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Google is rolling out a small but useful change to Gmail notifications on Samsung Galaxy phones: attachment previews are now visible directly in the notification shade. It’s a subtle update that promises to speed up how you triage emails without opening the app.
What’s new in Gmail notifications?
Previously, Gmail notifications on Android showed a paperclip icon when an email included an attachment and a snippet of the message body. Spotted by 9To5Google, the updated notifications now expand to show image thumbnails and a pill-style label for other files like PDFs — similar to how messaging apps present attachments.
How the previews look and behave
- Retracted notifications still show the sender and subject.
- Expanding the notification reveals image previews or a labeled pill for PDFs and other file types.
- The new layout prioritizes attachments, which means the message body snippet is hidden in the expanded view.
For many users this will be faster: you can glance at a photo or confirm a PDF’s filename without launching Gmail. But it also raises a preference issue — some people may miss the message preview that used to appear alongside sender and subject.
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Why this matters — and what Google could improve
Small UX changes like this add up. Imagine sifting through a busy inbox: seeing an invoice PDF’s name or a photo thumbnail in the notification saves a tap and a moment of context. Yet not everyone will prefer attachments over text snippets, so a simple toggle in Gmail settings to choose between showing the email body or attachment previews would be ideal.
Google has been gradually polishing Gmail on Android — for example, adding a 'Mark as Read' button in notifications earlier this year — but feature parity and user-control options remain requests from power users. The attachment preview rollout appears targeted at Galaxy phones for now, so availability may expand over the coming weeks.
Quick checklist
- Who sees it: Samsung Galaxy users first (reported by 9To5Google).
- What’s shown: image thumbnails and labeled pills for files like PDFs.
- What changes: the message body snippet may be hidden in expanded notifications.
- Suggested improvement: a settings toggle to choose between body text and attachment previews.
If you rely on notifications to triage emails, keep an eye on your Gmail app updates — this change could save you a few taps every day.
Source: sammobile
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