Google wants you to test its apps

Gmail apps test
Who hasn't hankered for some old school gaming mid-email?

Haven’t you always wanted to play a bit of the “Snake” game that we used to find on Nokia phones in the middle of checking your email?

Well, the bods at Google’s application making unit (which seems like a place filled with magic) have unleashed a wave of new programmes to make Googlemail a more fun place to be.

And the best thing is, you get to choose which of them you play with.

Snakes on a screen

As well as the aforementioned 'Old Snakey', other features include pictures in the chat facility and Email Addict, which locks you out of your Gmail account for 15 minutes if you’re in it for too long.

Having had a little play around with the features, one of the best was the chance to just wave the mouse to the left or right while holding the right key, allowing for motion-based navigation.

The new features are “really rough and have gone through no filtering in terms of product analysis or design analysis," says Kevin Coleman, Gmail product manager.

"They have just gone through a general code review process to make sure they are safe to run.

"They have also gone through less testing than a typical feature would. But this is a way to take our ideas and get them out to the public."

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.

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