Google has now enabled Add-ons in Gmail, so you can do things like create Trello cards from a message, generate an invoice on the go, and create Wrike tasks all without leaving your browser tab to use all of these features.
The new add-ons feature works on desktop and Android for personal Gmail and G Suite accounts, and you don’t need to install anything additional – just visit Gmail in your browser tab, click the gear icon and then ‘Get add-ons.’ Once you’ve twisted on the ones you need, they’ll be invoked automatically across your devices.
There’s just a handful of efficiency-focused apps you can use right now, the more popular apps amongst them being Trello and Asana. I found the Trello add-on useful for promptly adding story ideas and embargoed leads from Gmail inbox into the board as I use for planning my publishing schedule; it will automatically fills in a card with the subject and body text from the email, so you only requires a few clicks to use it and shoot the email.
The rest features are targeted at sales persons and customer relationship managers; it also looks like definite add-ons, like Quickbooks for invoicing, aren’t available everywhere in the world yet (Google mentioned it in its Google blog post, but the option doesn’t show up for me in India yet).
That’s all makes Gmail more helpful and essential for people who juggle a bunch of apps to getting things done. And given the service’s massive user support, it’s safe to assume that many more apps will eventually become available in the future.
