Google I/O 2015: Gmail now boasts 900 million users

Google's free webmail application is getting close to the 1 billion-user mark, making it the world's most popular email service

Google's free webmail application is getting close to the 1 billion-user mark, making it the world's most popular email service

The figures were revealed Thursday by the company's senior vice president of products, Sundar Pichai, who was speaking at the 2016 Google I/O developer conference.

Gmail has more than doubled its user base since 2012, when the number stood at just 425 million. But as well as attracting more consumers, the way people access the service has also changed. Pichai noted during his presentation that 75% of users now check their mail via mobile.