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Gmail's new out of office warning will stop you sending unwanted emails

Because no one should have to read work emails on vacation.

Everyone needs a break from the unending onslaught of work emails now and then. A new feature in Google's business suite could help with this, by warning users when someone they're sending an email to is away or on vacation.

The feature is for both Gmail and Hangouts Chat, with a banner appearing at the bottom of the email compose panel or the chat window to warn senders that the recipient has an out of office entry on their calendar. The banner also says when the recipient is due back, which is handy.

Gmail out of office notification

The notifications are only available for users of G Suite, Google's business tool suite. That's okay though, as it's likely that business users would be the only ones using out of office entries anyway.

The feature will be enabled in G Suite automatically and will be rolled out over the next few weeks.