If you still continue to use Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail/Outlook.com, you now have the option to Gmailify your inbox. Google Inc. announced the new ‘Gmailify’ option on 17 February in a blogpost, which will offer the best features of Gmail even if you do not have an email address that is Gmail.
This will be currently available on the Gmail app on Android and will be made available to iOS users later.
What Gmailify does is link your existing account to Gmail so that you get what Google calls “all the bells and whistles—spam protection, inbox organization and even Google Now cards based on your mail”, without having to leave your current address behind. It is true that Hotmail and Yahoo! lack a lot of these features, so Gmailify will enable those accounts to function like native Gmail accounts.
The process of Gmailifying actually started last March when the company began allowing its users to link their Gmail accounts with their Yahoo! and Outlook accounts so that all of their emails could be accessed from a single screen. This feature has now been expanded.
With this launch, Google has made sure that all non-Gmail accounts look and act more like Gmail—aside from the domain name—when accessed through the Android app. The other Gmail features that will now be available after linking include automatically sorting email based on type (Social, Updates, Promotions), faster search, with advanced search operators, travel and hotel reservations appearing automatically in Google Now, and better mail notifications on mobile
Google provides the option to either link your Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, or Outlook.com email address to your existing Gmail address, or create a brand-new Gmail address. When you sign in to the linked Gmail address, you’ll see your messages from the other email provider in your mailbox and be able to read, reply and organize them just like you do in Gmail.
All you need to do is manually enable the new feature by linking your outside account to Gmail, by following these steps. And of course, if you ever change your mind, you can unlink your account(s) at any time, and continue to access them through the Gmail app without using Gmailify.
