New summary cards in Gmail help track purchases, events and more

Receipts, bills, travel confirmations, dinner reservations — important details often get scattered amongst apps and emails. While you can count on your Gmail inbox to hold all this valuable information, the sheer volume can be overwhelming. We get it.

For years summary cards in Gmail have provided a snippet of helpful information at the top of your emails. But we know email habits continue to evolve. That’s why today we’re announcing big changes to these summary cards and new features to help you find exactly the right information, just when you need it:

• For starters, summary cards as you know them are getting a whole new look across purchases, events, bills and travel emails. They’ll offer new action buttons, like adding an event to your Calendar and inviting others or setting a bill payment reminder.
• Summary cards are also becoming more powerful on the backend, organizing key information from across all related emails and updating in real-time, so you’ll always know when to expect deliveries.
• We’re also introducing summary cards in more places within Gmail, like a new “Happening soon” section of your inbox and in Gmail search.

Updates to summary cards

The updated summary cards in Gmail will show up across four common email categories:

• Purchases: Track packages, view order details and easily find what you bought, so you know exactly when that birthday gift is going to arrive.
• Events: Say goodbye to missing a dinner reservation or forgetting a concert ticket. See or add upcoming events to your calendar, invite others or find directions with ease.
• Bills: View and pay bills, or get reminded to pay later and add a due date in Google Tasks.
• Travel: Manage reservations, check in for flights and view important travel details like the hotel’s check-out time so you can travel with confidence from booking to boarding.

Summary cards in Gmail visually organize key information from across all related emails, so you can:

• Get details quickly: Glanceable summaries highlight the essential information, eliminating the need to hunt through multiple emails.
• Take action easily: Relevant actions like “Get directions,” “Invite others,” "Track package," “Check in,” "Remind me" or "Mark as paid" are readily available — no more digging for buried links.
• See the latest status: Cards are dynamic, keeping you updated on upcoming events, deliveries and deadlines even as they change.

A new “Happening soon” section

To easily see the most timely updates without even needing to open individual emails, we are introducing a new “Happening soon” section at the top of inboxes. To start, purchase summary cards will appear here, and this section will only show up when it’s relevant. For example, once the estimated delivery date of a purchase is two days away, “Happening soon” will show the purchase summary card, allowing you to see when your package is arriving at a glance. If you have multiple deliveries arriving in the same timeframe, the summary cards are stacked, and you can expand, dismiss or click to go directly to the related email.

Today, updated purchase summary cards are rolling out for individual emails on Android and iOS, with event, bill, and travel summary cards and "Happening soon" following in the coming months. In the future, all four card categories will show across individual emails, in the “Happening soon” section and in Gmail search, so you can easily find the information you need however you use Gmail. For more details about how to turn on or off summary cards, check out the Help Center.