Google Inc. has just announced its latest addition to the mobile variant of its Gmail email client, called ‘Smart Reply‘, which fundamentally is a basic auto replying mechanism.

The way Smart Reply works can be comprehended with ease, as all it primarily does is scan the e-mail that the user receives and, judging by the content, it suggests three reply options that seem contextually appropriate. The user selects the options that he favors the most and then the reply is being sent to the other party.

The said feature is supposed to be an extension of Google’s very own digital personal assistant, Google Now, since it is the first artificially intelligent feature to be built-in in an application. Though, as of now Smart Reply is completely separate from Google Now, but it could be incorporated in the future in order to let the user select an automated reply completely hands-free and alike.

Behind the particular mechanism lies Google’s deep neural network technology that can be found in voice search and YouTube’s thumbnail auto-generating feature that helps users find videos easier. In addition, machine learning abilities has been implemented into the neural network technology as well, making Smart Reply much more multifunctional than expected.

Smart Reply includes the machine learning skillset which allows it to recognize which emails need immediate respond and also -the more you use it- it  enhance its writing quality; it losely resembles the Inbox’s capability (filters) of distinguishing spam e-mails from the proper ones.

Smart Reply is currently available solely in English and will be rolled out to Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store sometime during next week.

Source: Gmail Blog.