Google is currently doing an A/B testing for a new floating action button (FAB) to create reminders in Gmail Inbox. For those who are not familiar with A/B testing, it is is jargon for a randomized experiment with two variants, A and B which are identical except for one variation that might affect a user’s behavior. Version A might be the currently used version (control), while Version B is modified in some respect (treatment).
The new FAB is blue in color and exists only to create reminders. While convenient, this FAB goes against Google’s own guidelines guidelines, which states that multiple FABs shouldn’t really exist on the same thing if it’s possible to organize the actions more sensibly.
The button should be reserved for the activity’s primary or signature action, and it’s hard to imagine reminder creation as an action of equal gravity to composing emails when we’re talking about an email management app. For reference, the reminder action used to be nestled among the smaller child FABs that would appear after tapping the creation FAB, seen on the right above. So far the only other Google app to use two FABs on the same screen is Google Maps.
Remember not every user will see this updated Inbox and this feature will not stick around. So if you got the new updated Google Inbox please let us know how you feel in the comments.
