New Gmail Feature Could Make Tracking Your Holiday Shopping Packages A Breeze

Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google is introducing a new feature ahead of the holiday season that will allow users to track their package deliveries directly from their Gmail inbox.

What Happened: On Wednesday, Google announced that users would start seeing "a simple, helpful view of your package tracking and delivery information right in your inbox" within a few weeks.

The feature will make it convenient to check an order's current status at a glance while scrolling through emails, reported The Verge.

Users won't have to open an email and click a tracking link to view the arrival date of an item in any shipping communication, thanks to the new feature. Users will see a card with more specific information as they navigate through their emails.

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For now, the new feature will be opt-in — when it becomes available, users could turn it on from a notification or through settings.

Additionally, Gmail will notify users if the package is delayed and bring the order email to the top of the inbox section. This feature will roll out "in the coming months."

Why It's Important: While the feature will work with "most major U.S. shipping carriers," Amazon Inc. AMZN is an exception. The retailer's shipment notification emails don't have tracking information, the report noted.

Amazon's email format doesn't allow Gmail to show tracking information saying the feature will be available "for participating merchants," Google spokesperson Madison Veld told The Verge, and added, "If a tracking number is not included in the merchant's order email, the package tracking feature won't be available."

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