Google has announced a significant change to its email system, Gmail. The firm explained that from now onwards, users of Google's email system will benefit from automatic message translation, a feature that has been in the works since 2009.
Using Google Translate, consumers are now able to have their mail written in one language, send it and then have the same message in another language when it reaches the inbox of a friend or colleague.
"The next time you receive a message in a language other than your own, just click on 'Translate message' in the header at the top of the message, and it will be instantly translated into your language," explained Jeff Chin, the product manager of Google Translate.
The innovative feature has, in fact, already been trialled in Google Labs a number of years back. And owing to positive feedback on the feature, Google has decided to add the feature to its Gmail service.
"Since message translation was one of the most popular labs, we decided it was time to graduate from Gmail Labs and move into the real world," Mr Chin said.
Google, of course, competes in a fiercely competitive market with the likes of Microsoft in terms of its email system. The firm hopes that the new feature may attract people to move over to Gmail, where they will also find Google Drive, the free, web-based office suite.
Allied to the new translation feature, Google confirmed that it is launching two new offerings: Smart Mute and Title Tweaks. Smart Mute helps to eradicate the noise on a noisy email thread. Title Tweaks, on the other hand, changes the title in the browser's tab to inform users that they have new messages.
Meanwhile, Google explained that several of its old features have been retired, including Hide Unread Counts, Move Icon Column and Inbox Preview.