Google has premiered an intelligent email app called Inbox, developed by its Gmail team, that aims to update and transform the experience of using email.

While Googles last attempt to revolutionise email, Google Wave, was abandoned barely three months after its release to the general public in 2010, the massive shift towards smartphones since then may well work in the companys favour, with a much larger consumer base willing to experiment with a new app.

Among the features the app offers is automatic grouping of similar types of mail, such as purchase receipts or bank statements, to enable faster reviewing of large groups of emails. The app also highlights key information in important mail, such as flight itineraries, event information and attachments sent by friends or family. It will also pull in useful information from the web that wasnt included in the original email, such as flight statuses or package delivery schedules.

Inbox also includes calendar elements, enabling users to set reminders, which Inbox attempts to augment with web based information, such as store opening times and phone numbers. The app also allows you to Snooze emails, setting them to return at a specific time, or when you get to a set location, such as home or work.

“Email started simply as a way to send digital notes around the office,” said Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and apps for Google. “But fast-forward 30 years and with just the phone in your pocket, you can use email to contact virtually anyone in the world…from your best friend to the owner of that bagel shop you discovered last week.

“With this evolution comes new challenges: we get more email now than ever, important information is buried inside messages, and our most important tasks can slip through the cracks – especially when were working on our phones. For many of us, dealing with email has become a daily chore that distracts from what we really need to do – rather than helping us get those things done.”