Whether it’s reaching the heartbreaking epiphany that you’ll never get to “Inbox Zero” (unless you live by these tricks), or having so many unread messages that you just want to change your name and flee the country, email struggles are all too present in our over-connected world.
Thankfully, there are a whole bunch of life-saving apps out there to alleviate your email-induced headaches. From sites that track whether your memos get read to tools that pause your inbox and stop incoming messages for as long as you want, these apps will transform your inbox from your worst enemy to, quite possibly, your new best friend.
1. MailTrack
Waiting for someone to respond to your email can be excruciating. After a few days, you start doubting whether the recipient even received it. Should you follow up to make sure he didn’t forget about you? Or has she opened it and just been too busy to respond?
If these qualms sound familiar, MailTrack could be your solution. After you install the email-tracking Chrome extension, a green checkmark lights up next to every sent message. Then, when the recipient opens the message, the second checkmark also turns green. If you hover your mouse above the green checks, MailTrack shows you exactly how many times (and even on which devices) the email was checked. This tool is especially useful when you’re cold-emailing contacts and want to decide whether to follow up with someone.
2. INBOX PAUSE
Have you ever started a face-to-face conversation with someone important, only to find yourself distracted by nonstop email notifications popping up on your phone? Or, have you ever tried to finally clear your inbox, only to find a new influx of messages flowing in every five minutes? Created by the geniuses behind Boomerang for Gmail, INBOX PAUSE is the app you’ve been searching for (but didn’t know existed).
With INBOX PAUSE, a “PAUSE” button is added to your Gmail. Whenever you click on it, your inbox will completely halt incoming messages. You have the option of sending a personalized message to people who email you during this time, but it’s also fine if you’d rather not let people know you’re escaping from email-induced migraines (or from reality). Once you click the “UNPAUSE” button, all new messages will at once appear in your inbox.
3. FullContact
Dubbed as “Your Gmail on steroids,” FullContact provides everything you’d want to know about your contacts—their job titles, social profiles, latest tweets—without having to leave your inbox (and in a non-creepy way, we promise). Apart from mentioning shared interests or directly sending a calendar invite to meet over coffee, you can follow the contact on Twitter or connect on Facebook all with just one click.
The Chrome extension’s awesomeness doesn’t stop here. To more deeply connect with your contacts, FullContact gives you important information about their organizations. You get to see everything from what the company does to its location, size, and all relevant social media platforms.
4. WiseStamp
WiseStamp helps you create fancy email signatures where you can prominently feature your social profiles, company information, and your face—well, a picture of it. The free app works on every email platform (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail—you name it) and lets you choose between templates, color themes, and social media buttons. All you have to do is fill out your job title, contact information, links to social media accounts and let WiseStamp do the rest. There’s a live signature preview that lets you see new pieces of information as they’re added. And, once you’re happy with the signature, you just have to connect your email account to Wisestamp. Don’t send another email with a boring, static signature.
5. Unroll.Me
Few things are more annoying than receiving (and promptly deleting) waves after waves of subscription emails. Enter: Unroll.Me, the app that gets rid of all your inbox junk.
Unroll.Me starts by identifying everything you’ve subscribed to and neatly listing them out. With just one click, you can banish all those unwanted subscriptions from your inbox forever. And, for any subscriptions you do want to keep, Unroll.Me combines them into a beautifully laid out daily digest called the Rollup.