AI in the inbox: Notion and Anthropic launch AI features for Gmail inboxes

Notion Labs has released Notion Mail, an AI-supported email client for Gmail. Using artificial intelligence, Notion Mail sorts the mailbox, writes drafts for replies and schedules meetings. The client also has a search function with AI support. The email client can also be linked to the in-house productivity tool Notion and thus integrated into its workflow. The chatbot Claude from Anthropic can now also be connected to a Gmail account via Google Workspace and can thus interact with emails.

Notion Mail supports scheduling

In its announcement, Notion Mail promises easier handling of full inboxes and greater productivity when dealing with emails. Users can create their own labels for incoming emails. The tool automatically assigns the messages using AI. In the mailbox, Notion Mail displays the labels next to the individual emails. Alternatively, there is a user-defined view that displays all emails that are assigned to a keyword. Text modules can also be generated and emails you have written yourself can be checked. Frequently used text passages can be saved as templates.

Furthermore, with a connection to Notion Calendar, users can generate a one-off or permanent link that displays free appointments in their own calendar. This can then be sent by e-mail so that no appointment proposals are required for planning meetings. Notion Mail's infrastructure is also based on the Skiff collaboration platform, which the company acquired in 2024. The email client is currently available as a web app, a desktop application for Windows and macOS and a mobile app for Android devices. An iOS app is already planned.

Claude indexes content from Google documents

Companies can now also connect to Gmail mailboxes via the Anthropic chatbot Claude. It is also possible to set up AI access to Google Calendar and Google Docs. In addition to an AI-supported search in the mailbox, saved documents serve as context for the chatbot. This allows emails to be generated that refer to their content without users having to enter the information again. Claude provides verbatim quotes and refers to the respective source of the information. However, the chatbot itself does not send emails and cannot enter appointments in the calendar independently.

In addition, administrators can activate cataloging, which indexes company documents in order to access information quickly. Similar to the in-house integration of Google Gemini, Anthropic relies on a connection via Google Workspace. In contrast, ChatGPT is linked to Google's productivity suite via the cloud storage Drive. Gmail also increasingly includes native AI functions, for example for sorting mailboxes. According to the announcement, the integration of Google Workspace is currently available as a beta for all Anthropic customers with paid subscriptions. Administrators who manage multiple accounts must first link their own user account.

(sfe)