Inbox v1.27 hints at finally adding Vacation Responders

Further achieving feature parity with Gmail

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For many working adults, keeping up with and responding to emails is a large part of our working routine. Some people even feel the need to respond to their work emails when they’re off the clock (which studies show you really should avoid doing so unless you absolutely need to – but hey I’m not here to judge). In any case, there is one time that even the most diligent worker will refuse to check their work email and that’s when they’re on vacation.

We work with so many different people in our daily lives that we can’t expect all of our colleagues to remember when we’re on vacation. That’s why use Gmail’s automated vacation responder feature to automatically reply and notify anyone sending you a message that you are currently unavailable. Unfortunately, the feature is not directly available in Google’s Inbox app (though since Inbox is just an extension to the Gmail service, enabling it within Gmail will enable it within Inbox). However, a new version of Inbox v1.27 is now rolling out with the ability to set a vacation responder.

Disclaimer: The evidence we dig up from the APK files of an app are not definitive. Google may choose to pull these features without any indication in a future release.

Say No to Work Emails

A teardown of the Inbox APK file reveals that the Inbox vacation responder will allow you to compose an e-mail response that will be sent to either your contacts or to anyone who responds to you within the vacation time-frame that you specify. So, pretty much exactly how the feature in Gmail works.

<string name="subject_hint">Subject</string>

<string name="done">Done</string>

<string name="preferences_vacation_responder_title">Out of Office AutoReply</string>

<string name="vacation_responder_body_hint_text">Message</string>

<string name="send_to_contacts_text">Send to my contacts only</string>

<string name="send_to_domain_text">Send to %1$s only</string>

<string name="pick_start_date_title">First day</string>

<string name="pick_end_date_title">Last day</string>

<string name="date_not_set">Not set</string>

<string name="custom_date">Custom</string>

<string name="date_none">None</string>

<string name="discard_changes">Discard changes?</string>

<string name="vacation_responder_changes_saved">Out of Office AutoReply changes saved</string>

<string name="vacation_responder_changes_discarded">Out of Office AutoReply changes discarded</string>

<string name="vacation_responder_off">Off</string>

<string name="vacation_responder_on">On, from %1$s</string>

<string name="vacation_responder_on_with_end_date">On, from %1$s to %2$s</string>

<string name="vacation_responder_empty_subject_and_body_warning">Add a subject or message</string>

What will the feature look like when it’s live? Well, pretty much exactly like what’s currently present in the Gmail app, to no surprise. We compared the vacation responder layout and class files within both the Inbox APK and the Gmail APK and it seems that the new feature in Inbox was simply borrowed from Gmail. If you’re using Inbox, then with this update you’ll have one less reason to keep the regular Gmail app around.

Inbox v1.27 can be downloaded from APKMirror.