16 Amazing Gmail Chrome Extensions

If you spend a lot of time in your Gmail inbox, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey, you spend an average of about five hours per day checking your work and personal email – that’s 20% of the time you are awake!

Don’t let your inbox take over your life. If you’re sick of spending hours managing your emails, there are tools available that can help. Here are 16 useful Gmail Chrome extensions to increase your email productivity.

What is a Chrome Extension for Gmail?

One great feature of the Chrome Browser is the rich ecosystem of extensions that you can use to enhance your web browsing.  You can find Chrome extensions in the Chrome Web store and you download install them a bit like an app.

A Gmail Chrome extension is a Google Chrome extension that can improve the look or functionality of your Gmail account and inbox. There are thousands of Chrome extensions. It’s important to know which ones you should download to improve your business email experience.

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How do you get Gmail extensions for Chrome?

Visit the extensions section of the Chrome Web Store to download and install a Chrome extension.  Search by term or app and then click the Add to Chrome button to install it in your browser.  After you install an extension, you usually need to refresh your browser tab to make it appear.

If you decide you don’t like a particular Chrome extension, you can click the “three-dots” menu in the upper right corner of Chrome, then “More Tools”, and then Extensions to see a list of your installed extensions.

The Best Chrome Extensions for Gmail

So what are the best Chrome extensions for Gmail? There are hundreds upon hundreds of Gmail Chrome extensions and I can’t say we’ve tried them all.  But here a 16 extensions that we think can help you speed up the time you spend in your Gmail inbox.

Boomerang

Anyone who communicates with clients, vendors, partners, and co-workers via email can benefit from the Boomerang Gmail extension. This extension allows you to set a “boomerang” on any email you send. The boomerang will automatically notify you if the email recipient has not responded to your email within a specified period of time.

Once you receive this notification, you will know it’s time to follow up with your contact regarding your last email. This prevents conversations from falling through the cracks simply because you forgot to follow up. It also saves you from having to remember which emails you need to follow up on so you can focus on more important tasks.

Todoist

The Todoist Gmail chrome extension turns your inbox into an easy-to-use task management system. How does it work? All you need to do is forward an email to one of your Todoist projects to convert it into a task. The Todoist extension will automatically use the subject line as the name of the task and add the body of the email to the task comments section.

You can also assign a due date and priority level before converting the email to a task. To add this information, simply include the due date and priority level in the body of the email above the signature line. Todoist will handle the rest.

Followup.cc

Just like Boomerang, the Followup.cc Gmail extension can help you remember to follow up on specific emails. Use this extension to set reminders so you never forget when you should send a follow up email to a colleague.

But that’s not all the Followup.cc can do. This Gmail chrome extension also allows you to schedule when you would like an email to be sent.

For example, say you want to remember to follow up with a client on the first of the month. You can write the email now and use the Followup.cc extension to schedule it so it is sent on the first of the month. Now you can cross this item off of your to-do list in advance.

Trimbox

Trimbox is an easy way to unsubscribe from any mailing list.  When you install Trimbox, it scans your inbox for newletters and mailing lists.  And then with one click, you can unsubscribe from the newsletter without even opening up the email.

Trimbox also gives you the option to delete all of the emails from the mailing list, potentially freeing up gigabytes of free space from your Gmail inbox.

Checker Plus for Gmail

Checker Plus is an easy way to keep tabs on multiple Gmail accounts. Get notifications and read emails without opening Gmail. You can run it in the background to get new email alerts when you are browsing the web. When a new email arrives, simply click the icon to read and reply.

Keeping

Does your team use a shared inbox to manage customer support requests? If so, the Keeping Gmail extension can drastically improve your productivity.

Keeping is built with all of the features you need to efficiently manage customer support requests across all of your email accounts. The best part? All of these features will be available directly within your Gmail inbox.

If your team uses a shared inbox to respond to customer support requests, you can benefit from the Keeping Gmail extension. Keeping turns Gmail into a customer support tool and help desk. You can use Keeping to:

• Turn emails into help desk tickets that can be assigned to members of your team.
• Add notes to emails to provide your team with more information on specific customer issues.
• Avoid duplicating efforts. Keeping will tell you when someone else has already responded to an email or is in the process of responding to it, so you won’t waste your time working on the same customer request.
• Pull reports that show how well your team is responding to customer support requests.
• Use automation and Keeping’s Workflows to automate your inbox and automatically process support tickets.
• Integrate customer support email with your crm, project management, or other tool using Zapier.
• Update the status of tickets in your inbox so you can keep track of every customer support request.
• Use email templates to quickly compose replies to common questions.
• Gain access to key metrics such as the volume of incoming requests and your team’s average first response time.

Now, you can provide high quality customer service without ever leaving your Gmail inbox.

Grammarly

Sending an email with spelling and grammar errors can make you look unprofessional. Gmail has a built-in spell checker, but it is not designed to catch certain errors, including grammar mistakes and misused words. The Grammarly Gmail extension, however, can catch everything that Gmail misses and more.

As you type an email, the Grammarly extension will review it to look for spelling or grammar errors. If an error is detected, the Grammarly extension will immediately notify you and suggest ways to correct it.

This tool does more than just check your writing for spelling and grammar errors, though. It also reviews what you are writing in real time to make sure you are communicating clearly and concisely. It acts as your personal writing assistant to help you improve your communication skills one email at a time.

Discoverly

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about someone you are communicating with via email, Discoverly is the right Gmail extension for you.

Every time you receive an email from one of your contacts, the Discoverly extension will automatically search for the contact on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Then, the contact’s social media profiles will be displayed right in your Gmail inbox. You will be able to instantly see each of your contact’s tweets, Facebook posts, and connections you may share on LinkedIn.

This extension provides you with the information you need to learn more about the people you are emailing so you can establish deeper, more meaningful connections with your contacts. For this reason, it is ideal for people who work in sales, public relations, recruiting, or other fields that rely on building strong relationships with contacts.

Just Not Sorry

When communicating via email, your word choice could impact how you are perceived. Just Not Sorry is a Gmail extension that is designed to help you avoid using words or phrases that could potentially undermine what you are trying to say.

As you type an email, Just Not Sorry will underline any words or phrases that may diminish your voice. You can hover over the underlined words or phrases to learn more about the potential impact of your word choice and why you should consider changing it.

Just Not Sorry may encourage you to remove or change commonly used phrases such as:

• I’m sorry
• I think
• I’m no expert, but…
• I’m just writing to say…

With Just Not Sorry’s help, you can learn how to clearly get your point across and write more powerful, persuasive emails.

Zoom for Gmail

If you frequently attend video conferences via Zoom, you may want to download the Zoom for Gmail extension. This extension allows you to access all of Zoom’s features without leaving Gmail.

Using this extension, you can start or schedule a Zoom video call with an email contact with just a few clicks of the mouse. The extension also gives you access to your Zoom calendar directly through Gmail. This means you will be able to see what Zoom meetings you have scheduled in the hours or days ahead without opening a new window or closing your inbox.

This extension helps you centralize your communications so you don’t need to switch back and forth between different programs or tools to connect with your contacts. It also works across desktop and mobile devices, so you can access these features regardless of whether you are on a computer or smartphone.

Slack for Gmail

Like Zoom for Gmail, Slack for Gmail is an extension that gives you access to the tools you need to communicate directly through your inbox.

Once the Slack for Gmail extension is installed, you can forward any of your emails to specific channels or people in Slack. The email will only be visible to the people you choose to share it with in Slack.

You can include a message when forwarding an email to Slack to provide your contacts with more information. And you can even include the attachments from the email so your Slack contacts will have access to everything.

Use this extension to collaborate with your team on an email response. For example, if you aren’t sure how to respond to a question from your manager, send it to your co-workers in Slack and ask for their input.

DocuSign for Gmail

If you are in a position that requires you to sign a lot of paperwork, the DocuSign for Gmail extension can help. Once you install this extension, you will be able to review and sign documents the moment they arrive in your inbox. You won’t need to open a new window or program to access these documents, either. Everything will take place right inside your Gmail inbox.

If you are sending paperwork to someone else for approval, you can use this extension to upload the document into Gmail, tag the locations where their signature is needed, and email it to them for their review.

You can also use DocuSign for Gmail to quickly send email reminders to people who still need to sign documents.

All of your data is encrypted, so you won’t need to worry about keeping your information secure when using DocuSign for Gmail.

Inbox When Ready

It can be hard to focus on your work when you are receiving an endless stream of emails. Each notification that pops up may serve as a distraction and make you feel more overwhelmed, which could affect the quality of your work. If you need help focusing, download the Inbox When Ready extension for Gmail.

Decide how many times per day you want to check your inbox. Then, check in using the extension’s reporting feature to see how close you are to reaching your goal.

You can also use this extension to schedule an “inbox lockout.” During your inbox lockout, your inbox will be temporarily frozen, which means you won’t see any new emails that come in during this time. Once the lockout is over, your emails will appear in your inbox so you can address them at a time that is most convenient to you.

Digify

You may want to install the Digify Gmail extension if you frequently send sensitive or confidential data via email. This extension allows you to send attachments via email that automatically delete themselves after a certain amount of time. You also have the option of controlling whether your contacts are allowed to print the attachments you send. Both of these features protect your data by limiting the amount of time that your contacts can access it.

You can also use this Gmail extension to monitor who has opened your attachments and how many times each attachment has been opened. If you accidentally send an attachment to the wrong contact, you can use Digify’s “unsend” feature to prevent your sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands.

Streak

Did you ever think you could use your Gmail as a fully featured CRM? If you conduct most of your sales business via Gmail, Streak for Gmail is a great option. Create sales pipelines that are shared with your whole team to see your prospects go from initial contact to sale.  It also comes with tons of super useful tools like email tracking, integrations with Google Calendar, and keyboard shortcuts to really zoom through your work.

Giphy

What would email be without witty GIFs? The Giphy Extension for Gmail makes it super easy to search and insert GIFs into your email.  After you click compose to start working on an email, just one click on the GIPHY icon to quickly access GIFs, emojis, or stickers.

If you haven’t already, check out how these gmail extensions can significantly improve your productivity! And remember, Keeping is the fastest way to share your customer support mailbox with your entire team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between a Gmail Add-On and a Chrome Extension?

An Add-On, in this case a Gmail Add-On, is typically designed with much narrower functionality than a Gmail Chrome Extension. There are technical differences between the two, but generally, Add-Ons offer a single feature or very specific feature inside Gmail, Google Calendar, or Workspace.  On the other hand, on positive is that many Add-Ons run in the Android or iOS Gmail app.

Should I worry about security and privacy with Chrome Extensions for Gmail?

Absolutely.  It’s important to understand that when you install a Chrome Extension, you are potentially giving access to an unknown entity to your private data.  Keeping undergoes a thorough security audit every year by both Google and a third party.

How do I uninstall a Chrome Extension?

Click the “three-dots” menu in the upper right corner of Chrome. Then, click “More Tools”, and then Extensions to see a list of your installed extensions. From there, you can use the blue switch to disable it or just remove it altogether. You may need to refresh your browser tab to see it disappear.