There are just some things about Google that I don't like. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
If you're already a subscriber to the Simpletivity channel, you know I talk an awful lot about a variety of Google products. For the most part, I'm very pleased with Google, but you know what—there are just some things that get under my skin.
So today, I'm sharing with you four different products: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Keep, and Contacts. I'm sharing with you things that I just can't stand—the things that I wish Google would improve upon.
Now just before I start, I would love to hear from you. If you see a great workaround to any of the problems that I'm going to point out, I'd love to hear from you, so be sure to share that in the comments below.
Google Calendar
Let's get things started off with Google Calendar, and I've got a sample calendar here—something that I use on a daily basis. Google Calendar is really my home base when it comes to my own productivity.
As you may know, I often use all-day tasks for my most important tasks, but of course, Google has reminders built right in, which is very helpful. But here's pet peeve number one.
Here on Friday and Saturday, you can see that I've got two different reminders here, and they show up at the top, which is great. Actually, I just have the one here on the Friday remember to do this thing.
But here's my pet peeve—I've got three reminders today, and there is no way for me to auto-expand all three. What Google Calendar will always do by default, if you have more than one reminder on a single day, is it's going to group them all together like this.
This really, really bugs me. In fact, I probably create fewer reminders as a result because of this.
I want to see all three of these reminders, just like if I had more than one all-day task, but I can't do that. Or at least I haven't figured out how to do that.
I always have to click on this and then take a look at those individual reminders down here. The exact same thing goes for the mobile experience as well.
So I wish there was a setting somewhere—I wish I could change this. If you know of a workaround, I'd love to hear from you.
Gmail
All right, let's move on to Gmail—something that again I use on a very regular basis. If you use Google products, chances are that you use Gmail as well.
Recently, Gmail had a facelift with a number of improvements but also some changes. Now, one of my favorite things in the previous version of Gmail was that when you hovered over an email address just here from your inbox, you got to see some of that information.
You got to see a profile picture, a name, and so forth, and they give you a few helpful icons here, right? If I want to send an email to this person, if I want to schedule an event, a few other helpful things as well.
But in the previous Gmail, you could see there was an additional link where you could see all of the emails which this individual had sent to you. If you wanted to quickly see all of the emails which this sender had sent to you, it was just one click away.
I can't do that anymore. This is going to start a new email to this user, and in fact, this icon is going to do the exact same thing—just send an email to this user.
But what I used quite frequently was this additional link, and no longer can you go back to the classic Gmail. This additional link allowed me to see all of the emails which I've received from that person.
Now what I have to do is essentially copy and paste their email address, put it up here in the search, and then that's going to bring back everything here in my search results. It's a bit clumsy, and I wish that they would bring that back.
Now there's one other pet peeve that I want to share here within Gmail, and that has to do with when you are creating a message. When we are creating a message here in Gmail, not a lot has changed here in the edit box as you're crafting a new message.
But something which has changed is down below here with the formatting options. Often, by default, I have the formatting options available here, right?
I want to change the font; I'm often bolding certain items of my text, or maybe I want to add a bullet point or realign some things. But what I really dislike about this area here—and you probably can't take full appreciation of it because I don't have a lot of text in here right away—but let me enter down here a little bit—there we go.
This is my pet peeve—I'm often crafting an email, and look what happens. This formatting bar here is floating on top of the email.
So often as I'm writing here, you can see how my signature is being hidden. Often as I'm replying or writing an email, it's hiding some of the text that either I've written or that was later on in that particular email.
In the previous version of Gmail, this was just on top—it would sort of expand this area so it would appear directly above this area. But now it floats on top, and it seems to squish everything in here.
I've got to go scrolling back and forth depending on where I am to see what is going on. This may not be the best example that I'm showing you right here, but you can even see some of my additions here—I've got assistant.com here, I've got Grammarly setup—it's kind of hiding that as well as it's floating over top.
I wish they would go back to just having this as a part of the console. I want to turn it on and off still—I mean, I want to still have that capability—but I don't like this floating option here.
Well, let's stick with a contact-related pet peeve of mine, and that has to do with Google Contacts. If you're using Gmail, chances are you're using the contacts, and of course, it's very easy to add and have Gmail automatically add your contacts here.
But probably my biggest pet peeve is just the default view here, in that I only have limited information. I've got the name, I've got the email address, and I've got a phone number, but that's it.
I can't change these columns in any way—I can't add a company name, I can't add a city, I can't add an additional number. Maybe I want both a business number and a mobile number present on this page.
If I want that information, I need to click on that person and then find that information down below. This is not exactly what I'd like to see—I’d like to have more flexibility here within Google Contacts.
If you know of an extension, if you know of something that enhances Google Contacts, again, I'd love to hear from you. Be sure to include those recommendations in the comments below.
Last but not least, my fifth pet peeve has to do with Google Keep. Now, I love the flexibility of Google Keep with the different types of notes that you can create, but that also is where this pet peeve comes from.
When you go to take a note, and let's say you want something with a checklist like this sample grocery list here, you have to make that choice upfront. What I'd like to do is to be able to add some additional text within a checklist, but currently, I can't do that here at this stage.
If I start taking a note, I can't just add a checklist at this point. I'm gonna have to delete this or close this note and select New List.
Once I start adding this checklist here, if I want to add some additional text below this checklist or above the checklist, I can't do it. I can't do it—I have to make that choice upfront.
So either your note is a checklist, or it is a text-based note. Now, you can add text to an image, and if I want to add further text to this, that's absolutely fine.
But I really wish that I could combine a checklist with additional text information and maybe even a picture as well. So those are some of my pet peeves within my most-used Google products.
Next, I would love to hear from you. What are some of the things that bug you the most when it comes to using your Google apps?
Whether it's Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Keep, Google Contacts, Drive, Maps—I don't care what it is—share with me and share with others what your biggest pet peeves are. Thank you so much for watching.
I'm looking forward to your comments, and I hope you subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
