Get Gmail notifications in Safari with this extension

How often do you check your email? Probably too often and if there isn’t any new mail, it is a waste of time. If the email isn’t important, it is also a time waster. GMail Counter is a Safari extension that solves the problem. This browser utility adds a button to the toolbar at the top of the window, although I have yet to see it do anything, but the main benefit is the audio notification and the information bar under the toolbar.

With the extension installed, you can browse the web as you normally would, switch to another app and so on. When you receive an email you will hear a notification sound - a bell by default - to alert you that a message has arrived. The information bar displays the email subject and sender. If multiple emails are received, the information bar shows each new message for about five seconds and rotates through them.

With the audio and text notifications you can decide whether it is worth going to GMail and reading the messages. You only need click the email in the information bar to go there. It’s really useful and it saves you having to check your Google mail unnecessarily.

To get this extension, open Safari, go to the Safari menu and select Safari Extensions. Go to Categories and select Productivity. Click on GMail Counter. Try this direct link if you prefer.

After installing it, the setup page is displayed, but you can revisit it at any time by going to Safari, Preferences, Extensions, GMail Counter and ticking Check me to open Settings window.

There are General and Notifications tabs. On General you can choose how to open links. On the Notifications tab you can choose to enable sounds and select the sound to use. The Bell sound is fine as it is though. The length of time each email is shown for can be anywhere from two seconds to a minute.

The information bar could be a source of irritation because it takes up valuable screen space on a small screen like a MacBook air or 13in MacBook. However, there is an option in the settings to automatically hide it when there is nothing to show. To hide it you must read all unread emails.

Providing there are no new emails when you start Safari, you won’t see the GMail Counter information bar. There are options to manually show or hide it on Safari’s view menu, but it is fine in automatic mode and if you mouse over it, there is a close button on the left side too.

Now you can spend more time browsing the web and less time checking your email.