Description from extension meta
Make Gmail simpler, more capable, and more respectful
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Description from store
A browser extension that makes Gmail even more simple, capable, and respectful. Simplify Gmail v2 is a total rewrite 9 months in the making. It goes even further to give you the best Gmail experience possible.
WHO MADE THIS?
Simplify was made by me, Michael Leggett (leggett.org), with some help from friends. I was Gmail's lead designer from 2008 to 2012 and co-founded Google Inbox. I've been writing Chrome extensions for years to simplify the apps I use but have only ever shared them with friends. With the unfortunate demise of Google Inbox, I wanted bring the simplified email experience to Gmail.
IS IT SAFE?
I'm glad you asked. You should always be super careful what extensions or apps you use with your email. Simplify is mostly some CSS plus a little Javascript to apply the CSS. There are no trackers. No data is sent or shared. No ads ever. Promise. And all the code can be inspected on Github: http://code.simpl.fyi
PRIVACY POLICY
Your privacy and the security of your account and data is of the utmost importance to Simplify. We have taken the strictest stance on privacy possible. Simplify has no ads, no analytics, no trackers, and no use of cookies. Simplify does not send or receive data of any kind from a user's account or device.
HAVE FEEDBACK?
Gmail has a lot of features and even more 3rd party plug-ins. This may not work for you and that's ok. For everyone else, I'll do my best to update the extension as Gmail's code changes and hope to simplify other apps in the future. You can send feedback or report issues via https://simpl.fyi/issue -- I usually respond within one business day.
Latest reviews
- (2024-01-24) Chris O'Donnell: With the introduction of bundles. This extension is nearly perfect! Make Gmail so much better to use.
- (2024-01-09) Florent Destremau: This chrome extension is the best way to continue loving Gmail. The latest update gives you even more of an Inbox vibe.
- (2023-09-15) Leo Topol: I'm curious how such an outstanding app can be missing the best part of Inbox. Where are the Bundles? The most important part of Inbox is missing?
- (2023-09-13) Lucas Durand: L'extension est super, mais trop chère
- (2023-02-07) Stels CHanel: Платное приложение суть которого просто изменить css. Не достойно вашего внимания проходите.
- (2023-01-30) Азамат Таршхоев: Lost all meaning! Now this is much uglier than the new Gmail interface! Respect Google!
- (2022-12-31) Supersonic Sites: Very well done extension that added great value to our experience running our business on Google Workspace. They were also very professional when we reached out with an issue and promptly answered and dealt with it.
- (2022-12-01) Herman Zarkovic: It does not work with new Gmail interface :(
- (2022-08-23) James Burrell: I don't write reviews very often but Simplify is great and does what is claims to do , make Gmail simpler and much more productive. It keeps getting better and the tech support is fantastic !
- (2022-08-14) Jose Manuel Barredo: Fue buena hasta que llego la maldición de las suscripciones. Con el nuevo diseño de Gmail ya no es necesaria.
- (2022-08-10) Stefan Wolske: Its the best thing that could happen to my gmail.
- (2022-08-10) Patrick O'Shea: Hands down my favorite extension. Improves gmail so much. Definitely worth the sub. I had one question though. I'm not sure if this is related to the newest gmail update or the fact that I was finally forced off hangouts, but it seems like the simplify options related to Chat are no longer working? Would also love a way to pin the friends list to the left as it seems ridiculous to have to open the nav bar and hover over chat just to find the friend I want to message. Thanks for your work!
- (2022-08-01) Vlad Rapoport: Fantastic product. I've experimented with lot's of Gmail enhancement products and this one is hands down the best. The $2 per month is well worth the benefits it offers. Had I not found this extension when I did, I would have dumped Gmail after the Inbox went away... Well done sir, thank you!
- (2022-07-20) Michael Riga: I like this tool, the re-skinned Gmail was fantastic. Though I use RAM BOX, I never got any warnings that my trial ended as RAMBox adds it into their system as a toggle. Anyways, great extension, but not worth the price. If the developer was to charge a lifetime license, let's say $24 ($2 a month) it might be worth it. But also, you can load up Gmail in an email client like Outlook, Thunderbird, or others which have a very nice and aesthetically pleasing interface.
- (2022-03-09) Thomas Burg: wonderful, makes work more fun
- (2022-03-04) Pablo Lorenzo: The design is amazing, but the amount of money that are asking is absolutey insane (25 every year...). The right amount would be 10 euros ONE TIME, more or less. As i said, the price is absolutely ridicolous. Sorry but is not for me, and i can imagine that neither for you.
- (2022-02-18) Zachary Wiles: I love this and can't recommend it enough! I've hacked at my own stylesheet to clean up Gmail in the past and it is a moving target, it's no easy task to create or maintain your own. Well worth a couple of dollars a month to get the cleanest, slickest Gmail experience you'll ever work in.
- (2021-12-03) Ryan B: I only use a few extensions because I'm a simple kinda guy. Simplify Gmail makes Gmail usable again. Definitely worth the yearly subscription. Google Inbox was a sweet sweet offering that was killed off too soon. Simplify Gmail brings back some of the magic. I can focus on the content of my emails. I'd love it if Simplify Gmail just became Simplify. Twitter is pretty messy at the moment. Just saying...
- (2021-11-15) Vince Taglia: Any chance you can add back the "archive all visible items" button to each email section? They moved it to the 3 button dropdown and now it takes 2 clicks every time I want to archive all visible. Very frustrating. Thanks for the great extension!
- (2021-11-11) Anton P.: The Simplify causes my Gmail to lag (on my powerful PC). When I turn off the extension, everything works fast and without any problems. I ended up uninstalling Simplify. I configured my Gmail via CSS (by using Stylish) as I wanted. I just don't need all the extra functionality of this extension. Simplify had a good start, but the development was not the best.
- (2021-11-03) mix: This was awesome when it was free.. but not enough for $2 a month for a minimal twist on a perfectly functional website, I can get the same thing for free now with extensions like Stylish. I understand it takes a lot to keep this up and running, but this is simply hard to justify $24 a year.. Was awesome while it lasted, but I think I'll go back to running free, open-source, minimal html themes. Real shame
- (2021-10-17) Another Planet’s Hell: An exceptional extension that pricey for an extension.
- (2021-10-06) Mike Winter: Tried to live without it - I couldn't. It's just so much better on the eyes.
- (2021-10-04) Paul Smith: Beautiful extension, like Apple redesigned the UI.
- (2021-09-30) Paul van der Linden: This is just perfect. I dearly miss Inbox, but thanks to Michael we still have the same awesome user experience! Using Simplify Gmail since it's inception back in 2019. Oh, it's moving to a paid plan. Not ideal, but you'd want to be paid for your hard work. Wouldn't you? Thnx Michael!
- (2021-09-23) Антон: Платное под видом бесплатного. Нарушение, подал жалобу
- (2021-09-22) Keith Coon: I understand and appreciate everyone has their own opinions. For me I found the extension fun to use but not critically beneficial to use. I don't find that it revolutionized my experience with gmail, however I can respect that creating an extension this integrated with gmail is no easy feat. I can respect that this extension took thousands of hours to write and will take thousands more to maintain. I'm not here to debate whether or not there should be a subscription fee. However I will say that because there are so many companies asking for subscriptions to software I have to pick and choose which ones I need to subscribe to and which ones are really just nice to have. Unfortunately, for me, this falls into the nice to have but don't need category. No doubt it is an impressive piece of software but its not as beneficial as something like grammarly, which can keep you from making critical communication errors. I was happy staying with features the unpaid version provided but eventually I had been automatically upgraded to v2 and at some point my trial auto-started. I will say that, honestly, when my trial stopped I didn't even notice. The only thing that clued me in was the injected simplify icon indicating it was inactive. I'm not here to try and convince people one way or the other. My advice is to try it. If you do find it worth the subscription then subscribe! There's plenty of people who will help you justify why it is worth the subscription. I simply can't justify the cost/benefit and am not here to debate its value.
- (2021-09-22) Reed Porter: Baited and switched. The extension was great after Inbox was killed by Google, then suddenly the developer decided to start charging people a not insignificant sum of money to subscribe to the software. Why didn't he simply allow existing users to pay once and stay on their current version? Why did the costs of maintaining the extension suddenly become super expensive? No idea, don't care either. All I know is this Comcast style introductory free period before forcing you to pay more than is reasonable later on is despicable. Everyone needs to make a living we get it, but it seems this developer is trying to make this extension his full time income judging by the price. Oh well, time to rotate to any of the other million similar extensions out there.
- (2021-09-20) Éric Matte: Worth the price I wasn't sure after this extension changed from free to a subscription model, but after starring at the old Gmail without it for only 5 minutes, I had to subscribe. Thanks Michael for this great extension!
- (2021-09-19) Kai Handberg: Not worth the money.
- (2021-09-17) Matthew Sullivan: I have been using this for quite some time now on the free model. Initially I was undecided if I would continue with the paid version or not as I really only use it for the cosmetic change, however, after a few hours of staring at the default Gmail layout it made the decision pretty easy. For those self entitled whiners leaving leaving negative reviews just because the the developer can no longer afford to do this on a free model, you do realize it costs less than 10 cents a day right. If you don't think it's worth that or can't afford it, why not just thank the guy for providing the extension you've been using for Free for as long as he could and move on instead of giving it a 1 star review.
- (2021-09-17) Glyn Taylor: Used to use it as it was the closest thing to the discontinued epic Google Inbox. It wasn't able to be as good as Inbox, but was at least nice and clean. Now it's become a paid app it's not worth the money in the slightest. I'll wait and pray that someone makes something like Inbox in the future
- (2021-09-15) Mikołaj Bazaczek: Was a beautiful free modification to gmail frontend, suddenly switched to a paid subscription service with an annoying pop-up to "log-in" (meaning activate a monthly subscription). Understandable that the creator wants to make a profit, but it certainly did not make the transition in an elegant way. Classic bait & switch :)
- (2021-09-14) Shubh Jain: Loved the extension until it started showing that my "trial" was about to expire. I thought Simplify was supposed to be free! Please don't do this. I'll have to look for alternatives.
- (2021-09-12) Michael L: Love it!
- (2021-09-12) Justin Coughlin: Used this extension for a year now. I like the look and loved having it, but recently they're moving to a paid model. Having to pay for what is essentially a skin is absolutely laughable. Will be uninstalling once my "free trial" is over.
- (2021-09-08) NickAc: This extension used to be awesome, then they moved into a paid service without a single notice. Uninstalled
- (2021-09-05) Devon Elliott: When Google killed off Inbox, I was incredibly frustrated. I do a lot of work in emails and having to switch over to what I viewed as an inferior product (Gmail), was hard to do. I spent a few weeks looking for an alternative email platform until I stumbled on this extension. Simplify was able to resolve most of my issues with using Gmail and the styling was perfect, plus it allowed me to remain in the Google-sphere, which was convenient. I was happy, crisis averted! Then I saw that Simplify was moving to becoming a premium extension. I'll be honest, I didn't even know you could make subscription based extensions, and I wasn't exactly thrilled about it. Then I thought about the actual work that it would take to not only build an extension like this, but then to maintain it with the constant changes to page elements, scripts, and then of course the styling/CSS that Google would be doing. I've had to do something similar, on a much smaller scale, and I absolutely hated it. My app would break almost every week with just the slightest of changes and it would take me hours to fix. When I thought about it, $24 is about what I can spend on a single meal, and then you have to factor in the fees and taxes, so the dev isn't even getting that much from a single person in the end, at least compared to the amount of work he probably puts into this. So because of all that, yeah, I have no problem dishing out like $24 a year to have the perfect email service and not have to think about it. I'm happy to support him, because his work makes my life easier.
- (2021-09-04) Frank S: I don't need most paid feature, but I can't use it anymore if I don't pay. I don't think pay 24 USD per year for a skin is worth. I'll consider to come back if there is on-time paid plan.
- (2021-09-02) Matt Wallen: Wonderful extension and used for a while. But logged on today to see that my "free trial" was expiring soon. What free trial? Oh, it's moving to paid. Not ideal, lets check the pricing. £3 a month?! Yeah, not worth that, as it doesn't really do much except make Gmail look prettier. If it had been £3 for life, maybe even £5 I'd have handed you my money in a heartbeat. But moving to this model seems more greedy than ensuring consistent updates, and it seems many others agree.
- (2021-09-02) S B: Just logged in to see a pop up telling me that my "free trial" (after being an early adopter) is over. LOL. I do appreciate the work and the extension, and I'd pay $2 for it if it were a one time fee. But a monthly fee for a friggin' chrome extension is kind of ridiculous. Uninstalled. I'll deal with ugly GMail instead.
- (2021-09-01) 宋俊霖: 當 Simplify Gmail 改成收費後,我才發現原本的 Gmail 有多醜
- (2021-09-01) Kirill Kulikov: Disappointed with a new paid subscription.
- (2021-09-01) Larry E: I'm retired and I just don't get that much benefit for a monthly/annual subscription. Would be happy to pay a reasonable one time fee, though. Guess this is goodby.
- (2021-08-26) David Munoz: Works really well, but not really worth paying a subscription for. One time for $20? Maybe, but not $24 a year.
- (2021-08-25) Chieze Okoye: Liked the extension a lot, but it changed to a monthly subscription model, which I definitely don't appreciate. I can understand the need for the dev to make money, but I would think that the core product that was free should remain so and the subscription can be for extended functionality. Oh well.
- (2021-08-21) Jonathan Bahu: C'est payant
- (2021-08-19) Dylan Roussel: It was fun while it lasted. I can't blame you for making money out of your product. This is such a great product. Unfortunately I am not ready to pay for a Chrome extension yet even though I've been using it since a long time now. Again, this is a great extension. Thank you! :)
- (2021-08-18) Harrison Robertson: Whilst I understand the need for monetary compensation, this calculates to around $40-60AUD a year for this extension and really adds up. I really love this, and I'd be happy to pay $1.50-2 a month to support your work, but for me its just a tad too much.
- (2021-08-17) Mike F: Was okay until it went paid.
Latest issues
- (2021-03-03, v:2.3.3) Chanoch Turner: Interested in Simplify - how do I start?
New to app - I installed version 2.3.3 - what do I need to do to create an account and try/use - (2021-02-28, v:2.3.3) Jay Martinez: Error with Simplify
Today my mail box does not look the same. There is an error message in the upper right corner regarding Simplify--I now must accept permission for it to read and CHANGE Google.com user info. Is there a problem with Simplify or must I accept this in order to keep using it? - (2021-02-26, v:2.2.5) Guy Robinson: AMAZING...but...
Brilliant extension, one of the best. Not compatible with the HubSpot sales extension, be 100% perfect if that can be fixed. Keep up the great work! - (2021-02-25, v:2.2.5) Lee Woodcock: Is there a way to make the pop-out reply window taller?
I really love the extension, but it would be really nice if there was a way to make the pop-out reply window (i.e., the one you get when you hit shift-r or shift-a) taller so that there is more real estate for me to write long replies? Is there a way that I could modify it myself to do this? I have tried, but it is not clear which divs and css elements, but it is not clear which ones need to be modified. - (2021-02-25, v:2.2.5) Pamela Jackson: download
can I download it now? - (2021-02-15, v:2.2.3) Gretchen Leslie: Boomerang + "Quirks"
I love the product and will happily pay but since the latest update I'm seeing a few weird UX issues and Boomerang no longer works. - Header bar frequently overlaps and text is scrambled (Chrome) - Pause for Boomerang is no longer available. This one will be a deal breaker for me as much as I love this product. - (2021-02-12, v:2.2.2) Ricky Shade: Freezing
It's freezing a couple of times a day since the update. I have to close the tab (which takes a couple of seconds) and then it reacts. It seems to do this randomly after I use "mark all as read". Latest Chrome. - (2021-02-10, v:2.2.1) Jeff Mooney: Memory issues, I *think*
So, could be anything in the world but immediately after continuing on for the 30-day free trial Chrome has been hammering my CPU. I'd say, "nothing else has changed" but being a software developer myself I know that isn't necessarily the case. However, this seems too coincidental for me. - (2021-02-08, v:2.2.0) Marc Avila: HubSpot Sales
Any plans to support HubSpot Sales. I am getting a message saying that Simplify is not compatible with HubSpot Sales. - (2021-02-05, v:1.7.21) Mark Dickey: Newsletter alert keeps popping up . . .
Is there a way to turn this off? It's repeatedly showing up even after "Learning More" and hitting "Close" multiple times. Thanks. - (2021-01-18, v:1.7.20) Darien Young: Previous and Next Buttons Disappear When Zoomed
Great work. Just ran into an issue though. When I set the page zoom to 150% when reading an email the previous and next buttons disappear! Hope you can figure it out, thanks! - (2020-12-09, v:1.7.20) Robert WATSON: Logging ON
Logging On - (2020-10-27, v:1.7.17) Ashley Melville: Add ons
Can I view add ons such as Copper or Asana? - (2020-09-17, v:1.7.17) Carl Dean: New Gmail for Enterprise re-design breaks the extension
The search bar an top right user icon inarticulate are now broken - (2020-08-11, v:1.7.17) Aviel Amar: no new mail icon???
I coudent fint it.... - (2020-07-30, v:1.7.17) עודד פרידלר: hebrew
Hello Does Simplify support Gmail in Hebrew? - (2020-07-24, v:1.7.17) Karl Hansen: Email listings changing width
Win7 desktop, Chrome, window maximized or not. When I glide the mouse over the list of emails it changes width unexpectedly based on the length of the subject line. This is most noticeable if you have several short subjects and then a long subject. It changes what is beneath the mouse, and affects how I am clicking a column of checkboxes. I would expect the list of emails would be of static width, left-adjusted, not centered. Karl - (2020-06-26, v:1.7.15) Roberto Dorado: contraseñas no funcionan
no recuerdo la contraseña - (2020-06-18, v:1.7.15) Luke Mele: Clicking on Search icon displays Split Pane menu options
Issue when Search is minimized: Clicking directly on Search icon displays Split Pane menu options. To un-minimize Search you need to click further right away from the Search icon. - (2020-06-08, v:1.7.12) Torben Makowka: Settings Icon disappeared after introduction of new quick settings
Hi, i'm using the extension on a GSuite GMail account. For me, the settings icon disappeared after the introduction of the quick settings panel in GMail. The native settings icon now opens a quick settings pane on the right side . Please let me know whether you need more input in order to troubleshoot this. Cheers Torben - (2020-03-29, v:1.7.7) Jeff V: Split pane setting now in Settings > Inbox
The split pane warning was incorrectly directing me to turn off the setting via the Settings > Advanced page. The pane setting has moved to Settings -> Inbox as a section called "Reading pane" — for my account, at least. - (2020-02-14, v:1.7.7) Ricky Moody: Permanently dismiss error message?
I am getting the error: "Disable Preview Pane? You have Preview Pane enabled in settings but toggled off (set to "No Split"). This breaks Simplify. If you do not use Preview Pane it is best to disable it in Gmail Settings." The administrator of my work account has told me that I cannot disable preview pane, so this error message pops up every time. Nothing appears broken to me, or I might actually like it better. Any ideas for a workaround? - (2020-02-02, v:1.7.6) Vijay Padmanabhan: Messages list spreads across the screen
Hi- The message list in inbox now pans from one end of the screen to another. It suddenly changed. I had a neat appearance with a white band running on either sides and the messages were neatly aligned. Can you help? Thanks- Vijay - (2020-01-14, v:1.7.5) DanSharon Burkhard: Simplifying Gmail
I am trying to help my 96 yr old neighbor get up to speed as a new gmail user (was aol). She just bought a new HP desktop with; window 10 & chrome. Will "Simplify Gmail" help?? - (2019-12-17, v:1.7.2) Mark Reinmiller: Issue w/ Tasks Integration
As of yesterday I am not able to see the Tasks, or Asana icon in the lower right hand quick-links pop-up - (2019-12-15, v:1.7.1) Marco Hernandez: Tasks
Hi, It appears that in this last version of Simplify Gmail, the icon and option for Tasks are gone. Great extension by the way. Keep the good work. - (2019-11-05, v:1.7.0) George Kao: Google Ads are showing up again
...is it just in my Simplify or is this happening for other users? Thanks! - (2019-10-24, v:1.6.3) Vishrut Arya: Composing email forces small text
Actual behavior: Composing with the extension installed defaults the text of my email to be smaller than the otherwise default text size. I confirm the size is smaller than the default: when I click the 'Remove Formatting' button (cmd + \), the text enlarges to the normal default size. Intended behavior: Text size when composing an email should be the default size. - (2019-10-02, v:1.6.0) Edward Cheslow: inbox
too complex - (2019-06-25, v:1.5.8) Phil Ferrar: Simplify Gmail
Hi - please ignore my earlier question. I've since found out that the issue was to do with Gmail Tabs extension which had somehow stopped. When I clicked on button to re-start it all is working fine again. Cheers Phil - (2019-06-25, v:1.5.8) Phil Ferrar: Simplify Gmail
Hi I've been using the extension for several months now without any problems. However a couple of days ago I noticed that it was no longer active in my Gmail browser sessions. Today I removed the extension - closed Chrome - re-installed the extension but there is still no sign of it being active. I'm using Cloudready and under Help > About Chrome OS I get ... Your Chrome device is up to date 74.4.58 (Developer Build - neverware) stable-channel chromeover64 Are you aware of any issues ? Cheers Phil - (2019-06-16, v:1.5.8) Sarah Chamberlain: Great
Great, thanks Michael - (2019-06-10, v:1.5.8) Faisal Nahri: Interplay of ‘Google Apps’ button and ‘Search’
Currently, when we hover the mouse over the account picture (top right corner), the Google Apps button replaces the search button. Or if the search bar is open, it is made shorter when the Google Apps buttons is visible. I would recommend to uncouple these two. I think it would be aesthetically more pleasing if the Google Apps button doesn't overlap/cut short the Search button/bar. Thanks for the amazing work. - (2019-06-09, v:1.5.6) n ascentt: Options
I'd very much appreciate some options for this. I very much like the idea of this addon, and when using it I like 90% of the changes. But it does weird things that I don't like, such as moving the search bar which I use 99% of the time I'm in gmail, and for some reason moves the message actions (refresh More etc) to the top left corner, which I wish I could prevent from happening. otherwise this thing is perfect and I hate to not use this addon just for those reasons. - (2019-06-09, v:1.5.6) fadli wirya wirawan: revision
assalamualaikum broth peramban add ons bermasalah banyak virus malware yang masuk tolong diperbaiki agar pencarian tetap terjaga aman ... terimkasih #noname - (2019-06-07, v:1.5.6) SANJETHA K S: It doesnt work when it click on Simplify Gmail
It works only when i open gmail and when i click on the extension icon and select Simplify Gmail from the drop down menu then it takes me to the page where i have to select if its for chrome or firefox. After that, it takes me to the page of adding the Simplify to the extensions.