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Getting things done now is great, but perhaps a bit overrated. Sometimes later is better. When dealing with email you may want to wait until the time is ripe to tackle the messages in your inbox.
Boomerang is a nifty tool designed to help you deal with your Gmail at a more convenient time. Let’s say you’re just getting back from vacation and your inbox is flooded with emails pestering you for your attention. Responding to every email at once overwhelms you so you decide to prioritize. You tackle urgent messages immediately but you don’t want to neglect emails that you postpone until later.
Boomerang lets you time-shift emails so you can send, read and respond to emails later, giving you power over the timing of your emails. You can clean out your inbox now and take control of the timing of your emails.
Here’s a video showing you how Boomerang works:
You can used Boomerang with Gmail on Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers. The Boomerang website will guide you through installing Boomerang on Gmail.
Ways to Use Boomerang
Send Later
A very handy feature of Boomerang is the ability to send emails later. Here are some examples of when Send Later might be useful:
- You’re drafting a work email over the weekend but want to send it out on Monday morning when your coworkers are back in the office.
- Your recipient is in a different time zone and you want to be sure he sees your email in the morning.
- You want to send out a newsletter or party invitation on a certain date.
Use Boomerang to send your email at the ideal time and date.
To use Send Later, compose your email and then click Send Later instead of Send.
You can either click the default time or select the exact date and time when you want your message to be sent.
[tip]When entering a later time and date, you don’t have to follow a specific format. Make it easy by typing “Monday 10 AM”. The date will appear below the box so you can confirm that Boomerang is setting the date you want. [/tip]
Reminders
You can use Boomerang to remind you about emails you want to send or ones you’ve received. If you get an email you want to deal with later, Boomerang it to a later time and date. You can also Boomerang draft emails to appear in your inbox later so you can review them before you send them.
To use Boomerang as a reminder, click on the Boomerang icon at the top of your emails, then choose when you want to follow up with the email you want to send or one that you have received.
Boomerang If No Response
One of my favorite features of Boomerang is the one that alerts you when you haven’t received a response to your email. This filters the Boomerang messages so you only get reminders when someone hasn’t responded to your email.
Let’s say you’re sending out a lunch invitation to a friend you haven’t seen in a while. You can Boomerang the email to have it return two days later and check Only if Nobody Replies.
If you hear back from your friend within two days, the Boomerang email reminder won’t reappear in your inbox. If your don’t hear from your friend, you will see the email you sent to her appear in your inbox with a Boomerang label.
Manage Your Scheduled Emails
To see your scheduled emails, check out the Boomerang icon at the very top of your Gmail page. Click on Manage Scheduled Messages to see which messages are schedule and to edit those messages.
Mobile
Boomerang is also available as a free app for Android. Boomerang app on Android.
Users of other smartphones can access Boomerang on the go by using the Boomerang Web App. (For more information on web apps, see Web Apps: The “Other” Kind of Apps)
Pricing
Boomerang is free for up to 10 messages a month. You can upgrade to a paid account if you want unlimited messages. A premium account also gives you access to additional features such as Notes and Recurring Messages.
You can earn prizes by referring friends who sign up for Boomerang. When a friend whose email you recommend signs up for Boomerang and uses it for one message, you both get to spin the Boomerang wheel for prizes ranging from a Kindle Fire to a free month of Boomerang Premium. Find out more from Boomerang Rewards.
You can find out more information about pricing from Boomerang’s website. I’ve used the free version of Boomerang for several years and have never needed more than 10 messages a month, but your usage may vary.
What Else You Need to Know
Like Rapportive, Boomerang requires access to your Gmail account so you may not want to use Boomerang if you’re dealing with top secret emails that require a high level of security…On second thought, never mind. If your emails are highly confidential, you’re probably not using Gmail anyway. Here’s a link to Boomerang’s Privacy Policy.
Boomerang is a browser plugin, so you have to be at your own computer to use Boomerang, or another computer that has Boomerang installed on a browser. If you log into your Gmail account on another computer that doesn’t have Boomerang installed, you won’t be able to send any emails to Boomerang.
To set up a Boomerang email you must be connected to the Internet. But when Boomerang sends a message (either a delayed email from you or a reminder into your Gmail inbox), you do not need to be connected to the Internet. So you can use Boomerang when you’re leaving on vacation and want email messages to be sent via Boomerang while you’re away and unplugged.
Bottom Line
You can use Boomerang to delay messages, remind yourself of emails and put off til tomorrow what you don’t want to deal with today.
Have you ever wanted to postpone dealing with emails until later? Have you ever forgotten about an email you meant to get back to later? Have you ever used Boomerang? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
This does sound so interesting! 🙂
Oh yes…there are several times that some important mails just pass by without us looking at them or shall I say it’s kind of out of sight out of mind, and at times you are reminded about it much later when it gets too late. Boomerang is the answer there.
Similarly, there are so many mails that need to be sent to clients for which either you schedule them for later but the sending option really doesn’t work otherwise in Gmail unless you have such a browser option, and if the time zones are an issue all the more reason. The best is the birthday or anniversary reminders…at least those you can be sure of WILL be sent on time – especially for a person like me who tends to forget them half the time!
I think the free version should suffice or one should try that out before going in for the paid one. But how about the security issue, though you did mention it, but one still feels a little hesitant giving access to your Gmail account.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Great idea to use Boomerang to send out birthday and anniversary wishes ahead of time but delivered on the actual date. If you’re working on a project over the weekend and want to send it out but don’t want it to disappear in the receiver’s email over the weekend, Boomerang will help you schedule that email for when you want it to be delivered.
Yes, you do give Boomerang access to your Gmail account but they do need that to make their service work. I’ve never had my Gmail account hacked to I feel comfortable in giving Boomerang access to my account but everyone needs to consider that issue for themselves.
What a great idea. It never stops to amaze me what useful and crazy tools people develop to add to tools such as Gmail to plug the gaps in functionality. It reminds me of Buffer which I use a lot for posting, only for emails. I think I shall be taking a look at this as sometimes it pays to wait to send a mail to ensure it is read at the right time. Thanks for sharing
Hi Ashley, Yes, there are some similarities with Buffer, but Boomerang is a great fit for Gmail users giving great control over the timing of your email.
Definitely check out Boomerang and see if it’s a good fit for you.
Hi Carolyn,
It seems an interesting tool. I heared a few things about it. All good ones. It is very useful for scheduling messages. I like the Reminders part, especially those reminders you send to people who didn’t respond.
How does Boomerang get along with the Gmail’s tabs? I mean does the new tab structure of Gmail affects Boomerang?
Have a nice day
Hi Silviu, Boomerang messages are labeled in Gmail, so you can search for every Boomerang message you have. The new tab structure doesn’t affect Boomerang messages. You can see an example of a Boomerang label in the image above under “Boomerang If No Response”.
That is a great feature, so if you don’t need to be reminded of an email because someone responded, your inbox isn’t cluttered with it.
Hi Carolyn,
I wasn’t familiar with Boomerang until now. I like it. I am going to take a serious look at it later, might add it to the tools I use daily.
Hi Josh, I think you’ll really like Boomerang. It’s free to give it a try so why not give it a go?
I hope you enjoy Boomerang, Josh!
That’s a really cool feature Carolyn! I don’t use Gmail as my main email so for me this would be great to have in my main one. It’s still a cool program though and I might install it just to test it out. I mean there might be a few things I’d rather send later so I might give this one a test drive.
Thanks for sharing this with us, love it.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, Boomerang could be very helpful for you in timing your emails. It’s free so why not give it a try? This tool can help you take care of emails ahead of time if you’re sending them out or later if you don’t want to deal with it until another time.
I love Boomerang! I’ve been using it since it was first introduced. Now that hey have a native Android app it makes it easier. And I mentioned it as one of the 5 apps everyone should have. It’s such a great chrome add-on
Hi Sara, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! It’s great to hear from a fellow Boomerang fan. You’re right, it’s great that Boomerang has an Android app. I hope they follow up with apps for other platforms too.
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your impressions of Boomerang with us, Sara. 🙂
Life has become so much busy these days that we have to schedule our future mails too in order to stay updated with all the important things….I do agree with you that using Boomerang will help us to send our wishes to our close ones on the perfect time….
Hi Aditya, Good point. Boomerang might help us be less busy if we can manage our emails more efficiently. We can all use extra time, right? 🙂
Boomerang is quite an old feature of Gmail. It was a part of the Google labs which was initially released as the beta version. It was only later that they started the Pricing system. Handy for those who look to schedule the sending of emails.
Hi Nikhil, You’re right, Boomerang has been around for a long time. Classic tech is a favorite topic here at The Wonder of Tech. Many people haven’t yet discovered tech services that others have been using for years. This is a place to learn about fun and useful tech whether it’s new or not.
You’re right, Boomerang is very handy which is probably why it has lasted throughout the years
Boomerang seems like quite a useful piece of tech. I’ve definitely forgotten to read some important emails in the past and this would have been useful in those situations.
Hi Frank, Exactly. I have tried making “Important” or “Follow Up” folders but then you have to check those folders at the right time. Boomerang makes following up so easy that you won’t miss those important emails you need to deal with later.
I haven’t used Boomerang before though I heard so many great feedback about this. I’d surely try this myself.
Hi Jeremy, I hope you enjoy trying Boomerang. It may help you to schedule your emails at times that are more convenient to you.
Hey Carolyn,
I am thinking that from where you get to know all these things. Are you an encyclopaedia or something like that…?
Once there was an email from my childhood friend almost 5 or 6 years ago and he invited me to his marriage as he was in Australia that time. But i get to know all of this when i missed his marriage and he called me, i couldn’t tell you that how suffocated i felt then.
I guess if Boomerang would be there i could have attended his greatest day of life. And the best part i like was obviously the reminder part. And the one i professionally recommend is one can manage the emails with time. It was of great help for everybody on Gmail.
Yes, Jon, in fact I am an encyclopedia. 😉
Your story is an effective illustration of how important it is to follow up on emails and how easy it is to let emails fester in your inbox without dealing with them. You think you will but you have so much on your mind, that it’s easy to forget to get back to them later.
This solution is easy and free. How great is that? :-bd
Yes Carolyn, it free and easy but the paid version provides extra two categories and money has always brought additional advantages and features to take full use of it.
Good point, Jon. Certainly, if the added features of the Premium Boomerang plan are beneficial to you, then you should sign up for them. Those who are content with the free version have that option as well.
Hi Carolyn,
This looks very interesting, but I think I’d probably find it more time-consuming to use something like Boomerang. As you’ve probably gathered, I’m not greatly into techie ‘tools’ – I’m a bit of a dinosaur where things like this are concerned. I realise I’m out of step, but I just feel this is another layer of technology to get my head round, and one I can probably live without. Also, like Adrienne, I don’t use Gmail for my main email account – I use Thunderbird, but I’m not sure I’d want to add this to that, even if it was available.
Sorry to be a party pooper – I’ll still share this post, because I can tell from your comments that a lot of other people will be very interested in trying it.
Sue
Hi Sue, You’re right, this isn’t for everyone, but Boomerang is incredibly easy to use. Seriously, easy. After you load Boomerang, the icon appears above your Gmail plus you have the Send Later button right next to the Send button. Easy peasy!
If you don’t use Gmail, then Boomerang won’t do you any good but if you do, this is very simple tech.
Have a super weekend, Sue!
Some nice features, wondering how long it takes before google integrates them to gmail directly and takes the whole business idea from boomerang 🙂
I agree, Johan, that would be great so we wouldn’t have to depend on a browser plugin to make this work. But for now, Boomerang is a handy tech tool.