Hi!
I'm working on Easier, a distraction-free inbox. I've put a lot of thought into it but haven't really been outside of my own brain yet, so here we go...
Do you feel personally bothered by mass/automated emails interrupting your flow? If so, have you done anything to prevent that? How is that working out for you?
Personally: Gmail is always open in a pinned tab, with the unread message icon. I have 100+ filters that push mass/automated emails to various folders so they don't actually hit my inbox. I don't like how Gmail sorts emails so I use the default inbox with all categories turned off. No notifications on my laptop (I see the icon) but I do have a notification on my phone (no sound, no vibration). Any email that gets past my filters triggers a distraction. I want to be able to read emails I deem important fast, but ignore everything else, which has proved hard because I keep getting unwanted emails that don't match filters, despite creating new ones almost every day.
Thanks in advance, looking forward to reading your thoughts!
oh yeah, it is definitely time to re-design the email inbox. It's been around for what, 40 years or so and nothing has really changed!?
The biggest pain is newsletters, I get a lot and do want to read them all so have a nice slice of time early in the morning for them all; except for those annoying ones that turn up at random times in the afternoon - and being OCD and liking empty inboxes I have to read it - I cannot leave it til tomorrow morning. So yeah, go for it Ben, fix it! ;-)
BTW, I came across something yesterday called spikenow.com - turns email into a chat app. and streak.com is also doing some cool stuff.
Would love to see what your idea is Ben and help validate it...
Hey @steveprocter, thanks for the reply! Based on your experience with newsletters I think you will like this service: https://mailbrew.com/
I posted a bit about my journey so far here: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/easier At this stage what I'm thinking is to break down the problem into small pieces, and work on them one by one. The first I think could bring value is a very simple app/browser extension that extracts OTPs and email validation links from your inbox in order to prevent that back and forth while logging in. Additional benefit: since you don't have to check your inbox, you're less likely to get sucked into it. Would you find this useful?
mailbrew looks really cool. but until it has covered a "lot" more sources I just don't see it being worth signing up for, and certainly not paying for. But once it hits a critical mass of most of the services I have newsletters from then yeah, a big one!
So can you give more detail Ben as I'm not quite sure of the idea for the OTP's/email validation links?
I didn't realize mailbrew was limited to certain sources, I kinda assumed any newsletter would work. How about this one then? https://subscriptionzero.com/
OTP/email validation:
Problem: say you're logging in or signing up for a new site. They ask you to verify your address through either of those methods. It seems benign but it's actually a lot of work: change tab, go to your inbox, find the email, and click the link or copy the OTP, and then either follow the link (and close the old tab) or come back to the correct tab and paste the OTP. In addition you run the risk of getting distracted by other things in your inbox and losing your focus.
Solution: a browser extension that monitors your inbox, extracts those links/OTPs so you can log in with fewer steps, without leaving the site, and most of all without visiting your inbox.
LMK if that makes sense :)
subscriptionzero - I think it's interesting but the site doesn't really do a good job of what it is.
Your OTP/email validation idea - ok I really like this. It already happens with SMS verification codes where apps display the code directly from the sms and you just click it without leaving the app. Not sure if that's an Apple/iOS thing but it is cool. So your ideas is exactly that but for emails and website logins - I love it.
But who will pay?
That's a good question. In itself, I don't think this functionality is really worth payment. My idea would be to aggregate multiple features like this one into a full product that makes email easier.
Newsletters: another solution that might work for you, which is what I do, is to create filters in Gmail so that all newsletters are automatically archived and sent to a dedicated label. That way newsletters never disrupt me while I'm working.
Hey @steveprocter, I'm curious which sort of newsletter solution you envision? Right now the two types of solutions I know about are:
"Mailman is a Gmail plugin". we don't all use gmail ;-(
I want something that plugs in to any IMAP account and lets me create my own rules as and when I want to filter/move/hold/hide/bin/schedule with a high level of sophistication that lets me stay in control.
(rather than pretend it can do it all for me using "ai", or tries to be smart and impose it's own limited set of rules on me according to some "this is how you should manage your email" idea).
So pretty much every email sender will have a bespoke rule and I am happy to spend a few moments with some really easy wysiwyg editor creating each new rule. Although each rule can be saved so I can quickly apply it to new senders.
Very vague I know - but hope it helps ;-)
Gotcha. So kinda like porting the concept of Gmail filters to IMAP?
Yes time based filters i think is big. Hiding stuff til certain times. But also a friendly drag+drop style way to set it all up. Gmails filters is hidden in settings, a place where normal people don’t like to venture.
(Looks like we've reached the depth limit of replies!)
@steveprocter I was actually thinking of this topic yesterday. What I could see Gmail filters missing is the following actions:
Otherwise the search system seems to be powerful enough to apply to anything.
Did you have anything else in mind?
gmail filters are fairly basic - I want bells and whistles ;-)