Posted by Thijs van As, Product Manager

Unless you’re a budding Ansel Adams, odds are you take most of your photos using your phone. And whether it’s photos of your hiking trip or a night out, sending photos to friends and family just got easier. Starting today, you can save time and insert your Auto Backup photos from your phone into Gmail messages on the web using the new Insert Photo button.

When you click the button, you'll instantly access all the photos that are backed up from your mobile devices, starting with the most recent.
If you upload and organize your photos into albums on Google Photos, you can also share entire albums. Plus, you can now resize images while composing messages by dragging on any corner to make your snapshot picture perfect.
These new features will be rolling out today in Gmail on the web. If you haven’t already, turn on Auto Backup so you can easily include photos from your latest adventures in emails to family and friends.

Posted by Greg Bullock, Software Engineer

Shelfies are so yesterday, so we’re saying goodbye to Gmail Shelfie. That said, many of you told us that you loved the concepts of themes and sharing together, so we worked through the night to update this feature into something even better. Today, we’re excited to announce that you can now share any custom theme—your favorite vacation spot, pet, family photo or even, yes, a selfie—with friends, loved ones or anyone.

If you’re using a custom theme that you want shared, simply click on “Share your theme” under Themes in Settings.
And if you opted into Gmail's top trending Shelfies theme, then you can either update to your own custom theme or follow the Gmail Google+ page where we’ll be sharing some of our favorites on “Theme Thursdays.”

Posted by Greg Bullock, Software Engineer

Today, Gmail hits the double digits. Over the last 10 years, you—our users—have been our biggest inspiration. You've sent us ideas for features you want, and told us what you like (and didn't like...). So while it may be our birthday, we want to say thank you to you with a gift that is, well, all about you.

When custom themes launched back in 2012, we urged you to find “your perfect image and make Gmail your own.” And you did. Many of you rushed to take photos of yourselves to upload as your Gmail custom theme, which you started referring to as selfies.
An early selfie in Gmail
As you undoubtedly recall, this term quickly spread beyond email themes and has permeated our culture so thoroughly that the Oxford Dictionaries named it Word of the Year in 2013.
Custom themes catalyzed selfie generation
You all love setting selfies as your custom theme in Gmail, but you’ve told us there’s one major problem: there isn’t a way to share your selfie with others. As the pioneering platform for selfies, Gmail is committed to being at the forefront of innovation in the selfie space. And we think it's a tragedy that your handsome hair, luscious lashes and beautiful brows have been trapped in your own inbox. Until now, that is. Today, we’re proud to free your selfies by launching Gmail Shelfie, the SHareable sELFIE.

Gmail Shelfie is built on the idea that you shouldn’t be selfish with your selfie. With just a few clicks, your mom, your aunt, or that girl you have a crush on can set your Shelfie as their Gmail theme so they can enjoy checking, reading, and writing emails while seeing your friendly face in the background.

Got an awesome selfie? Upgrade it to a Shelfie! Simply open or refresh Gmail on the desktop and share it with your friends. If you're looking for inspiration, set your theme to Gmail's top trending Shelfies. You can also see who's currently trending on our Google+ page.

Spoiler alert: Word of the Year 2014 will be Shelfie... clearly.