Gmail turns 20! Nostalgic images reveal what Google's email service looked like when it launched in 2004 - and how much it has changed since

Checking your emails with a single tap is now so routine that some people might struggle to imagine life without it.

But as Gmail celebrates its 20th birthday, MailOnline has looked back over the years to see just how different life online used to be. 

Gmail now boasts a staggering 1.8 billion users across the world, but it wasn't always the giant we know today.

First launched on April 1, 2004, many people originally thought the new service was nothing more than an elaborate April Fools Day joke. 

And, as these nostalgic images reveal, the site has come a very long way from its humble beginnings. 

Gmail's original home page as it appeared on March 31, 2004, just a day before the service launched

In April 2004, Google issued a press release announcing that it would be making its first steps into the world of email.

At the time, the announcement was widely thought to be too good to be true.

In its announcement, Google revealed that Gmail would offer 'a free search-based webmail service with a storage capacity of up to eight billion bits of information, the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email. Per user.'

In modern terms, free storage of 1GB might not seem dazzling, but this was 500 times more than what rivals like Hotmail could provide.

At the time, Google co-founder Larry Page claimed that the inspiration for Gmail was a series of complaints from one Google user.

Mr Page wrote: 'She kvetched about spending all her time filing messages or trying to find them, and when she’s not doing that, she has to delete email like crazy to stay under the obligatory four megabyte limit. So she asked, "Can’t you people fix this?"'

This story certainly fits with Google's formerly maverik, free-spirited approach to tech development but, unfortunately, it might not be entirely true.

Paul Buccheit, Gmail's creator, later revealed that he had been working on the project since August 2001 under specific instructions to build an email system.

Gmail's creator Paul Bechheit working at his desk at Google in 1999, years before Gmail was even an internal messaging system for the company 

Whatever its origins, what Buccheit created was something truly revolutionary.

Not only did Gmail offer the option to save far more emails than any other rivals, but it also used Google's expertise in search to help people sort through their own emails. 

However, when the site launched, Google didn't have the infrastructure to provide a million people with 1GB of storage each. 

This meant that the service was kept closed and access was by invitation only up until 2007.

Gmail's service was so hyped that people even began selling Gmail invitations on eBay, with some accounts fetching several thousands of dollars.  

This screenshot of Gmail was taken by a Google developer, Kevin Fox, in April 2004. As you can see at the bottom of the screen, users were limited to 1000 MB of data storage

While it might have looked different to how you know it now, a lot of Gmail's core benefits were laid out in that first 2004 Beta.

Email conversations were shown neatly in threads, searching for emails was fast and easy, and users could send attachments up to 25 megabytes. 

With its popularity growing, it wasn't long before Gmail had to move from Beta into a fully public Alpha release in July 2009.

This pushed Google into the truly modern email service that we know today, with millions of users soon signing up.

The public release was soon followed by a number of cosmetic and functional upgrades.

Users could add themes to personalise their Gmail account and even create multiple inboxes to organise their mail. 

Google also began building out the mobile version of the site for iPhone and Android, although it would be two more years before an iOS app was released.  

In 2009 Google announced that Gmail would be leaving Beta, meaning it was considered to be a complete product and was not in development. With Google's classic sense of humour, developers included an option to put the 'Beta' label back on the new Gmail

2009 also brought a number of big updates to the site's appearance and function including new 'themes' and multiple inboxes. This screenshot shows the inbox of Gmail developer Octavian Costache in February 2009

In April 2009, Gmail launched Gmail for mobile. Although the app wouldn't be released until 2011, this mobile version of the site paved the way for future developments 

By 2011, Gmail was well on its way to becoming the most popular email provider as it approached 350 million active users. That year, Gmail also revealed its 'new look' which added HD themes like this one

In July 2011, Gmail debuted a 'new look', which did away with much of the clutter and on-screen noise from older versions. 

Users got even more options for customisation, including the ability to add HD backgrounds taken from stock-photo libraries. 

The biggest changes, however, were all about organisation as Gmail added customisable navigation tabs on the left-hand panel. 

The 2011 update also brought some significant improvements to Gmail's search function, including the ability to filter searches. 

2011 saw some updates to how conversations were displayed (left) and some big upgrades to Gmail's search function (right)

These changes were first introduced in July of 2011, but it wouldn't be until November of that year that the 'new look' would roll out for all of Gmail's users 

In terms of big design updates, the years from 2011 to 2018 were largely uneventful. 

In 2015, Gmail did launch a number of new functions including the ability to send friends money via Gmail.

That same year, users finally got the option to 'Undo Send' messages, meaning emails could quickly be taken back.

It wasn't until 2018 that Google would reveal another big design overhaul. 

By this time, Gmail was the world's dominant email service provider with 1.5 billion active users globally.

Ultimately, Gmail's design emerged only slightly different, with a cleaner aesthetic being the main result. 

One of the bigger changes was the introduction of 'tasks', which allowed users to integrate a to-do list with Google Calendar, dragging emails into a task window to create custom reminders. 

Attachments, which had previously been shown as a 'paper clip' icon, were now shown in the email notification. 

By 2018, Gmail was beginning to look a lot more familiar. In one of its biggest makeovers yet the site added more inbox options, a chat tab and integration with Google Meet 

In July 2022, internet communities were extremely angry that Gmail changed to this new format which added buttons for Meet, Chat, and Spaces which Google was trying to make a bigger part of the Gmail Experience 

This meant that you could click directly on the attachment itself and open the file without needing to go into the email. 

At the time, the general reaction to the changes appeared to be one of outrage.

Numerous articles written in 2018 informed users how they could revert the old version, while the headline of one article in the Atlantic moaned: 'It Had to Happen Sometime: Involuntary Switch to 'New Look' Gmail'.

Four years later, Gmail would unveil its next big set of aesthetic changes. 

While not a lot changed at the surface level, this update's main goal was to bring Gmail in line with the rest of Google's 'G-suite' products.

Gmail now showed tabs for Chat, Meet, and Spaces and featured more integration with Workspace apps like Docs and Sheets. 

In 2022, Google also began to expand its range of 'AI' services, including 'intent matching for names and email addresses' which was supposed to help users make sure they were emailing the right person. 

This update also added personalised suggestions which customised search results in Gmail based on how often you interacted with a contact.  

Finally, we reach 2024 with the version of Gmail that exists today. 20 years on from its launch the site looks a lot cleaner and has new tabs for Primary, Social, and Promotions 

And, with one last set of updates, that brings us to 2024 and the version of Gmail we all use today.

Tabs in the left-hand panel are even more prominent with additional options for customisation.

Emails in the inbox are also sorted more clearly with auto-generated tags and more ways to filter emails.

But, although it might have changed a lot over the last 20 years, side-by-side the old and new Gmail still have a lot of similarities.

Email conversations are still shown in threads, the search bar remains in the same place, and mail is still sorted by tabs on the left.

And, now that Gmail is the world's largest email service by an enormous margin, only time will tell how it continues to change into the future.