I decided to test out Smart Response again, this time composing an email in Word first, and then typing it into an email. I wanted to see how the autofill and Smart Compose would affect what I'd write, and I could let autofill write the email for me.
Autofill didn't do as much as I thought it would. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I abided by all of the grammar and spelling suggestions and sent the email to another account of mine, and logged in to respond from there.
Gmail's autofill is quite different from Outlook's! I decided to copy and paste the email back to my other account, and noticed that there were a few different grammar checks in Gmail, so I updated those before sending it off. The subject was also auto-filled, which was kind of cool, because that means it took context from the entire email and figured out what it was about. +1 for Gmail.
No Smart Compose responses here, but that's ok. I let autofill complete all of my sentences, even if it's not what I was trying to say at all. It was close, though. I was trying to say "let me know if you need any help!" but "let me know if you have any questions" filled in instead.
Nice, a simple Smart Reply. Not exactly what I would've said, but sure, why not.
No Smart Replies here, but I once again let autofill complete my sentences. It was very polite! I wasn't really trying to be quite that polite -- I was actually going to say something like "I also really like your rainbow signature" -- but Outlook wanted me to say thanks. I was also going to add something like "your contribution is much appreciated," but it filled in "yours sincerely", so I had to end the email prematurely.
An easy Smart Reply for this one! I probably would've said something like "It's no trouble at all!" but hey, a more generic version of that is fine.
I tried giving a little sass, changing the subject. And I really wanted to address that weird signature. Seriously, when was the last time I'd logged into Gmail?
These responses were ridiculous! They didn't even come close to being an appropriate response! So I decided to ignore them and go my own route. I don't remember what I was trying to write with "How t--" (maybe "how timely"?) but "How tall are you?" filled in. Why? I'm just not sure.
A quick Smart Reply from Outlook this time, that once again makes little sense.
Oh, nice, another Smart Reply. It isn't an appropriate response, it makes me sound stupid, but it does work.
Another sassy one! This one took forever to go through too. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.
Oooooh, another Smart Reply that says the same exact thing!! Decisions decisions.....
Here I tried to switch the subject and maybe get back to the topic at hand.
The proper response from me would've been "I'm glad too! And no, I don't think I have anything going on tonight" but Gmail wanted me to be much more abrupt.
I'd feel a little awkward if someone had just responded "no, you?" to me asking if they had any plans. Like, it's not small talk. I'm obviously trying to make a plan of sorts, so I'd expect and appreciate a little more enthusiasm.
Again, my response would've been "Ooh, that sounds great! When and where were you thinking?" but I went with one of the default responses.
Now to set up a plan. Maybe I'll be prompted with the "schedule a meeting" option?
Ah, a boring response. I probably would've said something like "No, that sounds great! I'll see you then!" but I was offered something much less enthusiastic.
I figured this would be the end of the conversation...
But then I got another
And another.
But that did end the conversation, fortunately.
Based on this correspondence, I found Smart Reply a little annoying. It picks up on key words but misses the main point. They are also so generic and boring with no life or personality.I found that ignoring them altogether was the most effective way to write an email. Whenever I used a Smart Reply, it either didn’t answer the question or was a strange response. It’s also very abrupt, and forces you to send more emails back and fourth, rather than just writing one longer all-encompassing email. Smart Compose, on the other hand, usually predicted my words relatively accurately. I was sometimes shocked at how accurately it predicted what I was going to say. But I was also often struck by how different it would be. Based on my experiments, it gets it right about half of the time.
I still wouldn't feel comfortable using Smart Replies in real life, because they just don't sound like me. I'd read that Gmail's Smart Compose learns your style and wording, though, so maybe I should use it more often. Maybe, eventually, it would save me some time and effort while writing emails. I have some relatively generic emails typed out in my notes that I copy and paste into emails, so what's the real difference? Maybe having the options there would help me think of something different to say. But, ultimately, I think using the Smart Replies takes up more time, because more emails are sent back and fourth. If you just took an extra minute to write a more thought-out email, you'd send about 5 fewer emails.