Back in 2014, Google began letting you use non-Gmail accounts with the Gmail app. That feature let non-Gmail folks enjoy Google’s Gmail app, but it didn’t give them some of the same features of Gmail, like spam protection. Now those features are coming for non-Gmail folk, too.
Gmailify is a new Gmail feature that’ll enable several of Gmail’s features for non-Gmail address. When you Gmailify your email account, it’ll link it to Gmail and give you stuff like spam protection, inbox organization and categories, faster search, better mail notifications, and Google Now cards based on the email that you receive.
After linking your non-Gmail address to Gmail, things like reading emails and moving messages to the trash will be reflected on your non-Gmail address. You can also use archiving, labels, and folders, and those messages will appear in separate Archive, Label, and Folder folders in other providers. For example, if you create a folder called Vacation, you’ll get a Vacation folder in your original email account.
Gmailify works with Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and Outlook initially, with support for more email providers coming in the future. To link an account to Gmail, you simply open the Gmail app on a device, go to the Menu, select Settings, tap the account that you want to link, and then tap Link account.
Gmail is a very popular email service, but some folks have email addresses with other services that they’d rather not give up, perhaps if they’ve had it for a long time or have given it to a lot of people. With Gmailify, those people can continue to use that email address while also getting many of Gmail’s best features. It’s a nice feature, and I’m sure that Google is hoping that after experiencing the best features that Google has to offer, some folks will end up signing up for Gmail to get an account that enjoys all of these features natively.
