
Show HN: Adios.ai – Stop email interruptions, receive emails 3 times a day - trevz
https://adios.ai
======
wolfgang42
If anybody wants to do this to their own GMail account without putting trust
in a third party, this is pretty easy to do with the little-known Google Apps
Script. You can write JavaScript that will run on Google's servers and do
whatever you want to your account. (I use this to archive various automated
emails if I haven't bothered to look at them, to keep them from cluttering my
inbox after they're obsolete.)

Here's a script which I think should do the job, assuming you have a filter
set up to move all incoming mail to a label called 'hidden_mail' (warning:
untested!):

    
    
        function checkMail() {
            GmailApp.moveThreadsToInbox(GmailApp.search('label:hidden_mail'));
        }
    

Just create a new project on
[https://script.google.com/](https://script.google.com/) , paste in this code,
and then Edit > Current Project's Triggers and add a trigger to run
checkMail() on whatever schedule you want.

~~~
buremba
You could automatically archive the emails with that labeling feature as well,
no need for the Google Scripts.

~~~
wolfgang42
Really, how? I've never seen any options anywhere to apply labels after a
certain time. Or is there a trick I missed?

~~~
rco8786
Presumably you would write the code to do it...

~~~
wolfgang42
buremba specifically said that there wasn't any need for Google Scripts.

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juandazapata
What's the difference with just checking your email 3 times per day?
Personally, I've been checking my email before I start working in the morning,
right after lunch, and before I finish my day.

I have the luxury that none of my emails are "urgent" (i.e. I don't work in
Customer Support), so I disabled email notifications and just take a look
whenever I want.

I'm a little confused as to why one would need such a service.

~~~
michaelmior
One difference is that this controls your notifications as well. If I decide
to only check email 3 times per day, then I have to turn notifications off for
that to be effective. This means I may miss emails which need a reply sooner.

~~~
cimmanom
How is that different from this? You'd still be missing email that needs a
reply sooner.

~~~
trevz
One useful difference is that you can set exceptions (i.e. email addresses
that you want to receive emails from immediately).

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hnmonkey
What guarantees are in place with your users preventing you guys from selling
your company after you've gained users and then that new company storing
everyone's emails and digging through them for juicy details, IP, insider
trading info, prescriptions, 2FA info, financial info, medical info, blackmail
info, nudes, passwords, or anything else some people might not want a company
to have? Or partnering with a company that has a data-sharing agreement with
you so technically your company isn't reading emails but theirs is.

I'd imagine this is a concern for some people with this type of service
similar to how in the past Chrome extensions have proceeded down this path
without anyone being the wiser.

It really seems like people don't realize the potential pandora's box that
they can open by sharing their emails with someone or an organization, even if
that organization is currently trustworthy.

And a couple of questions for you about your infrastructure security. What is
your infrastructure security and when you get breached what will you do about
it? I'm assuming given your company's ability to access emails someone will
find you a juicy enough target and if you get big potentially even criminal
organizations and state actors would. If that's the case you will almost
certainly be breached to some extent because you have a juicy treasure trove.

------
busymichael
I am the creator of [https://DNDEmail.com](https://DNDEmail.com) \--- a very
similar app that implements do not disturb for your Gmail. I launched in April
2017 and have struggled to get users. I have 1,500 users, including 15 who pay
for premium accounts.

I will say, adios.ai has really nailed the marketing message. The website does
a great job explaining a modestly complex idea. I have struggled with the
message and marketing. Mostly, my users are people who knew they wanted this
solution and went looking for me. I think adios.ai will do a better job of
convincing people who didn't realize this is what they wanted.

Kudos!

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megous
Using mutt and manually invoked pop3 from command line works just as well.
You'll really hate checking your mail.

Just kidding. But not really. :D

~~~
craftyguy
This is pretty much what I do. Fetching new mails is a manual step, requiring
me to run mbsync and enter a long passphrase to unlock my gpg-encrypted
password file. I then have to run notmuch to tag things before I can read them
in mutt.

It basically forces me to only check email when I really, really want to.

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yomansat
Thanks for this.

Just FYI it wasn't not super clear how it actually works, i.e. how to get it
setup, is it a gmail plugin, or do I have to change my email settings to make
all emails pass by you first (which is red flag privacy-wise).

~~~
michaelmior
I assume like with similar services you need to give Gmail API access which
does afford the possibility of them reading all your emails (although I assume
they don't).

~~~
trevz
Exactly right. Adios just requests API access.

The way it works:

1\. creates a filter that filters your incoming emails into a hidden gmail
label

2\. at your chosen times we use the gmail api to move the emails back in to
the inbox.

Adios never ever accesses the content of your emails, for any reason.

~~~
michaelmior
It's unfortunate that the Gmail API doesn't offer more granular permissions
that would actually not allow Adios to access email contents. Even if I trust
you, any breach of Adios could mean that my email contents are public.

Not bashing the service at all though. I'm a current user of Boomerang which
has the same caveats.

~~~
trevz
Totally agree.

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qwerty456127
I just don't check e-mail more than once per a couple of days, same as my
physical mail box. Why would anybody need any additional tool for this?

~~~
wulfmann
I'm going to assume you just don't get a lot of emails? For many people it is
the primary form of communication across a company.

~~~
LinuxBender
It is secondary to slack/jira here, but I also dont check email more than
twice a day. If something is important, someone will find me. People also know
I will click tentative to meeting invites unless I have good reason to be
there.

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mike-cardwell
Alternatively, install any desktop email client that has existed for the past
several decades and point it at your email provider of choice.

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paul_milovanov
The privacy policy really needs a strong statement to the tune of "we do not
collect any of your email data or metadata, whether raw, anonymized or
aggregated", or a detailed explanation of what exactly is being
collected/aggregated together with strong guarantees about what the co
promises never to collect.

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anontechworker
This would be nice for slack, except if you’re mentioned you’ll still get a
notification.

~~~
nutbutter
That's just how Slack should work.

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nutbutter
Ooh! Actually, you can do this already with Slack by choosing "Direct message,
mentions & keywords" under settings. Not exactly the same, but it helps.

~~~
cimmanom
I really don't get why this isn't the default. It's the first thing I change
when logging into a new Slack account.

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trevz
We originally built this using a Google App Script in Gmail. Has been game-
changing for productivity. Now launching it as a service so anyone can try it
out.

Any and all feedback welcome. Happy to take any questions.

~~~
WhatsName
What about privacy? Do you access users email?

~~~
tagspace
Certainly not. Gmail API let's you work with just message ids. Never accesses
content, ever. Super important.

~~~
michaelmior
I trust that you _don 't_ access email content, but I assume that with the
permissions that are granted you _could_ , correct?

~~~
trevz
Adios needs the ability to change the label on emails (in order to move them
into the inbox at your chosen times). This permission is unfortunately also
the permission needed to access emails. If you know anyone at Google who can
change this, please let us know ;) as we're keen to ask for as little
permission as possible.

Importantly though, the content of emails never ever hits our system. The API
calls we use only retrieve msg ids and uses those to change the labels. These
are never stored.

~~~
nwsm
But in the future you could store them and users wouldn't know something
changed, correct?

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phirschybar
How does this interact with the Gmail "Snooze" feature? Are snoozed items
actually sent back to the inbox? Or are they muted in some way?

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rbreve
Do people still use email? There are worse interruptions nowadays, slack,
messenger, WhatsApp, push notifications etc

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graphememes
Or, set your notifications to only be enabled 3 times a day.

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spickelmier
Personal email, sure. Work email, you're fired.

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kyleblarson
Does something like thiss exist for Slack?

~~~
madamelic
\- Turn off all notifications

\- Write message as status, telling people you're alive but not available

\- Shut the window

\- Have the willpower to not re-open it

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mparramon
s/sh*t/stuff

~~~
tagspace
Fair point :)

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xte
Ahem, I read my mails from my maildir, sync-ed with mbsync or muchsync
depending on what systems I'm using... So, if I want to read my mails at ANY
interval of time I simply change my cronjob and imap-idle wrapper script to
trigger a sync or I may only change my dunst hook to tweak notification. No
need to offload to ANOTHER third party my messages.

Sorry, pollice verso.

~~~
wulfmann
It's funny to me that you give such a strong opinion against this, but then
end with a phrase of which could go either way.

~~~
xte
? Pollice verso is a latin expression for disapprove, used normally by Roman's
emperor to refuse right to live of a gladiator...

How this phrase can go "either way"?

Ps English is not my motherlanguage so I may made many mistake than maybe
sound strange for other readers, if that's the case please point it out, it's
a valuable lesson for me.

~~~
wulfmann
What I meant by that was it has not been agreed upon by historians as to
whether the phrase means approval or disapproval.

Source: I did a short paper once on the painting by Gérôme of the same name.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollice_Verso_(G%C3%A9r%C3%B4m...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollice_Verso_\(G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me\))

