Google is rolling out a new enhancement to Gmail called Quick Actions, letting users act on messages without leaving their inboxes. With Quick Actions, a Gmail user will be able to RSVP for events, view folders on cloud services and even begin writing a restaurant review with a click.
Quick Actions appear as a clickable button to the right of an email's subject line. The actions can vary — "Add to Queue" and "View Folder" are two we've seen so far — but whether or not they appear is controlled by the sender: The person creating the email needs to specify the action and provide the information for it to work properly.
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Some actions, such as rating restaurants or RSVPing, don't require the user to even open the message or leave Gmail. Others require connecting to another services; if that's the case, the Quick Action button will have a diagonal arrow to show the user they're leaving Gmail.
I encountered my first Quick Action message in the form of an email invitation to a Dropbox folder with the View Folder button. Clicking on it launched Dropbox.com in another browser tab, with the invitation dialog box front and center — functioning as though I had clicked on a link.
Google emphasizes that Quick Actions don't inherently share any personal information and that connections only work with services you've already linked to Gmail.
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