The new Gmail app from the Gmail team isn't technically just an email app, at least if you ask them. It's called "Inbox," and it's being released as an invite-only system that works on the Chrome browser, Android phones, and iPhones. It feels completely native and fast on all of those systems. But it's a native and fast app that does something 10 degrees away from what you'd expect an email app to do. My first impression of Inbox is that it's really great, but a little weird.

The basic idea is this: it's still a Gmail app, but instead of giving you the traditional list of emails, it tries to intelligently give you more information so you don't have to even open them. Google Now-style info cards appear right in line with your message list, including things like flight times, package tracking, and photos.

It also tries to intelligently "bundle" emails into groups that you can quickly dismiss. So instead of having those annoying category tabs in Gmail, you have all your promotions and whatnot collapsed down into a single line in your Inbox. You can drill in and "pin" the ones you want to save and then dismiss the rest. Google is also applying its algorithms to automatically parse out things like phone numbers and addresses when you need them.