When Google launched Gmail back on April 1st, 2004, many considered the press release no more than an elaborate April Fools’ Day joke. At the time, the service Google was proposing seemed ridiculous – a web-based email client with detailed search capabilities and (perhaps most preposterous of all) a whopping 1Gb of storage for every user, completely free of charge.

However, as the world would soon learn, Google was deadly serious in its proposition and Gmail would go on to steal a massive market share from the predominant players of the time, Hotmail and Yahoo mail. In its short 17-year history, Gmail has become one of the most widely used email clients, loved the world over for its simplicity of use, clean interface and huge in-built storage. In fact, Gmail was so revolutionary, it could in many ways be considered the first widely adopted cloud-based app.

A popular service – but not without limitations

As popular and comprehensive as Gmail is, the platform still has some limitations – well, at least, the base version does anyway. However, over the years, countless developers have built useful add-ons for the system to extend its functionality. Below are just a few of the best:

Dropbox for Gmail

If you already use Dropbox, this add-on should be a no-brainer. Rather than downloading a file from your Dropbox account then attaching it to an email and re-uploading the file again, Dropbox for Gmail allows you to scan your storage space and share files or even complete folders in just a couple of clicks. The add-on also lets you store attachments directly to your Dropbox to save you downloading files. Both functions are particularly useful on mobile devices but, even on desktop or laptop, will save you cluttering your local space.

Email Signature Manager for Gmail

If you use Gmail for business in any capacity, it’s essential you maintain branding consistency across all the mails that are issued from your firm. Unfortunately (despite Gmail’s excellent Workspace service), this functionality isn’t offered out of the box. Nonetheless, installing a functionality add-on like the Email Signature Manager offered by rocketseed.com will allow you to maintain design, headers and signatures across all your Gmail users.

Zoom scheduler for Gmail

While email is great, very often a quick video call can settle problems or points of confusion far quicker than sending multiple mails back and forth. With the Zoom scheduler, you can quickly start or set up a video call simply by opening an email then sending an invitation to all the users in the thread.

Checker Plus for Gmail (requires the Chrome browser)

Many people have more than one Gmail address – perhaps an account for work and one for personal use. Switching between accounts in your browser can be a real hassle but using the Checker Plus add-on for the Chrome browser, you can easily view all your Gmail accounts in just one window – with all the usual functionality you’d expect from being fully logged in to each account.