Gmail Officially Releases Add-Ons for Gmail

Email is pretty archaic compared to the other methods people use to communicate nowadays, but Google is trying their best to modernize the 45-year-old communication medium.

The Google-led email service Gmail has announced a slew of add-ons to help users minimize the time spent navigating away from an inbox and interrupting workflow. There is no longer any need to toggle between apps, as these add-ons will exist right inside the inbox. The most-used add-ons will be contextually surfaced based on messages received.

In order to use the add-ons, users must click the settings wheel on the top-right of their inbox. Android and Gmail users only need to download them once to sync across devices.

Several of the add-ons were made available in Google’s developer preview earlier this year, and since that first release, there have been several new add-ons made by partners of the search giant. Below is a list of the add-ons users can download from the G-Suite marketplace.

  • Asana allows communications with clients and teammates to be turned into trackable tasks.
  • Dialpad lets users message or call colleagues on their device.
  • Docusign is coming soon and allows the signing and execution of contracts and agreements.
  • Hire tracks and manages candidate information for hiring purposes.
  • Intuit QuickBooks Invoicing lets users create and manage invoices.
  • ProsperWorks is designed to easily access prospect or customer data while also logging activities from calls or meetings.
  • RingCentral allows users to see the online status of contacts and make outbound calls to RingCentral mobile users.
  • Smartsheet can add email content and attachments directly to the platform without leaving Gmail.
  • Streak can put email threads onto deals and view enriched contact info.
  • Trello turns emails into actionable tasks.
  • Wrike can create tasks from emails, view and update details and send or receive comments.

Developers can even create add-ons themselves or their organizations. Simply write the code once and it will natively run on Gmail and Android.

Many of the apps revolve around productivity and making the lives of Gmail users easier. Whether it be keeping track of tasks or calling clients through something other than a regular phone, the add-ons will try to make more sense of a communication medium that has somehow remained relevant over the progressive course of technology.