Keep predicting the death of email, tech pundits – it won't stop people from using it. In a world full of platforms owned by individual companies, it's nice to have one open protocol used by everyone to communicate.
Having said that, email can be terrible sometimes. Our inboxes fill up, our signatures look boring, and we end up writing the same messages over and over again. Today Cool Websites and Apps goes over five tools that make email even better – take advantage of them.
Zero (iOS): Tinder for Cleaning out Your Inbox
Your inbox is too full, and it keeps filling up. You know you owe all sorts of people a response, but you can't even begin to dig through the mountain of messages you've left yourself.
Zero aims to help, by making cleaning out your inbox as simple as swiping right on Tinder. It's a triage system, basically, helping you sort through your messages.
Once you get things cleaned out, consider developing some sort of morning email ritual to keep it that way. Oh, and if Zero doesn't work for you, the Email Game is also worth checking out.
Email Bee (Gmail, Outlook): Create Dynamic Email Signatures [No Longer Available]
We've told you all about the power of email signatures. If you want to create a beautiful signature that also includes your latest blog post or social media posts, check out Email Bee.
It's a quick way to create your own dynamic signature, and hopefully give the people you're emailing something interesting to read. The free version includes a small mention of Email Bee – you'll need to pay for a subscription to remove this.
Canned Emails (Web): Quick Responses to Common Questions
There are some emails we all need to write – again and again and again. Canned Emails is a collection of just these emails, which you can open in your email client by clicking a link.
Seriously: click any of these lines and a mailto: link with a stock email will open automatically. Webmail users: you can use mailto links in Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail with the right extensions.
If you like this idea, and use Gmail, know that you can create your own canned responses easily.
Email Breaker (Web): Find the Address Pattern for Any Site
Here at MakeUseOf we put all of our authors email addresses on the about page – we don't mind if you guys want to get in touch with us. Not all sites do this, though – some intentionally, some because it hasn't occurred to them.
In these cases, you could try guessing someone's email – and Email Breaker can help. Just type any URL, and this tool will let you know the general pattern for email addresses at a particular company.
This isn't foolproof: MakeUseOf, for example, doesn't have a pattern so much as a mix of approaches (my address is my first and last name @makeuseof.com; others use just the first name, or the last name). Still, if you're really trying to find a particular email address, this tool might work.
Lukewarm Email: Compile, Then Email, a Twitter List
If you've launched a company, or just want to spread the word about something, compiling a list of names you want to talk to is an important first step – as is getting their email address. Lukewarm email is a tool for Google Sheets that uses Twitter to help you do this.
It's a unique idea: run searches on Twitter for the people you're interested in talking to, then collect them on a spreadsheet. You can gather email addresses yourself, or you can pay Lukewarm to do the searches for you. Once you have all the addresses you need, Lukewarm can help you get through your list of email recipients.
The founders claim to have had great results using this as a growth hack tool – you might too.
How Do You Make Email Better?
It's the first thing you check in the morning, and it constantly needs cleaning out.
We want to know: what tools do you use to make email better? Let's talk about the best ones in the comments below.