Schedule and Manage your Gmail with Boomerang

Schedule and Manage your Gmail with Boomerang:

Boomerang for Gmail is a free Firefox / Chrome plugin that lets you take control of when you send and receive email messages. It also has a number of other handy uses, such as setting up reminders to yourself for events, repeating emails on a schedule, and generally managing your emails in a manner that keeps you from pulling your hair out due to inbox overload.

[Note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor B.C. Tietjens.]

Usage: Boomerang places some new items on your gmail window. First, when you choose to compose a new message, two new buttons will appear. One at the top near the Send button, that says “Send Later”. This button offers a drop down menu with options like sending the email in 1-4 hours, tomorrow morning or afternoon, or even sending at some specific date and time in the future. Below the Subject line is the Boomerang check box. If checked, this option will send you a reminder about the email itself based on options you choose, such as “Even if someone replies” or “If I don’t hear back” and also allows you to choose specific or even random dates and times.

Second, if you are opening an email that you received or even one saved as a draft, the Boomerang button shows up to allow you send that specific email back to your inbox at a certain time and date. Again, the options offered here are many and varied, including a nice “Random” option. I haven’t figured out why I would use the random option but it’s nice to know it’s there in case I ever decide on a use for it.

Some suggested uses for Boomerang are:

• Remember to pay bills


• Schedule birthday/holiday notes when you have time to write them


• Make sure you follow up with a sales lead


• Communicate with people in different time zones


• Clear out travel confirmation emails, returning them on the day of your trip

Performance: Quite simply, Boomerang operated for me in exactly the way I expected it to. It did precisely what I told it to do and never gave me an error message, never asked for further info or permission, and just did what it was supposed to. I used the Boomerang button on a total of 20 emails over the course of two days and not once was I disappointed. This is exactly the kind of freeware we like, that does what it is advertised to do without problems or headaches. After all, extensions and plugins like this are supposed to make our lives easier, not more difficult, right? As a side note, Boomerang is also available for Outlook but that version is not free. There is a free 30 day trial you can download but after that you must pay $29.95 as a one time license fee. Additionally, Boomerang is also available as a smartphone application.

A note on subscriptions: Boomerang does have a “pro” version that will cost money to use. The free plugin, however, does not cost anything at all to install or use. The Pro version requires a subscription to use, and it does have a free subscription option that limits you to 10 messages ‘boomeranged’ per month, but does not cost anything at all. I sent myself 20 emails using the Boomerang Chrome Extension, however, and never got any messages or errors. The costs and limits of 10 per month only apply to the “Pro” version. If you are using it as a Chrome extension for Gmail, it does not limit you in any way and does not cost anything to use. Only the Pro version for Outlook requires a subscription and an initial cost.

Installation: Installing Boomerang is about the easiest thing you can hope for. Just go to http://www.boomeranggmail.com/, click the big red button that says “Install Boomerang” and away you go. The page leads you step by step through the process, on the off chance that you’ve never installed anything from the web before. The steps themselves are quick and easy, the toughest of which is waiting for the download to complete, which only took about 30 seconds on broadband. Once installed, using Boomerang is just as simple. Boomerang is currently for available for Firefox 3.6+ and Chrome 5.0+. It works with Gmail and Google Apps email.

The bottom Line: A useful plugin, and one I will be using a lot in the future. The website could be a bit more clear about the difference between the Pro version and the free plugin version, but the plugin version itself is quite nice and totally free.

Tested on: Chrome 14.0.835.186 m on Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit

Compatibility: Firefox 3.6+ and Chrome 5.0+.

Download and install at: http://www.boomeranggmail.com/