Actually, it might be just me, but I find this incredibly annoying. I use swift-text on android and while usually when I start typing my email address I get a suggestion for my long email address, but when type=email I don't get a suggestion, just a little @ key at the bottom. Might not be this way for all keyboards though. Just a thought.
Edit: Oh and great job on the app! I think this is an awesome idea and if some of the privacy and longevity concerns were addressed, I would use it all the time!
It really depends on how you manage your inbox, one of the drivers behind us building Tray was the customisation it offers. The triggers that define the rules can cover as many or as few contacts as you wish ie 'anyone I have a meeting with in the next 48 hrs' can be a trigger, or simply based on email content, pre-defined contact groups etc. In most cases this is a handful of rules.
Email rules that are setup within the client or service restrict filtering to contact, folder, content (in some cases). We can react to data that's outside of your inbox, anything from your relationship to the contact based on another web service, to accessing, storing, and sharing with services you use regularly. Beyond this triggers such as time, email load (driven from analytics), location can all come into play. We are really just getting started with the possibilities, a way to interact with custom web apps would be great for developers/companies that use bespoke tools.
I can't decide whether to focus on the interesting aspects/potential of your tool, or the fact that you circumvented the concern I presented, but thanks for the answer nonetheless.
The ease of this tool is inversely related to the need for it. i.e. — the more complex/high volume your inbox, the more you suffer while trying to set it up.
Maybe it would be worth implementing some "starter rules" or a "wizard" that allows the first-timer to leverage many basic rules at once, immediately.
It's the Pinterest approach, if you will. :) "Pick 5 things you like" and then they auto-follow 50 people based on your choices. Voilá! Good first experience.
Remember that features ≠ power ≠ satisfaction.
I apologize for the unsolicited suggestions; you hit my area of interest right in the middle. ;) Good luck with everything and congrats on getting to the alpha in the first place!
Thank you - I'll get springpad on our list. We are working on analytics currently, I'd love to hear of any other API's you'd like to see hooked up please feel free to email me: rich (at) tray.io
We've just added some google labels support, so we'll be able to handle this in the not to distant future. There isn't enough time in the day to code fast enough :)
Sounds really neat, I've solved it for my own personal needs with some imapfilter scripts, but the thought crossed my mind to make a service out of it.
The reason not to was the tricky part of needing customers imap credentials and store them safely.
Integrating to tightly with gmail would perhaps make it harder to support other imap platforms, since gmail can do more in some areas.
I really shocked and really saddened by this, I spoke to Greg just a few weeks ago. He had contacted me after seeing our startup featured in TWiST.
He was a smart, genuine guy that really cared about helping us. From what I'd picked up he was a close friend to Elon Musk and had backed him @ zip2, paypal, tesla and space x.
He gave us some great advice, and took a lot of time out to make intro's and give us feedback.
Hey - thanks this is awesome advice. I've tried it today and actually enjoyed it. It's made it easier to get clarity on my thoughts and led to some useful ideas
Glad you enjoyed it :) I was actually looking for this video back when I posted this reply but couldn't find it. Just found it though ... this is a great talk at Google by Chade-Meng Tan, I highly encourage you to give it a watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8fcqrNO7so
In particular, the part about training for mindfulness has also been extremely helpful for me. I'm really starting to believe his assertion that learning to calm your mind can be trained. I tend to close my eyes and focus on breathing while I'm on the train after I finish the stream-of-consciousness exercise from above; this might sound silly, but I even notice that the muscles in my face are more relaxed after I do these things :)
It's critical. I don't allow my senses to be bombarded by interruption. Interruption is the enemy of productivity, after all.
I do have regular processes and routines to check those notifications, or obviously check them when I'm expecting an intermittent reply.
The funny thing with being a younger entrepreneur is you put up with all sorts of this BS either leading you to an early burn out, or start figuring out there's a whole world out there to enjoy as much as startups.
I simply stopped looking at workaholics with personal lives in shambles as role-models. I look for the uber successful that are successful in all areas of their lives.
I love the internet, so dearly. I understand your point although I think it's less about picking battles and more forcing a cut off point - it's obviously counter productive, but more obsessive behaviour.
