In Android Oreo, highlighting an address, email, or phone number will pop up a suggestion bar to open the appropriate corresponding app on your device. This feature uses machine learning and of course requires an OS update, but in the meantime Gmail and Inbox are being updated with a similar time-saving feature.
As Google notes, copying and pasting is a tedious process:
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.
The new feature works by detecting addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses in the body of messages and converting that text into hyperlinks.
These converted links will open the appropriate app on Android, iOS, or the web. Clicking on a newly converted address will open Google Maps, while emails will open the default mail client. On mobile devices, a phone number will start a call.
This convenient feature is launching today in Gmail and Inbox on all mobile platforms and the web.