There are so many improvements in Simplify v2, I’m seriously struggling with where to start. I also want to get into the details and explain the changes I’m making, but that takes time away from finishing Simplify v2. So today, I’m going to rip the band-aid off and give you a glimpse into what is coming. I won’t get too much into the details this time but I do have screenshots! I’m also going to experiment with leaving comments open to hear your thoughts and feedback.
I see lots of people saying they aren't willing to pay a $24/year subscription and I just want to say that I plan to pay to support your work on this, Michael. Thanks for your effort in making email a little more simple for us. It is absolutely worth the price you're putting on it—no doubt!
Great! v2 will be worth it solely for the floating "save" button in setting - I cannot count the number of times I have forgotten to save because the button was so far away! keep up the good work. i love your v1 so v2 will be a real treat. Tim
Hi. This looks incredible, I'm really excited for it.
The main inbox feature I'm personally hoping you'll bring back is opening messages inline in the main list view, so I can quickly open and process messages while still having context of their position in the list.
Will starred messages be treated as pinned when the user sweeps?
I can not bring back opening messages inline. But I do have some ideas about keeping you from having to go back to the list (adding buttons to jump to the next or previous unread message from a conversation view).
I have some ideas around pins and stars (see the reply to Colm's comment below). I don't have a sweep button currently but will add that to the things to consider when I work on reminders and a toggle for seeing only starred/pinned threads.
The sweep button worked especially well with Inbox's bundles where you could pin a few things and sweep away the rest. Since I'm not bringing back bundles, I think it is less useful. But perhaps they are still useful for the Inbox tabs or a clean inboxer.
There are two separate features you're talking about:
- Pinning messages to the inbox
- Reminders
Google Inbox never pinned emails to *top* of your inbox. It was only a different icon for starring. The one extra feature it had was the ability to filter the inbox to only show pinned items with a simple toggle. I do have plans to add this but it may not be in v2.0.
Reminders were a separate thing and I very much miss them. I've started to pencil out how I might bring them back as styled emails to yourself. But it is no small project if I want to do it well (including mobile apps for quickly creating a reminder). I might be willing to do the desktop-only version first and add the mobile apps later but even that is a bit of work.
All of this is to say, yes, I want to bring these things back as it seems clear now that Google won't. I think I can do them well but they will not come in the initial v2.0 release.
Ah yes, it's so long since I've used inbox that's all blurring together!
The reminders were great. I would be very happy to have a desktop-only version.
Thanks again for all the work on this :)
Just to echo what other users are saying I would be happy to pay for this extension. It's a life saver for me. I cry every time I see Gmail in its raw form!
Thank you for Simplify. In v1, when I switch-on the sidebar-calendar, the buttons on top (select, refresh, etc) move left - over the folders/labels instead of remaining where they should be, over the messages. Could this be addressed in v2? (FYI, using chrome).
Both of these improvements really look amazing, I'm looking forward to it! My main comment/question is whether you will still be able to fit each message on a single line if you expand the messages column out? I assume so since you mentioned that you are never removing functionality. Please keep up the great work! These are improvements that I hope a lot of people will be willing to pay for in a monthly subscription.
Michael, so happy that you are still championing Gmail's UI and putting in the heroic effort to do so from the outside. Having the actions near the message is important, as you point out in the reading pane (split) view – and it should be so in the non-split view as well. Consider moving the actions to always be aligned with the conversation view. Keep up the fabulous work.
Thank you for this preview. Settings looks hugely improved. For the mail reading pane I would like some element that holds the message list and the reading pane together on monitors where multiple windows are open and possibly overlapping. Maybe a small color band that extends the graphic surrounding the reading pane, maybe something else.
Thanks Paul. I played with allowing making the message list semi-transparent so the theme can be seen across the entire page, but I abandoned this direction as it proved to be very hard to do well because of all the layering I have to do to make it look like it does in the screenshot. The browser will help hold them together some as it does stretch across the entire page (not in the screenshot). Once I've got everything working, I'll revisit to see if I can do better.
I played with this again and got it mostly working (making the left pane semi-transparent so the theme background stretches the entire page) and I really dislike it. It makes the text for the messages harder to read and the whole left pane look kind of muddy. So that isn't a good solution.
I also early on played with ~20 different layouts for the reading pane with variations of the app bar spanning the entire top of the screen or not, the actions aligned differently, the conversation being in a card or being full bleed with a max-width on the content itself, the subject being aligned differently (full bleed or also getting the max-width) and a few other variants. All of this to say, I've tried a lot of variations and this is the one I think that works best across a lot of considerations. Hopefully the browser chrome does enough to make it all look like one window.
I really love what you're doing! Here's a question: Is it a possibilty to develop something like a app/skin for Mac? I'm not a developer so I really have no idea what that takes, but if it was within a reasonble aspiration for you, I'd pay for that. That, and any of the other Google Apps (Maps, Messages, Keep, Tasks, Calendar, Photos, etc)
There are tools out there to augment / customize macOS. Maybe I'll write a post about the various things I do to simplify the os for myself. But you are limited in what you can do and I have no plans to add to the existing offerings.
I do plan to Simplify other products (not just Google products) and the browser itself (Chrome/Firefox/Edge).
Is there a way to bring back the transparency of emails when in inbox view? For example, now they're completely opaque white when before they were slightly transparent. I'd appreciate your consideration.
A few have asked about this and it is on the list to consider. Part of why I dropped it is for some themes, the transparency really hurts contrast and readability. I can't detect which it is a problem and which is fine.
Love Simplify, can't stand to look at default Gmail anymore, been using your extension for years now. Looking forward to this new update!
Completely agree!
Just want to thank you
Excited for the changes and happy to pay.
I see lots of people saying they aren't willing to pay a $24/year subscription and I just want to say that I plan to pay to support your work on this, Michael. Thanks for your effort in making email a little more simple for us. It is absolutely worth the price you're putting on it—no doubt!
Thanks for your comment. I totally agree.
Great! v2 will be worth it solely for the floating "save" button in setting - I cannot count the number of times I have forgotten to save because the button was so far away! keep up the good work. i love your v1 so v2 will be a real treat. Tim
Amazing work Michael!
The new layouts and the updated settings page looks so great! I can’t wait to use Simplify on Safari in Big Sur!
Hi. This looks incredible, I'm really excited for it.
The main inbox feature I'm personally hoping you'll bring back is opening messages inline in the main list view, so I can quickly open and process messages while still having context of their position in the list.
Will starred messages be treated as pinned when the user sweeps?
I can not bring back opening messages inline. But I do have some ideas about keeping you from having to go back to the list (adding buttons to jump to the next or previous unread message from a conversation view).
I have some ideas around pins and stars (see the reply to Colm's comment below). I don't have a sweep button currently but will add that to the things to consider when I work on reminders and a toggle for seeing only starred/pinned threads.
The sweep button worked especially well with Inbox's bundles where you could pin a few things and sweep away the rest. Since I'm not bringing back bundles, I think it is less useful. But perhaps they are still useful for the Inbox tabs or a clean inboxer.
Great work, thanks for continuing to improve Simplify. Think I'd go insane without it!
Are there any plans to add a 'Pin to top' reminder/task like what inbox by gmail had?
That's a feature I really miss a lot. Thanks :)
There are two separate features you're talking about:
- Pinning messages to the inbox
- Reminders
Google Inbox never pinned emails to *top* of your inbox. It was only a different icon for starring. The one extra feature it had was the ability to filter the inbox to only show pinned items with a simple toggle. I do have plans to add this but it may not be in v2.0.
Reminders were a separate thing and I very much miss them. I've started to pencil out how I might bring them back as styled emails to yourself. But it is no small project if I want to do it well (including mobile apps for quickly creating a reminder). I might be willing to do the desktop-only version first and add the mobile apps later but even that is a bit of work.
All of this is to say, yes, I want to bring these things back as it seems clear now that Google won't. I think I can do them well but they will not come in the initial v2.0 release.
Ah yes, it's so long since I've used inbox that's all blurring together!
The reminders were great. I would be very happy to have a desktop-only version.
Thanks again for all the work on this :)
Just to echo what other users are saying I would be happy to pay for this extension. It's a life saver for me. I cry every time I see Gmail in its raw form!
Thank you for Simplify. In v1, when I switch-on the sidebar-calendar, the buttons on top (select, refresh, etc) move left - over the folders/labels instead of remaining where they should be, over the messages. Could this be addressed in v2? (FYI, using chrome).
This works in Simplify v1 but only at higher resolutions. It works a lot better in v2.
Both of these improvements really look amazing, I'm looking forward to it! My main comment/question is whether you will still be able to fit each message on a single line if you expand the messages column out? I assume so since you mentioned that you are never removing functionality. Please keep up the great work! These are improvements that I hope a lot of people will be willing to pay for in a monthly subscription.
Yes, that still works.
Michael, so happy that you are still championing Gmail's UI and putting in the heroic effort to do so from the outside. Having the actions near the message is important, as you point out in the reading pane (split) view – and it should be so in the non-split view as well. Consider moving the actions to always be aligned with the conversation view. Keep up the fabulous work.
Absolutely -- they are aligned most of the time in Simplify v1 and will aligned almost all the time in Simplify v2.
Thank you for this preview. Settings looks hugely improved. For the mail reading pane I would like some element that holds the message list and the reading pane together on monitors where multiple windows are open and possibly overlapping. Maybe a small color band that extends the graphic surrounding the reading pane, maybe something else.
Thanks Paul. I played with allowing making the message list semi-transparent so the theme can be seen across the entire page, but I abandoned this direction as it proved to be very hard to do well because of all the layering I have to do to make it look like it does in the screenshot. The browser will help hold them together some as it does stretch across the entire page (not in the screenshot). Once I've got everything working, I'll revisit to see if I can do better.
I played with this again and got it mostly working (making the left pane semi-transparent so the theme background stretches the entire page) and I really dislike it. It makes the text for the messages harder to read and the whole left pane look kind of muddy. So that isn't a good solution.
I also early on played with ~20 different layouts for the reading pane with variations of the app bar spanning the entire top of the screen or not, the actions aligned differently, the conversation being in a card or being full bleed with a max-width on the content itself, the subject being aligned differently (full bleed or also getting the max-width) and a few other variants. All of this to say, I've tried a lot of variations and this is the one I think that works best across a lot of considerations. Hopefully the browser chrome does enough to make it all look like one window.
I really love what you're doing! Here's a question: Is it a possibilty to develop something like a app/skin for Mac? I'm not a developer so I really have no idea what that takes, but if it was within a reasonble aspiration for you, I'd pay for that. That, and any of the other Google Apps (Maps, Messages, Keep, Tasks, Calendar, Photos, etc)
There are tools out there to augment / customize macOS. Maybe I'll write a post about the various things I do to simplify the os for myself. But you are limited in what you can do and I have no plans to add to the existing offerings.
I do plan to Simplify other products (not just Google products) and the browser itself (Chrome/Firefox/Edge).
That would be awesome! I'd love to hear more about that :)
Is there a way to bring back the transparency of emails when in inbox view? For example, now they're completely opaque white when before they were slightly transparent. I'd appreciate your consideration.
A few have asked about this and it is on the list to consider. Part of why I dropped it is for some themes, the transparency really hurts contrast and readability. I can't detect which it is a problem and which is fine.
Take my money! Just hurry up and release :)!
I wouldn't pay a subscription service - no matter how great I think Simplify is.
Sorry.