Tip #4411 - Brand New Gmail Features
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Q:
Has anything new been going on with Gmail lately? I haven't heard
of any updates in awhile, so anything you can tell me would be great.
Thanks!
A:
Excellent question! I've been waiting for the
day when someone would ask me this very question. Okay, well, maybe
that's taking it to the extremes, but I did get really excited when
I saw this one in my e-mail Inbox the other day. Just last week, I
came across a couple of new features that were just released in Gmail
and after having several of you ask about them, I knew you all wanted
in on the fun too. And that's exactly what we're going to do today,
so get ready for some Gmail fun. It's coming your way right now!
Gmail
Emoticons
The first new
feature I want to tell you about is the Gmail emoticons. You know,
the little smiley face icons you can use when you're chatting with
your friends or sending them an e-mail. Well, as you're probably familiar
with, the Gmail e-mail program comes along with a chat option. With
that, you can chat with any of your friends who are also Gmail users.
And now, while you're chatting, you can send them emoticons to make
your chat session all the more fun!
Gmail has approximately
20 emoticons you can choose from and let me tell you, they've never
been cuter! There's a monkey, a heart, a big smile, a sad face with
a tear, a grin and so on. Now, I do want to make clear that these
emoticons may not look like the other ones you're used to. They are
not the big yellow smiley faces, rather, they have a more modern look
to them. I really like them and I think you will too! Here's a sample
of what some of them look like:
Now, as you can
see, in order to use these emoticons, you have to type in the key
combinations for them. I know that may seem like a lot of work, but
trust me, once you start to use them, you'll have the combinations
memorized in no time. Gmail has made the key combos as easy as possible
and with a few clicks of your keys, you'll have emoticons you can
share with all of your chat buddies. You just type in the key combination
for the emoticon you want to use and then hit Enter.
It's just like typing in text, but more exciting!
Gmail
Group Chat
The next new Gmail
feature I want to tell you about is for a group chat. Basically, with
the group chat, you can talk with multiple people at the same time
and from the same window. There's no limit to the number of people
you can chat with at once either. How cool is that?! To get started
with the group chat, just follow these directions:
1.) First, go
ahead and start a chat with one person in your Contacts list.
2.) Once that's
started, click the Options menu from the chat window
and select Group Chat.
3.) Next, in the
"Add a person to this chat" field, type
in the name of another contact you'd like to chat with. You can continuously
do that until all of your friends are invited. With Gmail's group
chat, you only have one window to deal with and you're able to talk
to all of your friends at one time. It doesn't get any better than
that!
When you're done
chatting, you can just hit the X button in the corner
of the chat window and your friends will be notified that you have
left. If you want to rejoin at any time, you will have to be invited
by another contact who is still using the group chat window. That
window will then remain open until all of the initial contacts have
left. It's the perfect way to stay in touch with all of your friends,
all at the same time!
Give these new
Gmail features a try today. I think you're really going to love them!
~ Erin
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