Two years ago Gmail launched email annotations for Promotions tab. This allows emails to feature a prominent image along with accompanying labels for offers beneath the subject line of the email in the Gmail App.

At launch, Gmail only featured the annotated emails on the top two spots in a special “Top Deals” section in the Promotions tab. This meant only a few emails were displayed with these special features at a time.

Annotations are appearing in the main list… randomly.

Originally, the remaining emails in the Promotions tab list (under the header Remaining Promotions) did not display the annotations even though they might contain annotations in the email.

However, it is looking like Gmail is starting to display emails with annotations in the main list.

Granted this seems like a test as Gmail seems to be doing this randomly, so not all emails with annotations will have their annotations displayed.

Either way, this looks like an interesting development!

Testing email annotations

If you’re interested in testing annotations in your email, you can send a test to yourself using this Annotations generator tool. 

Curious about annotation analytics?

By the way, if you’re interested in getting some insights and analytics of your campaigns with annotations, check out Brian Sisolak’s (@bsisolak) PeakInbox (no connection with FreshInbox and not compensated either :) ).