Add exciting new features to Gmail with powerful add-ons

Have you ever wished Gmail had more features and better integration with the apps and services you use? There are add-ons for Gmail that boost the features and increase your productivity.

If you use Chrome to browse the web, and most people do, you will be familiar with extensions that add extra features and functions to the Google browser. The Chrome Web Store contains a large collection of them and it is easy to browse and install them.

Gmail now has its own version of this and it supports add-ons that extend the capabilities of Google’s email service and add brilliant new features that can save time and effort. There is even a small store that you can browse and as with Chrome extensions, you can add Gmail add-ons with a few clicks of the mouse button.

The number and range of add-ons for Gmail is not as comprehensive as Chrome extensions, but it is early days and there are bound to be more over time. Also, they have to provide useful features for email, so the options are more limited for developers. There are 22 add-ons as of March 2018.

The add-ons in the store are quite good and they provide extra features relating to services like Asana, Trello, Wrike, MeisterTask, and others. Most the the current add-ons are related to creating tasks, scheduling, calendar, and related things in these services.

It is assumed that you already have an account with whatever you want to use.

Let’s work through and example of installing and using a Gmail add-on

1 Get add-ons

Open Gmail in Chrome and click the gear icon in the top right corner of the page. Select Get add-ons in the menu.

 

2 Browse the addons

A panel opens containing the collection of add-ons. Scroll down to see more and see if any fit the way you work. Your choice will depend on what services you use. I use Trello for example, and already have an account at the website, so I will click that.

 

3 Install an add-on

Click an add-on tile and more information is displayed about it. There is a brief description and one or more screenshots showing what it does and how it works. Click the Install button in the top right corner.

 

4 Installation success

There are a few pop-ups to click through similar to the ‘Are you sure you want to install this?’ type of message. Just click through them all until the installation is complete.

 

5 Look for add-on buttons

The Trello add-on I installed did not immediately appear for some reason. However, after a couple of minutes browsing emails, quitting and re-opening Gmail, the icon for the new Trello add-on now appears in a narrow panel on the right of emails.

 

6 Use a Gmail add-on

I have just one Gmail add-on, but you could install several and they would all appear as buttons on the right. There is a plus button below them to make it easy to find and install new add-ons.

To use the Trello add-on you just click the button. The first time it is opened, you must authorise the add-on to access your Trello account. (It said this gives it one month’s access, so I guess it will then need to be re-authorised.)

Once it has been authorised, you can then add a Trello card to any of the boards in your account.

 

Initially I was a bit skeptical about Gmail addons, but the Trello one is quite simple and convenient to use. It changed my mind.

Normally I would have Gmail and Trello open on different tabs and have to switch from back and forth while reading emails and creating Trello tasks. Now I can stay within Gmail and if an interesting message arrives, I can create a Trello task on any board without leaving Gmail or having other tabs open. The name of the task is automatically taken from the email subject, but this is easily changed if something different is required.

The add-on is simple and it does not do a lot, but it is still useful. It leaves you wanting more, such as the ability to add information to an existing card. Maybe that will happen in a future update.

A different add-on will produce something different to this Trello add-on, but whatever appears will be related to the service you use, such as Asana, Trello, Wrike, MeisterTask and so on. You will be able to create a new task, to-do, event, and so on.