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Gmail Launches Add-ons

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161–170 of 238 posts

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#161
post #71

Gmail on Android is such a shitty locked-down experience. Want to create an appointment from an email? Nope. Want to set a reminder about an email? Nope. Want to link to an email from a notes or other app? Nope. OK, well now maybe. If you become a "business partner" with them and shove your product into whatever grand strategery they're cooking up this quarter. It's sad to think how Android was envisioned as this ope…

Have you tried inbox?

It works OK if you are willing to submit to their new paradigm, but some people like a traditional inbox. Try Aquamail for instance. It's what gmail would be if it worked properly.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#163
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android is designed from the ground up to enable this kind of thing. It has a powerful cross-app Intent system that could allow sharing of emails, deeplinking into gmail, broadcasting email changes, allow other apps to change email status, etc.

From the programming and functionality perspective that's fantastic. From the data security perspective that's a nightmare.

I don't think androids intent system has any large security implications (I think it has had some but in general). But what I find more interesting/suprising how often I read about these types of concerns given that desktop operating systems provide very limited protection in this area e.g firefox can read all my emails since thunderbird and firefox are run as the same user.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you kept the receipt on this rebuttal because you're going to need to trade it in. It's ok to just use a piece of software without expectations that it will always be there. Just enjoy it for what it is now. It's also ok to make friends knowing that they might not be there one day. Just enjoy life for what it is now.

You're misusing the analogy. Google is the friend, and Google product X is the friend's promise, and since the friend has broken promises Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E... in the past, eventually one stops believing the friend's promises. So now, when the friend says, "Hey, meet me at $PLACE tonight at $TIME and we'll do $ACTIVITY," you say, "Yeah, right," and don't bother to go, because there's a good chance he won't show up,…

You probably think "I'll love you forever" to means someone is promising to be around for you until the heat death of the universe.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#165
post #71

Gmail on Android is such a shitty locked-down experience. Want to create an appointment from an email? Nope. Want to set a reminder about an email? Nope. Want to link to an email from a notes or other app? Nope. OK, well now maybe. If you become a "business partner" with them and shove your product into whatever grand strategery they're cooking up this quarter. It's sad to think how Android was envisioned as this ope…

The worst thing about Gmail on Android for me is that it doesn't deliver mails reliably. Sometimes when I open the web client on my computer I'm greeted by a list of unread emails, and almost immediately my phone fires of the notification for new mail, even though some of them can be several days old. This indicates that it's Google's servers that isn't sending the notification to my phone when mail arrives, but I co…

This sounds like a push/background data issue, where refreshing forces the phone to update.

I haven't had this issue since my OG HTC EVO, but toggling Sync on an account basis in the app could help.

There was also a catastrophic bug in both Gmail and Inbox about a month ago where emails wouldn't notify, might be worth an update if you haven't in a while.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#166
post #93
post #71

Gmail on Android is such a shitty locked-down experience. Want to create an appointment from an email? Nope. Want to set a reminder about an email? Nope. Want to link to an email from a notes or other app? Nope. OK, well now maybe. If you become a "business partner" with them and shove your product into whatever grand strategery they're cooking up this quarter. It's sad to think how Android was envisioned as this ope…

I think the problem is, fundamentally, lock-in is often a lucrative strategy, open isn't. The internet is "accidentally" open, when it comes to protocols like SMTP, HTTP, etc, I think primarily because it was more of an research/educational network. The commercial enterprises (AOL, CompuServe) were proprietary and walled off.

Looks like the old Microsoft embrace extend extinguish to me.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#167
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't count the services that still exists today, _____ has killed almost all its products. Is there a company for which that phrase isn't true?

> If you don't count the _____ that [survive] today, _____ has killed almost all its [members]. Aside from the logically redundant phrasing, this seems to me a fair description of how selective pressures lead to evolution in populations. Yo yes, good point, Google does make efforts to ensure that their population of products thrives, evolves, and adapts.

I think the phrasing was a joke

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Google figured out how to monetize the success. I knew it was bad when the JRE install started asking if I wanted to install search bars in my browser.

I think, per Zero to One, Thiel (for one) would argue otherwise. Take away search (read: ads on SERPs) and Google is close to an average, if not subpar, "success story."

Take away the iPhone and Apple is a failing computer manufacturer. Take away Windows and Microsoft is a mediocre console maker and makes Office. So?

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#170
post #146
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sounds a lot like Gmail Labs, which was discontinued. It's still present and working on my personal Gmail as well as my work Gsuite account. I use a bunch of the features.

Not sure if it's standard now (I remember enabling it as a gmail labs thing) but the "undo" button that lets you abort sending a mail a few seconds after you clicked the send button is really handy. It captures so many times where you think about something you forgot just after you hit "send".

It is indeed out of the "lab" now and a standard part of the settings page.
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