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Simplify Gmail: Bringing the Simplicity of Google Inbox to Gmail

204 points by gmcabrita 8y ago

O_H_E 8y ago
Oh, yes. I was searching for something like this last week. Thank you OP
kossae 8y ago
> I was Gmail's lead designer from 2008 to 2012 and co-founded Google Inbox. Quite the perfect person for the job!
gedy 8y ago
Bless you, Inbox started redirecting to Gmail this week, and I cannot stand the new Gmail look. Features aside, Inbox was a pleasure to read and look at.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  Interestingly, it doesn't do this for me yet.
  - mmsimanga 8y ago
    Not sure if I switch to Gmail or if I was redirected but I have been using Gmail for the last few days. I tried Inbox URL and it works. I think I will stick with Inbox until it is switch off.
  - gedy 7y ago
    Google for business seems to be redirecting (at least my company)
floathub 8y ago
I am genuinely impressed that you were gmail’s lead designer for _years_. In the abstract, I understand how adoption and usability can turn on subtle and clever design decisions. The sum total of all these little things can definitely lead to a hockey stick uptake. But I’m still lost on the OP “before” and “after” shots. Looks like the same info to me, just rearranged with different whitespace. Am I totally missing something fundamental?
- asynchronous13 8y ago
  They are not before and after shots. These are both "after" shots, the first one of the inbox view and the second one of an email view. Click on the image to see the default gmail view for comparison.
  - pvinis 8y ago
    I guess GP meant those before and after screenshots. I agree with them in that I also don't what the difference is. I also never used Inbox for more than 10 min. It's the same, just a bit "prettier" with the definition of "pretty" being "bigger and with more whitespace", which I don't necessarily agree with, at least for email.
  - nebulous1 8y ago
    If you click the pictures they change
- nebulous1 8y ago
  No, that's basically what inbox was. More whitespace and less (hopefully irrelevant) information on the screen. There was also some extra functionality but I don't think this app implements it
  - dalore 8y ago
    Inbox has a lot of useful features with bundling and archiving. This extensions seems to be just a skin on gmail that doesn't give any of the inbox functionality. Seems to just replicate that extra whitespace functionality only.
purephase 8y ago
This is great, thanks for sharing.
fermentation 8y ago
One of the hidden features of this extension is that it gives you a better view of the zoozimps theme.
pen2l 8y ago
The two main things I miss from Inbox: - The "Trips" feature... so easily you could see your flight details, your hotel details... vs. having to search your email box and having to go through emails upon emails - The image previews! I do some artwork for my job, and it was SUCH a boon to see the images right there. You could actually click one of them, and preview all the images from an email conversation in a carousel fashion Any ideas how I may be able to get this in Gmail somehow?
- davchana 8y ago
  On Android I think Google has Google Trips app, which gets data from GMail emails you receive & google search you do.
  - schneidmaster 8y ago
    This exists on iOS as well.
- shereadsthenews 8y ago
  I am going to miss Inbox but sometimes it would pick an image for a bundle and show it prominently forever. It was not always an image I wanted to see all the time.
- nolok 8y ago
  > - The "Trips" feature... so easily you could see your flight details, your hotel details... vs. having to search your email box and having to go through emails upon emails I'm not sure if they extracted it to a dedicated app or if the app was already there and Inbox integrated it, but Google Trips is exactly that.
  - jypepin 8y ago
    omg thanks for sharing, never heard of this app before! I travel fairly regularly and having a place with all my flights is just a godsend that I missed from Inbox!
  - 7y ago
sahaskatta 8y ago
This looks amazing. Please add support for a dark mode!
ukulele 8y ago
As dumb as it sounds, the biggest thing I've missed is seeing the sender's image in the main view, where the checkboxes are in gmail. It was so, so, so much easier to instantly tell who sent the message with an image there. Even the gmail app has this feature, so I really don't know why it's not in the gmail web UI. Is there any way to add these back with a plugin like this?
- leggett 7y ago
  This is one thing we might be able to bring back. It will be a stretch but there is a chance as opposed to bundles or deeper reminders integration.
  - mgalgs 7y ago
    Do you work on Gmail? Are you saying bundles have little chance of making into Gmail? That might cement my decision to finally drop Gmail... :(
    - mgalgs 7y ago
      Ah sorry just noticed that you're the extension author. Never mind. Definitely going to check the extension out because I'm really hating Gmail right now. Inbox really spoiled us :(
joe-collins 8y ago
I'm not sure how much you can or would push to restore functionality via this added layer, but even this is a great boon. For both this, and your recently deceased, thank you.
apk-d 8y ago
Still using Inbox. Will keep doing so until the servers actually go down. Somehow, it feels intimately sad to have to let go. But when the time comes, Firefox extension please!
- jakecopp 8y ago
  Seconded, would love to use this with Firefox.
- djaychela 8y ago
  Yeah, I saw this and got my hopes up, but I've stopped using chrome and won't go back for this, so I'll have to lump it!
robrichard 8y ago
Is there any email client that supports bundles like Inbox did?
- shereadsthenews 8y ago
  The magic isn’t in the client it’s in the delivery pipeline. If nothing is classifying the message into a bundle on the backend, what is the frontend going to do? Of course you can replicate all this yourself but it’s going to be a lot of software to write.
  - robrichard 8y ago
    What I miss most is not the auto-bundling, but writing rules to tag emails with a label and the viewing (and archiving) everything that matched as a bundle. Seems like all the backend that’s needed is built into gmail, what’s needed on the client is knowing which labels to display as a bundle.
    - wwwigham 8y ago
      No, no - I definitely miss the autobundling. The auto bundling of github emails by repo is possible the only thing that's been keeping me sane, since I get a _lot_ of notification traffic, much of which I should read about, at least... I can't really setup rules for that - I could setup rules for repos I already participate on (ungh, that's a lot), but every random new repo would be another tag and another rule. Eck. Inbox made that management drop dead simple. I lament it's loss.
djanogo 8y ago
You can also remove the top tabs (Social, Promotions, Updates) which are mostly advertising and have "get back to our website" emails. Lot of forums have moved to Facebook now, so that tab is also sort of obsolete.
- leggett 7y ago
  Better to change your inbox type under Settings > Inbox > Inbox Type than remove the tabs with an extension.
jaimehrubiks 8y ago
Am I the only one that would miss every single thing this extension hides? Actually I don't use the right side bar, but I like to organize my email in labels and auto filter emails into them and clearly see how many I have. I do like gmail as it is now. Actually, I also like the html version https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/h/ https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/h/ but because it has all the features of the normal gmail but it loads faster.
- sniperjzp 8y ago
  Same here, after trying the new gmail for a couple of weeks, I really enjoy the labels (with different color) and filters, it feels like everything is well organized and is totally under my control.
- bbx 8y ago
  Completely agree. I’m a very big user of labels. I have more than a hundred, and have set up about 50 automatic filters to apply these labels, so much that 99% of the emails I receive have at least one label applied to them automatically. This extension is geared towards Inbox users who want some less UI overload but without all the automatic features. Seems more like a coat of paint than a plugin.
- aiCeivi9 8y ago
  I use that Basic HTML version ever since that weird reply popup panel appeared.
- leggett 7y ago
  You can still open the left nav and leave it open. It just hides entirely when you minimize it like it does in Inbox.
eBombzor 8y ago
The biggest feature for me was bundles (which unfortunately this extension does not have). I could create a bundle for a subscription service or a listerv or just school updates from certain people and it wouldn't clutter my inbox (had around 20 entries all the time even during the busiest seasons). Was incredibly good for sites like Monster when I was looking for jobs. It wouldn't clutter my inbox but when I wanted to apply I could just go through the bundles. Genius design really. Wish it came to Gmail now that Inbox is dead.
- sfRattan 8y ago
  I never used Inbox as I never had a problem with Gmail, but how were 'bundles' different from creating labels and logical filters that skip certain categories of message past the inbox? Was it just that 'bundles' were more intuitive and obvious to set up, or was there something that made them more than a label plus one or more filters?
  - lostmsu 8y ago
    Never saw the feature, but from the description they simply looks like labels, but displayed inline with unlabeled email. E.g. imagine all emails from your utility company as a single long thread.
    - Klathmon 8y ago
      And the ability to take a one-click action on all of them in the bundle. There were so many times that I'd snooze an entire bundle of emails about a trip until the monday before the trip, or snooze the 20 emails sent out from a work monitoring system that I need to look into later in the day, or archive an entire bundle of promo emails after glancing in them at the subject lines. In gmail I hate the tabs because once I look at them they stop being shown as a count in that tab, and I need to select them all and archive them in multiple steps. And if you don't like the tabs, the only other way to organize is by foregoing grouping all together and throwing everything into one messy list.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
jakecopp 8y ago
My dream is a command line email client with Google Inbox's todo list mentality, with Vim keybindings which I can keep in a Mosh session. Is there anything at all like this? I'm still getting the hang of Mutt and setting it up properly, it feels a long way off.
curiousgal 8y ago
What we need is a CSS extension for Gmail's simplified version.
- Scrantonicity 8y ago
  and basic javascript upgrades like the ability to select multiple emails at the same time, keyboard shortcuts to delete emails/reply etc.
lervag 8y ago
I notice a lot of people comment on what they miss from Inbox, and I am very surprised to see that no one has mentioned the reminders. For me, this was the killer feature and the one feature I will miss from Inbox. Being able to combine my email and reminders in the same convenient interface was simply fantastic. I've now settled on ticktick for handling my reminders, after testing the Google tasks stuff, Todoist, Any.do, and more. It works well, but does not feel nowhere near as smooth as Inbox.
- Vinnl 8y ago
  It's the one thing I keep coming back to as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19554475 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19554475 Reminders among emails just makes a lot of sense. I'm going to miss them.
- cfontes 8y ago
  Reminders, bundles, UI and travel features were great. Never had my inbox so clean, before.
- patrickaljord 8y ago
  You can do reminders in gmail too, just click on the clock icon. You can also schedule send your email now which is pretty cool https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/original_images/SHEDULE_SEND_MOBILE.gif https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/ori...
  - Vinnl 8y ago
    I think you're conflating snoozing with reminders. Snoozing allows you to hide emails until a later moment in time, whereas reminders allows you to add arbitrary items to your inbox (e.g. "Visit dentist") which you can then also snooze until the appropriate moment. The experience might be replicated by sending an email to yourself and snoozing that, but that involves far more friction.
- steveridout 8y ago
  As a replacement for reminders I've been emailing myself and then using the snooze feature to hide it until later. It works but adds extra friction to creating the reminder and is very clunky. I'd love it if someone could create a Gmail add-on which gets us closer to the ease of use of Inbox reminders.
deleted 8y ago
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hmexx 8y ago
It is now April 3rd and Inbox is still working for me, both on iOS and Web. Is it too early to hope they may have changed their mind?
- djaychela 8y ago
  Won't happen, alas! I was thinking the same and will keep using it until it stops working...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - djaychela 7y ago
    .... and it's gone. Forwards to gmail now.
- khrm 8y ago
  It stopped working for me on Android.
  - kkarakk 8y ago
    if you have root access you can modify the app and keep using it(guide on xda developers) https://www.xda-developers.com/use-inbox-by-gmail-android-after-shutdown/ https://www.xda-developers.com/use-inbox-by-gmail-android-af...
lucideer 8y ago
Wanted to try this in Firefox, but the code is simple and easy to read enough that it was actually easier to convert it into a Grease/Tamper/Violentmonkey script than to package as a new addon. https://hastebin.com/elonabobew.js https://hastebin.com/elonabobew.js
halgir 8y ago
I've used this plugin for all of five minutes now, but I'm loving it so far. The search and compose buttons are a little bit out of the way compared to default. But that turns out to be a positive for me, as it got me to finally look up the keyboard shortcuts!
rcthompson 8y ago
One thing I really miss from Inbox is the ability to archive the currently highlighted message with the archive shortcut without having to select it first. Does anyone know a way to get this in gmail?
- Infernal 8y ago
  I'm not sure what you mean by your use of "survive" here - are you referring to the feature where you could pin certain emails and then "sweep" the rest into archive with one click?
  - rcthompson 8y ago
    Whoops, that was meant to be "archive" but my phone autocorrected it. I've edited it.
    - Infernal 8y ago
      Ok cool. So the best way to do this is that I have found is to use the vertical spit view (selected using the icon to the left of the settings gear icon, in the upper right of the gmail window). This allows you to use the keyboard ('j'/'k') to navigate through the list of emails, and just hit 'e' on the ones you want to archive. Downside is, the content of the email still loads in the preview pane. If you don't want emails to automatically be marked as "read" when you select them, you can go to the settings gear, "Inbox" tab, and change the length of time a message is displayed in the preview pane before being marked read to "never".
dalore 8y ago
This misses the whole point of inbox which is strange since this is from the guy who claims to have made inbox. This feels just like a skin for gmail. And it's gone backwards. My view now is narrow with big bars on either side so I see less of the content. I can't mark an email as done. Opening an email I don't have the archive button anymore. I got reply and forward. Where is archive/mark done feature that is for inbox? I loved how inbox collected stuff into lists and let me mark done the whole list. Subscribe to a github project? Get all those emails as one list in inbox automatically. Where/how to do that feature in gmail? I don't understand why ditch inbox, it's lot's better than gmail.
- dalore 8y ago
  Managed to find the archive button. It's not right at the top on the left, far away from the message.
- leggett 7y ago
  I didn't miss the point... I came up with a lot of those features and still strongly believe in them. But I can only change so much from outside Google and with an extension. Glad you found archive, it is the same as done in everything but name. I can't add back bundles or deeper reminders integration. I totally agree that this extension doesn't give you back Inbox. But it makes it a little easier to bare for those that cherished the simple interface along with the wonderful features. We can only hope that Google adds them to Gmail.
  - dalore 7y ago
    Can't you add back in bundles by having the skin show (or let us save searches) like "bundle:social in:inbox". So I can have a link that's like a bundle, and can archive all my social media emails in one go.
londons_explore 8y ago
The CSS in this extension uses googles minified/compiled class names. Those will change every ~week as Google releases a new frontend version. Presumably the lead designer knows that. How does he intend to keep this extension working?
- leggett 7y ago
  Some classnames don't change often and some do. I'm updating the extension as they change and trying to use more stable css selectors (like div[aria-label="search"]) though those only work in english.
m-p-3 8y ago
The simplicity is just one of the strengths that made Inbox a superior product. * Bundles: Made it easy to see all categories of emails from the inbox. Gmail offers categories, but you have to switch between them see each ones. * Task-oriented: The concept of marking an email as Done was genius, and really helped to achieve zero-inbox. At least Archive kinda serve that purpose. You could also mark an entire bundle as Done from a single click if you wanted. * Snooze: Inbox at one point offered time-based and location-based snoozes. Location-based snoozes were great for people travelling between offices without a well-defined schedule. It allowed me to bring back location-specific tasks once I got there, before they canned it. I also noticed it would even sometimes pick up relevant dates and times mentioned in an email and offer you to snooze up until that time without having to manually do it or choose a preconfigured time. Sadly Gmail only does time-based snoozes, and without the custom time feature. * Chronological divisions: The emails were separated by days, so all emails that came today were grouped together, yesterday's the same, and so on. It was easy to see what was from today. * Trips: Having the AI automagically sort and bundle relevant incoming trips together made it easy to find your hotel reservation, plane tickets, etc, and it would even show up a dynamic card with your flight number, departure time, delays, etc. All the useful info was right there. Inbox was Gmail 2.0 and it was great. Too bad Google decided to regress.
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milo_im 8y ago
Does anyone use this Gmail GTD setup with `Multiple inboxes`? http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t...
- rak00n 7y ago
  I do. It's like a poor man's implementation for bundles, where you can archive things by removing the label.
simonsaidit 7y ago
I just needed a way to mark a bunch of gruped emails as read on mobile app. Does Gmail allow this.

204 points by gmcabrita 8y ago

O_H_E 8y ago

Oh, yes. I was searching for something like this last week. Thank you OP

kossae 8y ago

> I was Gmail's lead designer from 2008 to 2012 and co-founded Google Inbox. Quite the perfect person for the job!

gedy 8y ago

Bless you, Inbox started redirecting to Gmail this week, and I cannot stand the new Gmail look. Features aside, Inbox was a pleasure to read and look at.

saagarjha 8y ago
Interestingly, it doesn't do this for me yet.
- mmsimanga 8y ago
  Not sure if I switch to Gmail or if I was redirected but I have been using Gmail for the last few days. I tried Inbox URL and it works. I think I will stick with Inbox until it is switch off.
- gedy 7y ago
  Google for business seems to be redirecting (at least my company)

floathub 8y ago

I am genuinely impressed that you were gmail’s lead designer for _years_. In the abstract, I understand how adoption and usability can turn on subtle and clever design decisions. The sum total of all these little things can definitely lead to a hockey stick uptake. But I’m still lost on the OP “before” and “after” shots. Looks like the same info to me, just rearranged with different whitespace. Am I totally missing something fundamental?

asynchronous13 8y ago
They are not before and after shots. These are both "after" shots, the first one of the inbox view and the second one of an email view. Click on the image to see the default gmail view for comparison.
- pvinis 8y ago
  I guess GP meant those before and after screenshots. I agree with them in that I also don't what the difference is. I also never used Inbox for more than 10 min. It's the same, just a bit "prettier" with the definition of "pretty" being "bigger and with more whitespace", which I don't necessarily agree with, at least for email.
- nebulous1 8y ago
  If you click the pictures they change
nebulous1 8y ago
No, that's basically what inbox was. More whitespace and less (hopefully irrelevant) information on the screen. There was also some extra functionality but I don't think this app implements it
- dalore 8y ago
  Inbox has a lot of useful features with bundling and archiving. This extensions seems to be just a skin on gmail that doesn't give any of the inbox functionality. Seems to just replicate that extra whitespace functionality only.

purephase 8y ago

This is great, thanks for sharing.

fermentation 8y ago

One of the hidden features of this extension is that it gives you a better view of the zoozimps theme.

pen2l 8y ago

The two main things I miss from Inbox: - The "Trips" feature... so easily you could see your flight details, your hotel details... vs. having to search your email box and having to go through emails upon emails - The image previews! I do some artwork for my job, and it was SUCH a boon to see the images right there. You could actually click one of them, and preview all the images from an email conversation in a carousel fashion Any ideas how I may be able to get this in Gmail somehow?

davchana 8y ago
On Android I think Google has Google Trips app, which gets data from GMail emails you receive & google search you do.
- schneidmaster 8y ago
  This exists on iOS as well.
shereadsthenews 8y ago
I am going to miss Inbox but sometimes it would pick an image for a bundle and show it prominently forever. It was not always an image I wanted to see all the time.
nolok 8y ago
> - The "Trips" feature... so easily you could see your flight details, your hotel details... vs. having to search your email box and having to go through emails upon emails I'm not sure if they extracted it to a dedicated app or if the app was already there and Inbox integrated it, but Google Trips is exactly that.
- jypepin 8y ago
  omg thanks for sharing, never heard of this app before! I travel fairly regularly and having a place with all my flights is just a godsend that I missed from Inbox!
- 7y ago

sahaskatta 8y ago

This looks amazing. Please add support for a dark mode!

ukulele 8y ago

As dumb as it sounds, the biggest thing I've missed is seeing the sender's image in the main view, where the checkboxes are in gmail. It was so, so, so much easier to instantly tell who sent the message with an image there. Even the gmail app has this feature, so I really don't know why it's not in the gmail web UI. Is there any way to add these back with a plugin like this?

leggett 7y ago
This is one thing we might be able to bring back. It will be a stretch but there is a chance as opposed to bundles or deeper reminders integration.
- mgalgs 7y ago
  Do you work on Gmail? Are you saying bundles have little chance of making into Gmail? That might cement my decision to finally drop Gmail... :(
  - mgalgs 7y ago
    Ah sorry just noticed that you're the extension author. Never mind. Definitely going to check the extension out because I'm really hating Gmail right now. Inbox really spoiled us :(

joe-collins 8y ago

I'm not sure how much you can or would push to restore functionality via this added layer, but even this is a great boon. For both this, and your recently deceased, thank you.

apk-d 8y ago

Still using Inbox. Will keep doing so until the servers actually go down. Somehow, it feels intimately sad to have to let go. But when the time comes, Firefox extension please!

jakecopp 8y ago
Seconded, would love to use this with Firefox.
djaychela 8y ago
Yeah, I saw this and got my hopes up, but I've stopped using chrome and won't go back for this, so I'll have to lump it!

robrichard 8y ago

Is there any email client that supports bundles like Inbox did?

shereadsthenews 8y ago
The magic isn’t in the client it’s in the delivery pipeline. If nothing is classifying the message into a bundle on the backend, what is the frontend going to do? Of course you can replicate all this yourself but it’s going to be a lot of software to write.
- robrichard 8y ago
  What I miss most is not the auto-bundling, but writing rules to tag emails with a label and the viewing (and archiving) everything that matched as a bundle. Seems like all the backend that’s needed is built into gmail, what’s needed on the client is knowing which labels to display as a bundle.
  - wwwigham 8y ago
    No, no - I definitely miss the autobundling. The auto bundling of github emails by repo is possible the only thing that's been keeping me sane, since I get a _lot_ of notification traffic, much of which I should read about, at least... I can't really setup rules for that - I could setup rules for repos I already participate on (ungh, that's a lot), but every random new repo would be another tag and another rule. Eck. Inbox made that management drop dead simple. I lament it's loss.

djanogo 8y ago

You can also remove the top tabs (Social, Promotions, Updates) which are mostly advertising and have "get back to our website" emails. Lot of forums have moved to Facebook now, so that tab is also sort of obsolete.

leggett 7y ago
Better to change your inbox type under Settings > Inbox > Inbox Type than remove the tabs with an extension.

jaimehrubiks 8y ago

Am I the only one that would miss every single thing this extension hides? Actually I don't use the right side bar, but I like to organize my email in labels and auto filter emails into them and clearly see how many I have. I do like gmail as it is now. Actually, I also like the html version https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/h/ https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/h/ but because it has all the features of the normal gmail but it loads faster.

sniperjzp 8y ago
Same here, after trying the new gmail for a couple of weeks, I really enjoy the labels (with different color) and filters, it feels like everything is well organized and is totally under my control.
bbx 8y ago
Completely agree. I’m a very big user of labels. I have more than a hundred, and have set up about 50 automatic filters to apply these labels, so much that 99% of the emails I receive have at least one label applied to them automatically. This extension is geared towards Inbox users who want some less UI overload but without all the automatic features. Seems more like a coat of paint than a plugin.
aiCeivi9 8y ago
I use that Basic HTML version ever since that weird reply popup panel appeared.
leggett 7y ago
You can still open the left nav and leave it open. It just hides entirely when you minimize it like it does in Inbox.

eBombzor 8y ago

The biggest feature for me was bundles (which unfortunately this extension does not have). I could create a bundle for a subscription service or a listerv or just school updates from certain people and it wouldn't clutter my inbox (had around 20 entries all the time even during the busiest seasons). Was incredibly good for sites like Monster when I was looking for jobs. It wouldn't clutter my inbox but when I wanted to apply I could just go through the bundles. Genius design really. Wish it came to Gmail now that Inbox is dead.

sfRattan 8y ago
I never used Inbox as I never had a problem with Gmail, but how were 'bundles' different from creating labels and logical filters that skip certain categories of message past the inbox? Was it just that 'bundles' were more intuitive and obvious to set up, or was there something that made them more than a label plus one or more filters?
- lostmsu 8y ago
  Never saw the feature, but from the description they simply looks like labels, but displayed inline with unlabeled email. E.g. imagine all emails from your utility company as a single long thread.
  - Klathmon 8y ago
    And the ability to take a one-click action on all of them in the bundle. There were so many times that I'd snooze an entire bundle of emails about a trip until the monday before the trip, or snooze the 20 emails sent out from a work monitoring system that I need to look into later in the day, or archive an entire bundle of promo emails after glancing in them at the subject lines. In gmail I hate the tabs because once I look at them they stop being shown as a count in that tab, and I need to select them all and archive them in multiple steps. And if you don't like the tabs, the only other way to organize is by foregoing grouping all together and throwing everything into one messy list.
- saagarjha 8y ago

jakecopp 8y ago

My dream is a command line email client with Google Inbox's todo list mentality, with Vim keybindings which I can keep in a Mosh session. Is there anything at all like this? I'm still getting the hang of Mutt and setting it up properly, it feels a long way off.

curiousgal 8y ago

What we need is a CSS extension for Gmail's simplified version.

Scrantonicity 8y ago
and basic javascript upgrades like the ability to select multiple emails at the same time, keyboard shortcuts to delete emails/reply etc.

lervag 8y ago

I notice a lot of people comment on what they miss from Inbox, and I am very surprised to see that no one has mentioned the reminders. For me, this was the killer feature and the one feature I will miss from Inbox. Being able to combine my email and reminders in the same convenient interface was simply fantastic. I've now settled on ticktick for handling my reminders, after testing the Google tasks stuff, Todoist, Any.do, and more. It works well, but does not feel nowhere near as smooth as Inbox.

Vinnl 8y ago
It's the one thing I keep coming back to as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19554475 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19554475 Reminders among emails just makes a lot of sense. I'm going to miss them.
cfontes 8y ago
Reminders, bundles, UI and travel features were great. Never had my inbox so clean, before.
patrickaljord 8y ago
You can do reminders in gmail too, just click on the clock icon. You can also schedule send your email now which is pretty cool https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/original_images/SHEDULE_SEND_MOBILE.gif https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/ori...
- Vinnl 8y ago
  I think you're conflating snoozing with reminders. Snoozing allows you to hide emails until a later moment in time, whereas reminders allows you to add arbitrary items to your inbox (e.g. "Visit dentist") which you can then also snooze until the appropriate moment. The experience might be replicated by sending an email to yourself and snoozing that, but that involves far more friction.
steveridout 8y ago
As a replacement for reminders I've been emailing myself and then using the snooze feature to hide it until later. It works but adds extra friction to creating the reminder and is very clunky. I'd love it if someone could create a Gmail add-on which gets us closer to the ease of use of Inbox reminders.

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hmexx 8y ago

It is now April 3rd and Inbox is still working for me, both on iOS and Web. Is it too early to hope they may have changed their mind?

djaychela 8y ago
Won't happen, alas! I was thinking the same and will keep using it until it stops working...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- djaychela 7y ago
  .... and it's gone. Forwards to gmail now.
khrm 8y ago
It stopped working for me on Android.
- kkarakk 8y ago
  if you have root access you can modify the app and keep using it(guide on xda developers) https://www.xda-developers.com/use-inbox-by-gmail-android-after-shutdown/ https://www.xda-developers.com/use-inbox-by-gmail-android-af...

lucideer 8y ago

Wanted to try this in Firefox, but the code is simple and easy to read enough that it was actually easier to convert it into a Grease/Tamper/Violentmonkey script than to package as a new addon. https://hastebin.com/elonabobew.js https://hastebin.com/elonabobew.js

halgir 8y ago

I've used this plugin for all of five minutes now, but I'm loving it so far. The search and compose buttons are a little bit out of the way compared to default. But that turns out to be a positive for me, as it got me to finally look up the keyboard shortcuts!

rcthompson 8y ago

One thing I really miss from Inbox is the ability to archive the currently highlighted message with the archive shortcut without having to select it first. Does anyone know a way to get this in gmail?

Infernal 8y ago
I'm not sure what you mean by your use of "survive" here - are you referring to the feature where you could pin certain emails and then "sweep" the rest into archive with one click?
- rcthompson 8y ago
  Whoops, that was meant to be "archive" but my phone autocorrected it. I've edited it.
  - Infernal 8y ago
    Ok cool. So the best way to do this is that I have found is to use the vertical spit view (selected using the icon to the left of the settings gear icon, in the upper right of the gmail window). This allows you to use the keyboard ('j'/'k') to navigate through the list of emails, and just hit 'e' on the ones you want to archive. Downside is, the content of the email still loads in the preview pane. If you don't want emails to automatically be marked as "read" when you select them, you can go to the settings gear, "Inbox" tab, and change the length of time a message is displayed in the preview pane before being marked read to "never".

dalore 8y ago

This misses the whole point of inbox which is strange since this is from the guy who claims to have made inbox. This feels just like a skin for gmail. And it's gone backwards. My view now is narrow with big bars on either side so I see less of the content. I can't mark an email as done. Opening an email I don't have the archive button anymore. I got reply and forward. Where is archive/mark done feature that is for inbox? I loved how inbox collected stuff into lists and let me mark done the whole list. Subscribe to a github project? Get all those emails as one list in inbox automatically. Where/how to do that feature in gmail? I don't understand why ditch inbox, it's lot's better than gmail.

dalore 8y ago
Managed to find the archive button. It's not right at the top on the left, far away from the message.
leggett 7y ago
I didn't miss the point... I came up with a lot of those features and still strongly believe in them. But I can only change so much from outside Google and with an extension. Glad you found archive, it is the same as done in everything but name. I can't add back bundles or deeper reminders integration. I totally agree that this extension doesn't give you back Inbox. But it makes it a little easier to bare for those that cherished the simple interface along with the wonderful features. We can only hope that Google adds them to Gmail.
- dalore 7y ago
  Can't you add back in bundles by having the skin show (or let us save searches) like "bundle:social in:inbox". So I can have a link that's like a bundle, and can archive all my social media emails in one go.

londons_explore 8y ago

The CSS in this extension uses googles minified/compiled class names. Those will change every ~week as Google releases a new frontend version. Presumably the lead designer knows that. How does he intend to keep this extension working?

leggett 7y ago
Some classnames don't change often and some do. I'm updating the extension as they change and trying to use more stable css selectors (like div[aria-label="search"]) though those only work in english.

m-p-3 8y ago

The simplicity is just one of the strengths that made Inbox a superior product. * Bundles: Made it easy to see all categories of emails from the inbox. Gmail offers categories, but you have to switch between them see each ones. * Task-oriented: The concept of marking an email as Done was genius, and really helped to achieve zero-inbox. At least Archive kinda serve that purpose. You could also mark an entire bundle as Done from a single click if you wanted. * Snooze: Inbox at one point offered time-based and location-based snoozes. Location-based snoozes were great for people travelling between offices without a well-defined schedule. It allowed me to bring back location-specific tasks once I got there, before they canned it. I also noticed it would even sometimes pick up relevant dates and times mentioned in an email and offer you to snooze up until that time without having to manually do it or choose a preconfigured time. Sadly Gmail only does time-based snoozes, and without the custom time feature. * Chronological divisions: The emails were separated by days, so all emails that came today were grouped together, yesterday's the same, and so on. It was easy to see what was from today. * Trips: Having the AI automagically sort and bundle relevant incoming trips together made it easy to find your hotel reservation, plane tickets, etc, and it would even show up a dynamic card with your flight number, departure time, delays, etc. All the useful info was right there. Inbox was Gmail 2.0 and it was great. Too bad Google decided to regress.

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milo_im 8y ago

Does anyone use this Gmail GTD setup with `Multiple inboxes`? http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-to-use-gmail-more http://klinger.io/post/71640845938/dont-drown-in-email-how-t...

rak00n 7y ago
I do. It's like a poor man's implementation for bundles, where you can archive things by removing the label.

simonsaidit 7y ago

I just needed a way to mark a bunch of gruped emails as read on mobile app. Does Gmail allow this.