{"id":62,"date":"2020-10-16T11:47:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T16:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kmbrian.com\/?p=62"},"modified":"2020-12-08T13:22:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T19:22:55","slug":"gmail-extensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/gmail-extensions\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Gmail Extensions That’ll Turbocharge Your Inbox"},"content":{"rendered":"
Gmail is widely accepted as one of the best \u2013 if not the<\/i> best \u2013 free email providers around. In the ten years since it launched, it\u2019s reached 1.2 billion users<\/a>, 20% of the email market<\/a> share (second only to the iPhone), and a minuscule 0.05% of wanted email falsely classified as spam<\/a>.<\/p>\n It boasts an intuitive user interface, it\u2019s secure, and it offers plenty of storage (15 GB). Better yet, Gmail can do so much more <\/i>when you plug in one of the many extensions on offer to users.<\/p>\n Here are 20 of the best to take you from Gmail user to Gmail power<\/i> user.<\/p>\n \u201cTake control of when you send and receive email messages.\u201d Right Inbox<\/a> makes email much more functional with a few simple yet intuitive add-on features. More than 250,000 professionals use Right Inbox every day to increase their email productivity. If all you\u2019re looking to do is control when your emails go out, have recurring emails, and get reminders to help you organize your email communications, inbox, and life, RightInbox is more than sufficient. Right Inbox added some cool new features in 2019 worth checking out, in particular the email tracker feature<\/a> and the email templates feature<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cRun your entire business from your inbox.\u201d Streak<\/a> makes it easier to get things done by turning your Gmail into a full-fledged customer relationship management<\/a> (CRM) system.<\/p>\n In addition to features like email scheduling, tracking, and real-time notifications (so you know when<\/i> your emails are being read), Streak helps you stay on top of conversations by organizing your communication flow, makes it easy to share emails across your team<\/a> (without the need to forward emails or cc team members), and<\/i> allows you to easily split email threads. Oh, and it keeps on top of the deals you\u2019ve got cooking, and your support and customer service queue.<\/p>\n Essentially, Streak does everything you\u2019d expect a CRM to do, without the inconvenience of setting up and using an external system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fastest and easiest way to manage multiple email accounts.\u201d Checker Plus<\/a> allows you to read, listen to, and delete emails, all without opening your inbox. You can identify and eliminate unimportant or irrelevant emails before you ever see them in your inbox.<\/p>\n It\u2019s great for the visually impaired, as well as people who are always on the go and unable to respond to emails as quickly or as often as they\u2019d like.<\/p>\n It can also notify you of new emails. You can allocate sound notifications to different contacts (in the same way you might assign separate ringtones to different contacts in your phone) and configure the extension to tell you who\u2019s emailing and what they\u2019ve said.<\/p>\n Stay on top of your inbox without having to live in it.<\/p>\n \u201cEmail: 30% faster, 100% more fun.\u201d The Email Game<\/a> will gamify<\/a> email management. In short, it forces you to work faster by applying time limits to emails.<\/p>\n By default, you\u2019ll get 5 seconds to decide how to deal with each new email: reply, delete, archive, skip, or boomerang (send it away only to return to your inbox later). You get points depending on the selected action, and you get penalized for going over time.<\/p>\n Clear out the clutter, reply faster, and earn points. Do you have what it takes to be the high score?<\/p>\n The long version is that you get points for organizing your inbox and replying to emails. The faster you can clear your inbox or reply to an email, the more points you get.<\/p>\n The default setting only gives you three minutes to reply, but you can add extra time if you need it for longer responses.<\/p>\n The Email Game is ideal for anyone who spends too long replying to emails, considering your response, and deciding what to do with old or unwanted ones (i.e. most of us).<\/p>\n \u201cClean up your inbox.\u201d Unroll.me<\/a> helps you keep your inbox squeaky-clean by making it really<\/i> easy to unsubscribe from emails you don\u2019t want to see, and consolidating those that you do.<\/p>\n Once installed, you can view a list of all the emails and newsletters that you\u2019re subscribed to. You can then instantly unsubscribe from those you\u2019re no longer interested in receiving from one convenient place.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n You can also combine all the subscriptions you do<\/i> want to see into a single email. You\u2019ll get a daily \u201cRollup\u201d that contains all updates from all publishers you actually want to hear from. \u201cThe best way to learn keyboard shortcuts while you work in Gmail.\u201d Keyboard shortcuts are awesome, but there are so many<\/i> of them, it can be tricky to pinpoint the ones that are actually going to help you and that you\u2019re going to use regularly.<\/p>\n This is where KeyRocket<\/a> comes in.<\/p>\n It does the detective work for you by tracking your movements in Gmail and suggesting appropriate shortcuts that will help you get things done faster. You\u2019ll simply get a subtle notification that lets you know when a suitable shortcut could have been used in place of a series of mouse clicks.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like having a super tech-savvy assistant watching over your shoulder with helpful tips and tricks while you read, reply, delete, and archive.<\/p>\n \u201cDo less, achieve more.\u201d Active Inbox<\/a> helps you optimize your inbox by letting you track, schedule, and organize emails according to priority. You can set deadlines, group similar emails into folders, and prioritize by dragging important ones to the top of the list.<\/p>\n You can also add notes and tasks that essentially turn your inbox into a workflow to ensure you\u2019re always in control of your emails, as well as any external tasks they apply to.<\/p>\n It\u2019s essentially a task manager right in your Gmail dashboard.<\/p>\n \u201cBook meetings with one email. No back & forth. No double bookings.\u201d If you\u2019ve ever been frustrated by the back-and-forth involved in scheduling a suitable date and time for meetings, you\u2019ll love Assistant.to<\/a>.<\/p>\n By integrating with both Gmail and Google Calendar, Assistant.to makes it ridiculously easy to create and send meeting invites that list all<\/i> of your available time slots. Once received, all your contacts have to do is choose the date and time that works best for them, and it will automatically select the most appropriate slot.<\/p>\n Assistant.to will then check your calendar to ensure you\u2019re still free, schedule the meeting, and notify everyone of the scheduled appointment. If anything changes, it\u2019ll let everyone know, and even send reminders on the day of the meeting.<\/p>\n Other useful features include the extension\u2019s ability to convert time zones (so there\u2019s no confusion when scheduling meetings with contacts in other parts of the world), remember your most common meeting locations and availability (so that scheduling meetings becomes even<\/i> quicker and easier), and integrations with popular conference software.<\/p>\n Cost: <\/b>Free<\/p>\n Some of the tools above allow you to track if and when the emails you send are getting opened. That can be invaluable to anyone sending outreach or sales emails<\/a>, but what if you want to prevent the same trick from being played on you?<\/p>\n PixelBlock<\/a> is a super-simple Gmail extension that blocks email trackers so you can stop other people from tracking when you open their<\/i> emails.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also be notified when PixelBlock successfully stops a tracker via a \u201cred eye\u201d that will appear next to the sender\u2019s name.<\/p>\n \u201cFind any corporate email.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Cost<\/b>: Pay-as-you-go for only $0.10\/lead, monthly accounts start at $49 depending on the number of leads required. Sign up and get 50 for free to try it out.<\/p>\n With the simple addition of a search button on profile and search pages on popular sites, Norbert can help you find and<\/i> verify virtually any corporate email address. After all, you can\u2019t reach out to someone if you don\u2019t know their digital address.<\/p>\n Click \u201csearch\u201d and let Norbert\u2019s powerful email identification algorithm do it\u2019s thing.<\/p>\n Norbert can also verify your existing email list, helping you cut out the dead and risky ones (those that look good, but might bounce for a variety of reasons). Simply upload your list as a .CSV file, or copy and paste individually addresses.<\/p>\n Spent more time reaching out, and less time figuring out how.<\/p>\n Image: Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n DocuSign is one of the leading products for sending and receiving signable legal documents. Chances are that if you\u2019ve ever had to sign a contract or agreement via email, you\u2019ve already used DocuSign.<\/p>\n DocuSign\u2019s Gmail extension makes using this popular tool even easier. Now, you can send signable legal documents without having to leave your Gmail inbox.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in a field where you need to send out a lot of documents, the time saved here and there can really add up and drastically boost the efficiency of your workflow. Definitely a must-have for those working in law or as contractors.<\/p>\n Oftentimes, the business world can feel cold and overly formal. As your inbox piles high with lots of \u201cGreat, thanks!\u201d emails, it can feel like a breath of fresh air to spice up your communications with something a little more personal.<\/p>\n Giphy\u2019s Gmail extension helps you achieve just that. By adding gifs from Giphy\u2019s extensive collection into your emails, you can better express yourself and add a nice personal touch to your communications.<\/p>\n Of course, don\u2019t go too overboard, but Giphy can really help add some fun and color into a typical workday.<\/p>\n Staying organized is hard. Pretty much everyone knows the struggle of seeing an important email, only to lose it in the chaos of your constantly overflowing inbox. Then, when you finally need the information, it\u2019s nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n Evernote helps solve this problem. Originally designed as a note-taking tool, Evernote\u2019s Gmail extension lets you save parts of important emails into your notes, which are viewable on any device that can run Evernote.<\/p>\n This helps you keep important info handy and ensures that you always have a record of your most important communications within arm\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n Although cyberattacks<\/a> and cyberterrorism are constantly in the headlines, proper cybersecurity and digital hygiene procedures are still grossly overlooked in business settings. FlowCrypt helps add extra security to your emails so that you can keep them safe from unwanted eyes and hackers.<\/p>\n While Gmail has encryption built in, FlowCrypt takes things up a notch. It uses PGP encryption to provide extra security.<\/p>\n This extension is particularly useful if you\u2019re frequently sending sensitive information or if you\u2019re a higher up at a company. Out of all the extensions we\u2019re covering, this one is a no-brainer.<\/p>\n Focusing is a hard task when the device we use for work is the same one that we use for many of our leisure activities. That\u2019s why it can be useful to get a little artificial help now and then from a tool that can practically force you to stay on task.<\/p>\n The premise behind Inbox When Ready for Gmail is simple: you use it to lockdown or hide your inbox so that you can focus on writing and sorting through emails, not constantly checking for new ones and getting distracted as they come in.<\/p>\n You can also use it to curb a troublesome email habit. If you find you\u2019re checking your email too often, you can hide your inbox as a reminder to go do something else next time you open it up.<\/p>\n Ever wish you could stick a Post-It note on some of your emails? Ever go so far as to stick one on your monitor as you read your email, only to realize that it\u2019s not going to be much help once you click away?<\/p>\n Simple Gmail Notes has your back. This handy extension lets you add notes to your emails, so that you can keep important information on hand \u2013 and save your monitor from sticky stuff at the same time!<\/p>\n Plus, this extension is totally free, so you can add a little bit of extra organization to your workflow without burdening your wallet in the slightest.<\/p>\n Although email is one of the most popular modes of communication in business, it can sometimes provide an incomplete picture of who the sender is.<\/p>\n Rapportive sets out to fix this by pulling a sender\u2019s LinkedIn profile right into your inbox whenever you open an email. Now, you can see the whole story when you open an email, such as where they work, what they look like, what their job title is, etc. Plus, it also just saves you time from jumping back and forth between your email and LinkedIn.<\/p>\n Rapportive was actually acquired by LinkedIn, so that should give you some confidence in the utility of this tool. If even LinkedIn believes in it, so do we.<\/p>\n Digify helps turn your emails into something straight out of a secret agent movie: a message that self-destructs.<\/p>\n …or a Snapchat. You can take your pick.<\/p>\n Essentially, Digify allows you to send attachments that will disappear after a set period of time. If you\u2019re sending sensitive documents, this can be very useful in helping you keep your information secure.<\/p>\n Plus, if you send something to the wrong person by mistake, you can used Digify to unsend it before it gets into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n Asana and Trello are two of the most popular project management tools on the market. Luckily, they both have Gmail extensions that can make your life easier.<\/p>\n Both of these extensions let you create new cards straight from your inbox, saving you from wasting time swapping back and forth between your email and your project management tool.<\/p>\n If you use either of these tools, it\u2019s definitely worth checking ouit their respective Gmail extensions.<\/p>\n Although email has been the standard business communication channel for a while now, new players, like Slack, are starting to move in.<\/p>\n While Slack is a very useful tool for communicating with team members, having to swap between Gmail for external communications and Slack for internal communications can be time consuming and exhausting.<\/p>\n Slack\u2019s Gmail extension allows you to send messages to Slack channels from within your Gmail inbox, so you don\u2019t have to switch between the two everytime you want to send an email or a Slack message.<\/p>\n It can turn out to be a big timesaver and help you stay a bit more organized as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gmail is widely accepted as one of the best \u2013 if not the best \u2013 free email providers around. In the ten years since it launched, it\u2019s reached 1.2 billion users, 20% of the email market share (second only to the iPhone), and a minuscule 0.05% of wanted email falsely classified as spam. It boasts …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Gmail-Extensions.jpeg?fit=1138%2C493&ssl=1","yoast_head":"\r\n1. Right Inbox<\/a><\/b><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost:<\/b> From free to $7.95 a month (the free account is good for 10 messages\/month, while a paid yearly account with unlimited emails is only $5.95\/month)..<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
2. <\/b>Streak<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost: <\/b>From free (for personal users) to $89 per user\/per month for an enterprise account. For most businesses, the $39 per user\/per month corporate plan should suffice.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
3. <\/b>Checker Plus<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost:<\/b> Free<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
4. <\/b>The Email Game<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost:<\/b> Free<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
5. <\/b>Unroll.me<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost: <\/b>Free<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nInstant better inbox.<\/p>\n6. <\/b>KeyRocket<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost: <\/b>Free<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
7. <\/b>Active Inbox<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost: <\/b>From $4.16 a month for a personal account, $5.83 a month for a professional account, and $12.48+ (depending on number of users) for a team account.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
8. <\/b>Assistant.to<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>
\nCost:<\/b> Free<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
9. <\/b>PixelBlock<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
10. Voila Norbert<\/a><\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
11.<\/strong> DocuSign for Gmail<\/a><\/h2>\n
12.<\/strong> Giphy for Gmail<\/a><\/h2>\n
13.<\/strong> Evernote for Gmail<\/a><\/h2>\n
14.<\/strong> FlowCrypt Gmail Encryption<\/a><\/h2>\n
15.<\/strong> Inbox When Ready for Gmail<\/a><\/h2>\n
16.<\/strong> Simple Gmail Notes<\/a><\/h2>\n
17.<\/strong> Rapportive<\/a><\/h2>\n
18.<\/strong> Digify for Gmail<\/a><\/h2>\n
19.<\/strong> Asana and Trello for Gmail<\/a><\/h2>\n
20.<\/strong> Slack for Gmail<\/a><\/h2>\n