At long last, Gmail starts converting addresses and contact info into links

Gmail is packed with a lot of time-saving features, like Smart Replies for mobile users. So it’s a bit surprising to realize that Gmail will only now start to automatically detect and convert addresses, phone numbers and contacts into links.

The feature, which begins rolling out today for Gmail and Inbox on Android, iOS and the web, should be familiar to most users because almost every other major email client has it already. Address links will open Google Maps, clicking on an email address launches a new compose window in your email client and phone numbers dial a new call in Hangouts or your default phone app.

As the G Suite team blog puts it, “Gmail users often exchange information like addresses and phone numbers with each other to set up meetings, introduce colleagues and plan events. Precious time can be lost by having to copy and paste this information from an email into other apps and websites, so we wanted to provide a better way to perform these tasks that also saves time.” Indeed.

The feature will be visible to all users within three days