6 ms·

Inbox Pause - A pause button for incoming mail in Gmail [Chrome extension]

56 points by mikejchin 14y ago

hongquan 14y ago
This sounds like a pretty cool product. Just wish I had it when I went on vacation last week.
friggeri 14y ago
One thing I'd really want to see in an email client is a set of "reply today", "reply tomorrow" and "reply later" buttons, linked to my todo list or calendar.
- vtail 14y ago
  You mean like those Follow Up flags in Outlook that are one right-click away?
- baydinalex 14y ago
  You might want to check out our core product, Boomerang. You just choose a date when you want to see an email again. It kicks the message into a label until that time, then brings it back to the top of your inbox, so you can reply when you're ready. We think Inbox Pause goes well with the same core theme. (I helped write Inbox Pause)
  - eblume 14y ago
    Wow, that sounds fantastic. Checking it out now. Thanks! (That sounded very shill-ish... I'm not associated with these products. <g>)
sp332 14y ago
The "what if something goes wrong" page has more information about how this actually works http://inboxpause.com/help.html http://inboxpause.com/help.html
agscala 14y ago
I'm always blown away when I hear about the sheer volume of incoming email that some people have to deal with. I may get 10 a day, but apparently getting hundreds isn't all that uncommon. It's unreal that a product like this even exists. Though no doubt it's useful for people that receive a never-ending deluge of email.
- vtail 14y ago
  I currently work as a PM in a big company. Yesterday I've got slightly over 200 emails; it is a typical day. Granted, some of those were CC:, and people like to have one-line replies, but I still have to read each one nevertheless just to make sure it is not something I need urgently respond to.
  - qdpb 14y ago
    Any time you get an e-mail you didn't need to read, ask yourself "how do I stop these from coming?". More likely than not there is an answer. You can easily cut your volume by a factor of 10x.
  - mogrim 14y ago
    Set up a filter, and dump all the CC ones into a semi-spam folder. If it's important, you should be a "To". If it's not...
    - vtail 14y ago
      When I just started, I quickly setup some filters to categorize all mail into three categories: those where I would be one of the few people in To, or those from my boss, or those that are High Priority would go into first category, most others will be in second and mail group etc. will go into third. The problem with the system is that people who send you email are not aware of it :), and very often violate those rules. Apart from some form of AI gradually adjusting rules over the time, I'm not sure what would be a good solution.
    - Evbn 14y ago
      Or just turn on Priority Inbox in Gmail.
viraj_shah 14y ago
Seems like this is a combination of filters, labels, and vacation responders to "pause" messages. Nice hack but may be good to disclose that all your mail correspondences will receive an automated message about Inbox Pause. Personally I don't like it (the vacation responder), so it seems easy enough to disable while keeping the actual pausing functionality. Otherwise nice tool!
- Xavi 14y ago
  There's an option to turn on/off the auto responder. Checkout the second image in the slide show: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/illgajkjilbddcllilfobfbbgmlfkkeh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/illgajkjilbddcllil...
  - viraj_shah 14y ago
    Ah nice! Missed that. Cool.
brittohalloran 14y ago
The manual method: 1. Create filter "subject(*)" -> Skip Inbox, Apply Label "INBOXPAUSE" 2. There is no step 2 To "unpause" 1. Delete filter (too bad you can't turn them off/on) 2. Go to label "INBOXPAUSE", select all, move to inbox Works for web-based as well as mobile, which is nice. The primary benefit of this extension is that it reminds you that you're paused with an overlay.
- baydinalex 14y ago
  Inbox Pause is also quite a bit easier and less technical, I think! If you want to do this manually, the filter above will probably let stuff slip through on some percentage of accounts. We found "from:(*) label:inbox" to be the most reliable. Or just, you know, click the pause button :) (I helped write Inbox Pause)
- kpozin 14y ago
  You can turn off a filter by adding an impossible condition, such as subject:thisfilterisoff.
ilaksh 14y ago
Great idea, but its sort of like temporarily damming up a whitewater in order to avoid being drowned. You know you are going to be slammed when you remove the dam.
madiator 14y ago
Does anybody know why the extension wants to 'access your tabs and browsing activity'. Is this permission required for it to work?
- mikejchin 14y ago
  We use the chrome.windows module to pop up our authentication window. During installation, this permission appears as "access your tabs and browsing activity." http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/windows.html http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/windows.html
  - aboodman 14y ago
    Perhaps you could use window.open() to get around needing chrome.windows.create, which would allow you to remove this permission.
    - mikejchin 14y ago
      When we used window.open(), we ran into issues with Chrome's popup blocker. I think it's because we create the popup in an ajax callback. We'll take another look; there might be a workaround for us. I just noticed that chrome.tabs.create doesn't require the 'tabs' permission, so that might be another option. Thanks for the help. We'll try to remove the permission in the next release. :)
- aboodman 14y ago
  It's necessary only because of one function call: chrome.windows.create(). We hope to remove the need for this permission in order to do basic tab management soon: http://crbug.com/137404 http://crbug.com/137404.
georgemcbay 14y ago
I guess I'm old fashioned in that I pause my inbox by closing gmail.
- jaaronlong 14y ago
  A nice feature of Inbox Pause is that it will actually prevent messages from being sent to your phone or mobile device. So, its truly a break from email. Additionally, if you have a huge pile of email you need to work through without the distractions of new incoming mail, closing Gmail isn't really an option.
djbender 14y ago
If you suffer from this much incoming mail, you may want to reconsider the purpose of your email.
ramblerman 14y ago
Meet INBOX PAUSE - the paradigm-shiftingest, game-changingest email innovation of 2012 That's a bold statement for something that achieves the same as "closing gmail". I know people get sensitive about the negativity on here, but this warrants a little fair game critisicm in my book.
- waleedka 14y ago
  Maybe you missed the humor tone in that headline. The meaning is the opposite of what the words say.
- natep 14y ago
  Yes, the copy is exaggerated for humorous effect, but can you search, read, and reply to old emails while gmail is closed? Clearly, this extension does offer something more than your solution.
filipevalente 14y ago
Things like this reaching the first page on HN really tells a lot about is going on with the tech business. Jesus... create a fuckin' filter... or learn to manage yourself and you email. "the paradigm-shiftingest, game-changingest email innovation of 2012" I just puked.
sailfrog 14y ago
It's a good feature idea (I implemented a similar one in my open source webmail application a few years ago, I called it "freeze folder") but to go as far as "Paradigm shifted. Game changed" is over the top.
sailfrog 14y ago
It's a good feature idea (I implemented a similar one in my open source webmail application a few years ago, I called it "freeze folder") but to go as far as "Paradigm shifted. Game changed" is over the top.
eclipticplane 14y ago
I get exceptions when trying it with both my regular Gmail account and my Google Apps for Domains account: GET http://inboxpause.baydin.com/createlabel?guser=xxx@gmail.com 403 (FORBIDDEN) GET http://inboxpause.baydin.com/createlabel?guser=xxx@gmail.com 403 (FORBIDDEN) Uncaught ReferenceError: show_authentication_error is not defined Any ideas?
- mikejchin 14y ago
  Oops, sorry about that. It looks like we forgot to include some error handling code. An error message was supposed to appear there. I'm guessing that it's an issue with cookies. Do you have third-party cookies enabled? Try enabling that (or create an exception for inboxpause.baydin.com). If it still doesn't work, please email us at support+pause@baydin.com, and we'll take a look. Thanks!

56 points by mikejchin 14y ago

This sounds like a pretty cool product. Just wish I had it when I went on vacation last week.

One thing I'd really want to see in an email client is a set of "reply today", "reply tomorrow" and "reply later" buttons, linked to my todo list or calendar.

vtail 14y ago
You mean like those Follow Up flags in Outlook that are one right-click away?
baydinalex 14y ago
You might want to check out our core product, Boomerang. You just choose a date when you want to see an email again. It kicks the message into a label until that time, then brings it back to the top of your inbox, so you can reply when you're ready. We think Inbox Pause goes well with the same core theme. (I helped write Inbox Pause)
- eblume 14y ago
  Wow, that sounds fantastic. Checking it out now. Thanks! (That sounded very shill-ish... I'm not associated with these products. <g>)

sp332 14y ago

The "what if something goes wrong" page has more information about how this actually works http://inboxpause.com/help.html http://inboxpause.com/help.html

agscala 14y ago

I'm always blown away when I hear about the sheer volume of incoming email that some people have to deal with. I may get 10 a day, but apparently getting hundreds isn't all that uncommon. It's unreal that a product like this even exists. Though no doubt it's useful for people that receive a never-ending deluge of email.

vtail 14y ago
I currently work as a PM in a big company. Yesterday I've got slightly over 200 emails; it is a typical day. Granted, some of those were CC:, and people like to have one-line replies, but I still have to read each one nevertheless just to make sure it is not something I need urgently respond to.
- qdpb 14y ago
  Any time you get an e-mail you didn't need to read, ask yourself "how do I stop these from coming?". More likely than not there is an answer. You can easily cut your volume by a factor of 10x.
- mogrim 14y ago
  Set up a filter, and dump all the CC ones into a semi-spam folder. If it's important, you should be a "To". If it's not...
  - vtail 14y ago
    When I just started, I quickly setup some filters to categorize all mail into three categories: those where I would be one of the few people in To, or those from my boss, or those that are High Priority would go into first category, most others will be in second and mail group etc. will go into third. The problem with the system is that people who send you email are not aware of it :), and very often violate those rules. Apart from some form of AI gradually adjusting rules over the time, I'm not sure what would be a good solution.
  - Evbn 14y ago
    Or just turn on Priority Inbox in Gmail.

viraj_shah 14y ago

Seems like this is a combination of filters, labels, and vacation responders to "pause" messages. Nice hack but may be good to disclose that all your mail correspondences will receive an automated message about Inbox Pause. Personally I don't like it (the vacation responder), so it seems easy enough to disable while keeping the actual pausing functionality. Otherwise nice tool!

Xavi 14y ago
There's an option to turn on/off the auto responder. Checkout the second image in the slide show: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/illgajkjilbddcllilfobfbbgmlfkkeh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/illgajkjilbddcllil...
- viraj_shah 14y ago
  Ah nice! Missed that. Cool.

brittohalloran 14y ago

The manual method: 1. Create filter "subject(*)" -> Skip Inbox, Apply Label "INBOXPAUSE" 2. There is no step 2 To "unpause" 1. Delete filter (too bad you can't turn them off/on) 2. Go to label "INBOXPAUSE", select all, move to inbox Works for web-based as well as mobile, which is nice. The primary benefit of this extension is that it reminds you that you're paused with an overlay.

baydinalex 14y ago
Inbox Pause is also quite a bit easier and less technical, I think! If you want to do this manually, the filter above will probably let stuff slip through on some percentage of accounts. We found "from:(*) label:inbox" to be the most reliable. Or just, you know, click the pause button :) (I helped write Inbox Pause)
kpozin 14y ago
You can turn off a filter by adding an impossible condition, such as subject:thisfilterisoff.

ilaksh 14y ago

Great idea, but its sort of like temporarily damming up a whitewater in order to avoid being drowned. You know you are going to be slammed when you remove the dam.

madiator 14y ago

Does anybody know why the extension wants to 'access your tabs and browsing activity'. Is this permission required for it to work?

mikejchin 14y ago
We use the chrome.windows module to pop up our authentication window. During installation, this permission appears as "access your tabs and browsing activity." http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/windows.html http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/windows.html
- aboodman 14y ago
  Perhaps you could use window.open() to get around needing chrome.windows.create, which would allow you to remove this permission.
  - mikejchin 14y ago
    When we used window.open(), we ran into issues with Chrome's popup blocker. I think it's because we create the popup in an ajax callback. We'll take another look; there might be a workaround for us. I just noticed that chrome.tabs.create doesn't require the 'tabs' permission, so that might be another option. Thanks for the help. We'll try to remove the permission in the next release. :)
aboodman 14y ago
It's necessary only because of one function call: chrome.windows.create(). We hope to remove the need for this permission in order to do basic tab management soon: http://crbug.com/137404 http://crbug.com/137404.

georgemcbay 14y ago

I guess I'm old fashioned in that I pause my inbox by closing gmail.

jaaronlong 14y ago
A nice feature of Inbox Pause is that it will actually prevent messages from being sent to your phone or mobile device. So, its truly a break from email. Additionally, if you have a huge pile of email you need to work through without the distractions of new incoming mail, closing Gmail isn't really an option.

djbender 14y ago

If you suffer from this much incoming mail, you may want to reconsider the purpose of your email.

ramblerman 14y ago

Meet INBOX PAUSE - the paradigm-shiftingest, game-changingest email innovation of 2012 That's a bold statement for something that achieves the same as "closing gmail". I know people get sensitive about the negativity on here, but this warrants a little fair game critisicm in my book.

waleedka 14y ago
Maybe you missed the humor tone in that headline. The meaning is the opposite of what the words say.
natep 14y ago
Yes, the copy is exaggerated for humorous effect, but can you search, read, and reply to old emails while gmail is closed? Clearly, this extension does offer something more than your solution.

filipevalente 14y ago

Things like this reaching the first page on HN really tells a lot about is going on with the tech business. Jesus... create a fuckin' filter... or learn to manage yourself and you email. "the paradigm-shiftingest, game-changingest email innovation of 2012" I just puked.

sailfrog 14y ago

It's a good feature idea (I implemented a similar one in my open source webmail application a few years ago, I called it "freeze folder") but to go as far as "Paradigm shifted. Game changed" is over the top.

sailfrog 14y ago

eclipticplane 14y ago

I get exceptions when trying it with both my regular Gmail account and my Google Apps for Domains account: GET http://inboxpause.baydin.com/createlabel?guser=xxx@gmail.com 403 (FORBIDDEN) GET http://inboxpause.baydin.com/createlabel?guser=xxx@gmail.com 403 (FORBIDDEN) Uncaught ReferenceError: show_authentication_error is not defined Any ideas?

mikejchin 14y ago
Oops, sorry about that. It looks like we forgot to include some error handling code. An error message was supposed to appear there. I'm guessing that it's an issue with cookies. Do you have third-party cookies enabled? Try enabling that (or create an exception for inboxpause.baydin.com). If it still doesn't work, please email us at support+pause@baydin.com, and we'll take a look. Thanks!