You can now mail someone whose email address you don’t have. It is as simple as that. It also means you will get mail from people not in your address book.
Google on Friday announced a change in its policies which allows you to mail people you know but don’t know the email address of. “Starting this week, when you’re composing a new email, Gmail will suggest your Google+ connections as recipients, even if you haven’t exchanged email addresses yet,” said a post from Google.
However, a mail send like this will land in your Social category and not the main inbox.
“Emailing Google+ connections works a bit differently to protect the privacy of email addresses,” says the post, explaining how privacy will be maintained. “Your email address isn’t visible to your Google+ connections until you send them an email, and their email addresses are not visible to you until they respond,” it adds.
The mail specifies that “only after you respond or add them to your circles, can they start another conversation with you”.
However, users can control whether people can reach you with a new setting in Gmail on the desktop. It lets you decide who gets to mails you — everyone on Google+, extended circles, circles or no one.