These 16 indispensable tools will completely change the way you use Gmail
Sortd turns your Gmail into a set of useful lists
Ugly Email tells you which or your emails are being tracked before you open them
You may not know, but there are now email-tracking tools that make it easy for people to see when you open an email, what you click, and where you're located. To fight these, the Ugly Email Chrome extension (Firefox soon) shows you when your emails in Gmail are being tracked. And it starts working before you click anything. Once Ugly Email is installed, a tiny little eye symbol appears next to any email in your inbox that's being tracked.
Get it here.
FullContact shows everything you need to know about anyone who emails you
This Chrome extension lets you see the social profiles and job titles of everyone who sends you emails. You can read through their tweets, check out their Instagram photos, and browse their Facebook updates. You can even get detailed information on their organizations — like location, size, and demographics.
And it works with Google Calendar as well, in case you want to brush up before a meeting.
Get it here.
Mixmax lets you create one-click templates and polls, and helps you easily schedule meetings
Mixmax is a Chrome extension that is full of useful nuggets. It makes scheduling meetings easy by letting people select times within the email itself, and at the same time tracks when someone has opened the message so you know when to bug them. It also saves you time with the ability to both schedule emails to be sent later and create one-click email templates.
Get it here.
Mailburn turns your Gmail into WhatsApp when you check it on your phone
This iPhone app automatically shows you Gmail conversations with real people only. The theory is that you can take care of things like newsletters when you are at your computer, but that you don't want to miss an email from an actual person when you are on the go. In the app, you see conversations as chats like in WhatsApp, without things like "Show quoted text."
Download it from the App Store.
Unsubscriber makes it easy to unsubscribe from newsletters and spam
Unsubscriber for Gmail is an iPhone app with one simple premise: easily allowing you to unsubscribe from mailing lists and newsletters. Simply swipe left to unsubscribe, or swipe right to keep your subscription. Then you can delete unsubscribed emails with a single tap.
MailTrack.io shows you when someone has read your message — even in group emails
MailTrack.io is a Chrome extension that lets you know both when your email was sent (with one check mark), and when it was opened (with two check marks). Not only that, but MailTrack.io can tell you when someone has read your email even if the email itself was sent to multiple recipients. And for those who want real time notifications, MailTrack.io has an option to have pop-up desktop alerts when someone opens one of your emails.
Get it here.
Snapmail sends self-destructing emails for you
Snapmail is a Chrome extension that adds a button next to Gmail's "send" button that you can use to send self-destructing messages. The button encrypts your message and only sends someone a link to it. Once your recipient follows the link to the message, Snapmail informs them it will self-destruct in 60 seconds. And then it does. Right now, Snapmail only encrypts text content.
Get it here.
Gmail offline is exactly what it sounds like
Gmail Offline lets you work in Gmail even when you have no internet connection. This is useful for when your connection is spotty, or you don't want to waste your data by tethering to your phone, but still want to draft some emails.
Get it here.
Giphy for Gmail brings the wonders of GIFs to your emails
Giphy, the world's premiere GIF-searching company, has a Chrome extension that puts the power of GIFs straight into your Gmail. If you install the extension, a little rainbow Giphy icon will pop up near your normal formatting icons. And this button will let you insert GIFs into your emails to your heart's content. Add a pinch of whismy to boring emails.
Get it here.
Dropbox for Gmail saves you space and headaches by integrating your Dropbox with your email
Dropbox for Gmail is a Chrome extension that adds a Dropbox button to Gmail's "Compose." This makes it extremely easy to send Dropbox share links in an email, and allows you to bypass the process of attempting to email large files — and saves valuable space in your inbox.
Get it here.
Boomerang schedules not only emails, but also follow-ups
Boomerang is a plugin that works with Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. It has a lot of great tidbits, but perhaps the most useful is the ability to "send later." You just write a message like you normally would and then use either a calendar picker or text box ("next Monday") to schedule when it will send. You can also set a reminder to yourself if you don't hear back so you know when to follow up.
Get it here.
Find Big Mail searches for all the huge emails eating up your space and deletes them
If you find you are getting low on space in your Gmail, it's probably because you have a bunch of emails with big attachments cluttering up your inbox. Find Big Mail is a program that scans your account and helps you find the largest files in your inbox. Then it helps you delete them. Poof. In a second, you can cut down the size of your inbox by an insane amount.
Get it here.
Wisestamp creates a cool custom signature for your emails
Wisestamp is a Chrome extension that helps you customize your signature. You can chose fonts, size, color, and images — but you can also add in more exotic elements like rss feeds, and social services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Get it here.
Send from Gmail makes sure Gmail is always the default
This Chrome extension is for anyone who has ever snorted in frustration when they click on an email icon online and Apple's mail client pops up. With Send from Gmail this will never happen again. It makes a Compose window in Gmail pop up whenever you click an email address on any web page.
Get it here.
GrexIt creates shared Gmail labels and notes
GrexIt is a Chrome extension that is great for collaborating with coworkers, or anyone else you are working on a project with. With shared labels, if you add a label to any email conversation in your inbox, it shows up in your colleagues inboxes with that label attached. It's particularly good for keeping track of who has what assignment, and sharing emails.
Get it here.
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