Two years after the launch of ChatGPT, many email applications have introduced AI writing and summarization features to enhance user experience. Recently, the well-known email client Superhuman has decided to adopt AI technology, focusing on tackling the annoying issue of email categorization for users.
As early as 2019, Google launched the Inbox email client, attempting to categorize emails by type. Although this attempt garnered attention at the time, it ultimately ended with its closure. Since then, while some clients, like Gmail's native application, have also tried email categorization, the results have been less than satisfactory.
Superhuman's new feature, "Auto Label," aims to change this situation. This feature can automatically tag emails as marketing, promotional, social, or news categories, and users can also create custom labels by writing prompts. To improve efficiency, users can choose to automatically archive certain labels, thus reducing unnecessary email distractions.
Superhuman's CEO Rahul Vohra stated in a call with TechCrunch that user feedback indicates that increasing amounts of cold emails and spam are a major pain point in current email usage. Previously, they relied on spam filters from Gmail and Outlook, but the results were not ideal. Therefore, Superhuman decided to address this issue through a self-developed categorization system.
However, it is worth noting that the Auto Label feature has certain limitations in its initial rollout; users cannot directly edit the prompts for creating labels. If the existing prompts do not effectively categorize certain emails, users can only create new prompts.
Additionally, Superhuman has improved its reminder feature, allowing users to choose to revisit emails that need a response after a certain period. If there is no reply within the set time, the system will automatically present the email to the user, helping them to follow up in a timely manner. The system also includes an AI auto-draft feature, which can provide draft suggestions for follow-up emails based on the user's tone and context, serving as a "gentle reminder."
Looking ahead, Superhuman plans to integrate more user knowledge bases, such as personal websites and Wikipedia pages, to better understand user needs. With access to users' schedules, Superhuman's AI may be able to automatically respond to certain emails or even proactively send replies that meet user-defined criteria.
Although the realization of an auto-reply feature will take time, the current email categorization issue can be resolved immediately. With the launch of the Auto Label feature, Superhuman is committed to providing users with a more efficient email management experience.
