chat might be better. Less email is more. By using the buttons below the picture, you will be on your way. They work on mobile, too!
Contacts and email go together hand in hand, but they do not have to be in the same window, all of the time, weighing down your computer. They can be there intelligently when you need them - ready to offer full experiences on their own when you want. I hope this little excurse on service design was helpful and you use your new contact superpowers in Gmail lavishly. Thank you for reading!
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