Does anyone ever want to annotate threads or messages with notes like next actions or why you didn’t reply? I always thought it should be built into gmail, but I suppose an add-on would work.
Gmail Launches Add-ons
51–60 of 238 posts
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#52Are there any concerns about privacy? I mean now you have applications that will use a platform that Google is known to scan for information. I know everyone has heard this before, but I would like to see what people think. A couple of days ago, people were all up in arms about phone companies selling your website traffic. What makes Google better than god forbid AT&T or Verizon?
First of all, these are integrations that you explicitly install (like installing an app), so that's obviously opt-in. That's a bit different from the adtech stuff many companies do without any benefit to you.
Second, why do you ask just about Google and not the other companies involved? For example, if you're interested in the Trello integration, you also need to trust Trello with any data you send there. Presumably anyone interested in that particular add-on has already decided to trust both Gmail and Trello with their data, or they wouldn't install it.
Apparently this is what the install screen looks like: https://support.google.com/a/answer/176367?hl=en&ref_topic=1...
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#53Gmail is consolidating their dominance with stuff like this. If things start replacing email communication, gmail will just provide it on top which moves us further and further from a standards compliant SMTP GUI that email was. I haven't found an email client that reliably renders most html, yet we have addons and soon maybe Android apps in your email.
I don't think it's quite so gloomy. A lot of cool add-on functionality relies on semantic markup in the email itself [0]. These are open standards by necessity -- any email provider can add support for them. For example, here's the standard for flight reservations [1]. I'm not sure how widely adopted they are, but Microsoft supports at least event discovery [2]. [0] https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/ [1] htt…
Annoyingly, though, these markup features still require explicit approval from Google to function in Gmail. They aren't even usable at all for small sites, as one of Google's approval requirements is a "consistent history of sending a high volume of mail from your domain".
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#54Any add ons to Sort by Sender?
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they "no longer scan Gmail for advertising ", or do they no longer scan Gmail?
They'll have to scan it for search. And spam, as sibling comment mentions. And, really, to store and display it at all, depending on your definition of 'scan'.
My point being that "advertising" is a very limited use case. There's nothing necessarily stopping them from selling your scanned, very personal information to anyone.
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#56Are there any concerns about privacy? I mean now you have applications that will use a platform that Google is known to scan for information. I know everyone has heard this before, but I would like to see what people think. A couple of days ago, people were all up in arms about phone companies selling your website traffic. What makes Google better than god forbid AT&T or Verizon?
Before Add-ons, there was Gmail Labs (still exists), just as a note to bear in mind in this discussion.
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#57Is that notify link for general availability in the post working for anyone? I'm getting an authorization error. I've been using InboxSDK for a SaaS project add-on and I would love to go to an official API and have it work on GSuite mobile apps.
We (Streak) are also the makers of the InboxSDK. We're planning on writing a post for how InboxSDK + Add-ons plays nicely together. Coming later today but in the meantime, tl;dr is we suggest having both if you're doing anything more than a sidebar. We (Streak) are doing both - to get more powerful API's on desktop but still having functionality on mobile.
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
What were you using before? InboxSDK or something similar that Streak developed? Have you had any issues with limitations in the official add-on API?
See my other comment on InboxSDK but summary, yes we are using InboxSDK because we made it and because we still want the power it offers on desktop. On mobile we use Add-ons plus a native app that can be deep linked to from the Add-on. EDIT: if you look at the docs of the www.inboxsdk.com/docs there is a lot of functionality above and beyond the sidebar API that add-ons offers.
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#59Are there any concerns about privacy? I mean now you have applications that will use a platform that Google is known to scan for information. I know everyone has heard this before, but I would like to see what people think. A couple of days ago, people were all up in arms about phone companies selling your website traffic. What makes Google better than god forbid AT&T or Verizon?
First of all, these are integrations that you explicitly install (like installing an app), so that's obviously opt-in. That's a bit different from the adtech stuff many companies do without any benefit to you. Second, why do you ask just about Google and not the other companies involved? For example, if you're interested in the Trello integration, you also need to trust Trello with any data you send there. Presumably…
> First of all, these are integrations that you explicitly install (like installing an app), so that's obviously opt-in.
I don't think the privacy/security concerns should be so cavalierly dismissed. I'm sure I'm not the first to open a friend or relative's computer and discover half a dozen browser toolbars installed. The same is likely to occur here. HN readership may be pretty cautious about this stuff, but HN readership isn't Gmail's only user base.
Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons
#60Does anyone ever want to annotate threads or messages with notes like next actions or why you didn’t reply? I always thought it should be built into gmail, but I suppose an add-on would work.
The Inbox (by Gmail) mobile app has this. "Pin" an email and you can write whatever you want to remember to do later.
It's awesome.