Using Gmail for either personal or business communications? You need all the bells and whistles!
Gmail Features You Probably Know About
Besides the fabulous integration with other free Google services: Google+, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Hangouts and YouTube, Gmail naturally allows PDF viewing within an email, and includes access to Google Docs where you can edit, save, store and share work with your team or clients.
But Wait… There’s More!
Heard of Google Labs? They call it “Some crazy experimental stuff.”
***Google is constantly adding new labs and taking away old, just like in any experimental laboratory! Currently some of the most useful features are:
- Undo Send. Take back that snarky remark with Gmail’s Undo Send feature before it’s read…gives you up to 30 seconds to rescind.
- Schedule appointments. Gmail Labs allow you to place your Google Calendar to the left of your inbox for easy scheduling.
- Get all your mail in one view. Managing several Gmail accounts? Labs has a feature that lets you check multiple email accounts at the same time.
- Canned Responses. Tired of repeating yourself?
- Select a picture that everyone will see when you email them.
To enable a Gmail Lab feature: Click gear icon in the top left of Gmail. Go to Settings. > Labs. Scroll down to the feature you want, select the "Enable" radio button. Click "Save Changes".
Free Useful Gmail Apps You May Not Have Heard of And Desperately Need
Relationship Management tool, Rapportive, shows LinkedIn profiles in your Gmail. See their faces, common connections, their location (anyone for coffee?), job and company! Connect with them on LinkedIn, Twitter Facebook and more.- Pre schedule messages with Boomerang. Wanting to get responses to your emails? AMAZING!: Boomerang has a paid feature you can add that tells you the likelihood of getting a response you’re the email you are composing, based on AI intelligence it shows you subject length, word count, question count, reading level, positivity, politeness and subjectivity so you can adjust your email while composing.
- Track readers. Find out if your email was read. Bananatag Email Tracking, Sidekickand Intelliverse Email Tracker tell you when your email was opened, show you how many times it was opened, where the person was when they opened it, and on what device. Nixes the fib: “I never got the email.”
- Blow up your emails. Dmail among other apps, can make your messages self-destruct. (Mission Impossible anyone?) Gives complete control over how long your recipient can view your email. A great asset for secure communications or when discussing personal information. Preset the timing such as "in 1 hour" or "in 1 week". Need to revoke later… find the email in your sent folder and do so.
- Make a to-do list.Remember The Milk installs a checklist on the right side of your Gmail. You can turn messages into tasks, and connect your to-do list to Google Calendars and contacts.
***Some apps may require the user to allow pop-ups, but when you try to use the app, the app will put you into your google account and walk you through how to allow its cookies.
To uninstall a Google app go to: https://myaccount.google.com, sign in & security, connected apps and sites, manage apps, apps connected to your account, click the app which will then open a drop down, and click remove.
All the above can be tedious to figure out! But the but finding that oh-so-perfect app that gives you the edge..worth it!
Article researched and copy written by Laughing Fox Designs, which exists to provide web design and social media support to small businesses that need creative solutions. ©2017 All Rights Reserved