Boomerang for Gmail: The Email App Your Office Has Been Waiting For
So you received an important email that requires a follow-up, but not for a few days. How are you supposed to manage messages like these?
If your office is using Gmail (or, better yet, Google Apps), here's how: Baydin's Boomerang for Gmail can schedule outgoing email and set follow-up reminders for mail you've already received.
If the name sounds familiar, you're probably thinking of Boomerang for Outlook, which effectively adds a "snooze" option to your inbox. It's without question one of my favorite Outlook plug-ins.
Once installed in your browser (it's compatible with Chrome and Firefox), Boomerang adds a new button to your Gmail toolbar. To delay an outbound email, click that button and choose how long you want it held: one hour, two hours, two days, a week, etc. You can also enter an exact date and time, or even choose a random time (though I can't imagine why you'd want to do that).
Boomerang works much the same way for messages you want to re-receive later: Just click the button and choose a time.
Here's a quick tutorial video that shows Boomerang for Gmail in action. Meet me below for thoughts and pricing information.
Once you use Boomerang a few times, you'll wonder how you ever got along with it. Seriously, it's that good, and easier to use than services like NudgeMail and FollowUpThen (which require you to manually forward messages using a special syntax).
Plus, you can review all your scheduled messages; they don't just go into some future-date black hole until their slated resurface time.
Now for the bad news: another monthly bill. When you sign up for Boomerang for Gmail, you get a free 30-day Pro account. After that, it'll cost you $14.99 per month -- or $4.99 if you opt for the Personal plan (which is identical except that it doesn't support Google Apps). There's a free Basic plan as well, but it limits you to 10 messages per month.
That pricing may seem a little steep, but I'd argue that it's worth it if you've got a small office that operates largely through email, the way most startups do these days. I mean, can you really put a price on improving your email productivity and preserving your sanity? (And if you can, what is that price?)
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