If you’ve been keeping up with technology recently, you know that even five-year-old tech can often become obsolete. Email hit its 50th birthday in 2021. Perhaps it’s understandable, then, that pundits and tech gurus have been proclaiming that email is dead for nearly two decades. In 2015, John Brandon of Inc. confidently predicted that email would be gone by 2020. In 2009, Millennial blogger Alex Berger of VirtualWayfarer.com explained that pre-Millennial generations embraced email in a different world, but Millennials had moved it to the endangered species list.
Yet email is still alive and kicking. According to Statista, 306.4 billion emails were sent each day in 2020, and that number is expected to rise to 376.4 billion by 2025. The number of active email users worldwide is also expected to increase, from just over 4 billion in 2020 to 4.6 billion in 2025. Email remains the workhorse of electronic communications: not shiny or new, but old and reliable. It’s also a low-bandwidth option for those on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Still, email is no longer the lifeblood of communication in many workplaces. It’s been overrun with spam, advertising and social media alerts, making it tougher than ever to get down to business. With newer, better tools to choose from, many companies are moving email to the back burner. They’re not getting rid of it all together, but making it just one choice among several for office communications. Let’s dive into the problems with email and the newer solutions that are starting to replace it at work.
Why email is falling out of favor
It is true that some rejection of email comes down to simple generational preferences. Gen Z, born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s, has begun to enter the workforce. It’s also the first generation to grow up with innumerable options for digital communication, from text messaging to social media. Gen Z workers tend to switch easily between different communication options, and email is not always at the top of their list.
Additional challenges with email include:
- Inefficiency. In an email thread, especially among multiple participants, it’s easy to get lost in the CCs and BCCs, to respond to the wrong person, or completely miss important information.
- Lost time. A typical office worker can get hundreds of emails per day. A handful are important, while the others might be everything from advertising to spam. Sorting through email to find and respond to the relevant pieces takes up time that could be spent on other tasks.
- Lower productivity. An employee checking email is not all that different from a rat pushing a lever for cheese. According to Psychology Today, email notifications provide a hit of dopamine, the brain chemical responsible for pleasure. But they also lead to a state of heightened arousal, which can make it difficult to get much done.
Email replacement options
It is extremely unlikely that email will disappear anytime soon. However, the world is shifting toward remote and hybrid work. According to a 2021 Statista survey, 66% of business leaders are redesigning workspaces to support long-term hybrid teams. In an age when we can’t simply walk down the hall to speak with a coworker face to face, better and more efficient tools for asynchronous communication are essential. These include:
- Text messaging or in-app direct messaging
- Recorded videos, especially those that are five minutes or shorter
- Screenshots with markups
- Collaboration platforms such as Slack
These solutions solve many of email’s flaws by providing better organization and streamlining, cutting through the clutter of spam and ongoing advertisem*nts and providing stronger support for collaboration. On a platform such as Slack, you can customize channels for specific projects or teams, and even create a virtual watercooler for off-topic discussions. And you don’t have to let go of email altogether; you can integrate it right into the platform.
Putting it all together
Email is showing no signs of being on its deathbed, despite nearly two decades of predictions. But business needs are changing, especially as employers work to provide a stronger culture for remote and hybrid teams. Integrating email with newer tools, from text messaging to collaboration platforms, allows you to give workers options while solving some of the challenges that email presents.
FAQs
It is extremely unlikely that email will disappear anytime soon. However, the world is shifting toward remote and hybrid work. According to a 2021 Statista survey, 66% of business leaders are redesigning workspaces to support long-term hybrid teams.
Will anything ever replace email? ›
Probably nothing will ever fully replace email. A low-bandwidth option that nearly everyone is familiar with, email seems destined to live a long life. But its importance is being usurped by new tools and methods that solve its challenges. Those alternatives are both more streamlined and more personal.
What is the future of email? ›
In the next two years alone, the number of worldwide email accounts is reportedly expected to continue growing at a slightly faster pace than the number of worldwide email users (3% per year — reaching 4.4 billion worldwide users by end of 2024). 2. Email intelligence will reach new levels.
Why do people not use email anymore? ›
It's getting crowded in our inboxes
One of the reasons why people steer clear of email is the fact that they rarely get the emails they want. Even though spam filters are getting better year after year, a whopping 45% of all emails are spam.
Do you think messaging apps will eventually replace emails? ›
I think the technology that replaces email will be a combination of messaging apps, voice assistants, and AI. We're already seeing some of this happening today, with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams integrating with voice assistants and using AI to automate tasks like scheduling meetings and translating messages.
What is replacing Gmail? ›
The best Gmail alternatives at a glance
| Best for |
|---|
| Microsoft Outlook | Microsoft users |
| Yahoo Mail | More storage |
| Proton Mail | Better security |
| Apple Mail | iPhone and Mac users |
4 more rowsMar 21, 2024
Google is announcing closing time for inactive Gmail accounts. (Taking a cue from Semisonic, maybe?). Starting December 2023, Google will begin a new initiative to identify and remove all inactive users from its platform. Google's definition of an inactive account is one that has not been used within a 2 year period.
Will email be phased out? ›
Email is showing no signs of being on its deathbed, despite nearly two decades of predictions. But business needs are changing, especially as employers work to provide a stronger culture for remote and hybrid teams.
Will my email expire? ›
Your Gmail account is considered inactive when you haven't accessed it for more than 24 months (two years). If your account becomes inactive, you could lose the data that you stored in Gmail, such as messages, files, pictures, and videos. Still, you won't lose the account.
How long will Outlook keep emails? ›
Microsoft Office Outlook will keep them as long as you have an account. As long as you keep the account open, and access it at least once a month. As long as you do not exceed your storage limits. As long as your account is not lost, compromised or stolen.
Gmail is the provider of choice for Millennials & Gen Z
When looking at preferred email providers, Gmail reigns as the most popular choice across generations. What's more interesting is how drastically Gmail's market share increases as we look at younger audiences.
When should you avoid email? ›
When is email NOT an appropriate form of communication to use?
- Your message is long and complicated or requires additional discussion that would best be accomplished face-to-face. ...
- The information is highly confidential. ...
- Your message is emotionally charged or the tone of the message could be easily misconstrued.
Common Reasons You May Hate Email
You may dread opening up your message box for a host of reasons, the task of sorting through hundreds of messages a week can feel daunting. As all the messages appear, your notifications are constantly pinging. An overcrowded inbox makes it easy to miss important messages.
Why is texting better than email? ›
Both email and texting are feature-rich ways of communicating with the intended end audience. The major point of difference is that texting paves the way for 'instant, more urgent' form of messaging whereas email is less time-dependent. If you want to relay information quickly, texting is the way to go.
Can Slack really replace email? ›
Yes, Slack can help you keep all of your work communication — including emails — in one place. Learn how to send emails to Slack.
Is messaging safer than email? ›
Better Security: Text messages are considered to be more secure than email because they are encrypted end-to-end. This means that the message is only accessible by the sender and recipient, making it a more secure method of communication for sensitive information.
Will we run out of email names? ›
It is highly unlikely that Gmail will ever run out of addresses. Gmail, like many other email service providers, uses a system called "username@gmail.com" to assign email addresses to users.
Is email old fashioned? ›
Emails may be considered old-fashioned by some but still have an important role to play in daily personal and business life. Sadly, yes. Emails, like letters, take too long to be of much use any more. Texts are the next solution if phone calls are impractical.
Can Slack replace email? ›
We designed Slack to replace email inside your company and improve the way your teams work—no matter their location. Making the switch is easy (and here are our favorite reasons for doing so). Plus, many of your most critical email workflows map closely onto Slack.
