Google’s Inbox email app gets intelligent quick replies

Google today announced a new feature coming to its Inbox email app that will automatically suggest short replies for incoming messages. Dubbed Smart Reply, the new feature is designed to make it easier to reply to email while on a mobile device.

Google says that Smart Reply will present three short replies based on the context of the message, from which you can just choose one and go, or add more information as necessary. It works by scanning the incoming emails and then using machine learning to formulate a natural language reply. Google notes that the more you use the feature, the better its suggestions will become. According to Wired, most of the early suggestions will be basic things, such as “thank you” and “how about tomorrow?”, but the system is capable of replying with 20,000 different phrases. You can read more about the underlying technology behind Smart Reply at Google’s Research Blog.

The new Smart Reply feature will be available for both the iOS and Android versions of Inbox later this week.