Google simplifies the way you will compose Gmails

We’ve all been there: You’re in the middle of writing an email in Gmail and want to refer to another message.

To do that, you have to save a draft, go back to your inbox, pull up the message you want to refer to, copy the information, then go back into drafts and resume writing your email. It’s a mild annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Now, the way you draft an email in Gmail is about to change.

Gmail is rolling out a preview version of its new compose feature, which will appear as a small pop-up window within your inbox, similar to Gchat windows but larger. That means you can work on multiple emails at once, just as you can chat with several friends at the same time.

You can drag and drop recipients to the cc: and bcc: fields, and contacts appear with profile photos in autocomplete to help you find the right recipient.

Gmail will also simplify replies, which will appear inline and take up less height than in the past. Email recipients and other controls will always be viewable, even if your message grows to an epic length.

Try it out

To try out the new feature, click on compose, then click “new compose experience” (next to the labels button) at the top of your email.

You can move back and forth between the new and old versions of compose while it’s in preview phase. Google product manager Phil Sharp said in a Tuesday blog post that the finalized version of compose will be complete and available to all in the coming months.