Related Boxes

July 17, 2014, 4:05 pm

≪ Previous: Introducing Thread Splitting for Gmail

Streak is used for many different use cases, but there are two in particular that are the most common and often get used together: Sales and Support. Up until now if you received an email to your support account it would be difficult to know if this was a paying customer, or someone in the sales pipeline. And conversely when working on a deal it would be difficult to know if this potential customer was dealing with any support issues.

The new Related Boxes resolves this by showing you all boxes that may be related to the current email you're reading. This is especially useful when you haven't yet boxed the email you're reading.

Now, when you open an email conversation, Streak will find and display other boxes that may be related, and show it to you on the right sidebar.

This even works while you are composing a new email. Streak will automatically surface relevant boxes as you're composing your email. By default Streak only indicates the number of Related Boxes, but if you click "Show" then you can see the specific boxes right in the compose window.

For now, you can only navigate to these related boxes but we'll soon offer the ability to add the current email to one of the related boxes.

This feature is available for everyone with Streak, simply refresh Gmail to get the latest version.

In our testing we've found it to be incredibly useful and can totally change how you read your email. Try it out and we think you'll agree.

↧

Streak: There's an App for That

August 12, 2013, 8:29 am

≫ Next: Streak In-App Help

≪ Previous: Related Boxes

We're pleased to announce the our that our first mobile app is available - Streak for iPhone.

Streak for iPhone is just like Streak for Chrome, optimized for the small screen.

Gmail, baked right in

Just like Streak for Chrome and Safari, the iPhone app is a tight integration between Gmail and the Streak CRM. Access your Gmail from inside the Streak app. Send and receive emails, add tags, add attachments - all without leaving the Streak.

Make updates on the go

Just walked out of a meeting and want to enter some notes on a client? Want to assign a task to a teammate? You can now update Streak boxes on the go.

Send repetitive emails quickly

If you use Streak snippets on the desktop, you know that they can save you tons of time, and keep you confident that you're sending tried and tested text. On the phone, they're even more important - typing is slower, and copy-and-paste is more laborious. So we're happy to bring your snippets to the iPhone.

Keep up to date with your team's activity

In Streak, you can view all the changes to your boxes and pipelines by viewing the newsfeed. On the iPhone, we bring you newsfeeds for boxes and pipelines, plus a new global newsfeed that covers all of your pipelines.

More coming soon

We wanted to get Streak for iPhone in your hands as quickly as possible, but we're not done with it yet. In the coming weeks, we'll be releasing:

Account switching
Pipeline sharing
Creating pipelines, new boxes, and reminders
Saved views
Send later functionality

If there's anything else you want from the app, or have any suggestions on it, please email us as support@streak.com, or chat with us from right within the app.

↧

Streak In-App Help

September 7, 2014, 8:00 pm

≫ Next: Unlimited Email Tracking For Gmail with Streak

≪ Previous: Streak: There's an App for That

We here at Streak add features daily to improve the experience for all of our users. However, it can sometimes be difficult to know how to perform a specific task or whether Streak supports a particular feature.

Traditionally, users have had to email our support team for help or to ask if we support a particular use case. We've recently launched an in-app help system to give you answers much faster and provide far more clarity in how to perform various tasks.

You can access help from the Streak menu at the top of Gmail.

The in app help system starts with a search experience. Simply search or browse for the task you're looking to accomplish. The help system also has various overview tutorials to help you get up and running with streak for the first time.

Most tasks in the help system will walk you through the task, step by step, right inside the app. Here's an example of what an in-app help would like for adding a new column to a pipeline:

We hope this will provide our users with a much better help experience. Giving you all answers you need faster and showing you all the features Streak has to offer.

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Unlimited Email Tracking For Gmail with Streak

November 26, 2013, 6:13 am

≫ Next: = 'Hello World' to Formulas!

≪ Previous: Streak In-App Help

Today we're launching one of the most heavily requested features by our users - email tracking. This feature lets you know when one of your emails is being read by a recipient. Users have been asking for this feature for quite some time and we've consistently recommended other products and services..... until we started using them. We wanted to build not only a better experience than other services out there but more importantly, something that integrates tightly with Streak and the rest of Gmail.

With email tracking, you'll be able to know exactly when a critical sales lead or customer has read your email so you can take appropriate follow up actions.

We spent a lot of time designing a great email tracking experience and it starts with a seriously generous quota. We're offering 200 free tracked emails a month with an easy, and free way to get unlimited tracked emails (more on that below).

How to Use Streak Email Tracking

Toggle Tracking On

The first thing to do to get started with email tracking is to toggle the feature on while composing an email using the "eye" icon shown below:

You can default email tracking to on or off in the Streak Settings tab in Gmail's settings interface.

Receiving Read Notifications

You'll get read notifications when your email is read automatically. You can change the default setting of desktop notifications to chat or email notifications in the Streak Settings interface.

Getting Detailed Read Stats for an Email

Simply open any tracked email and the right sidebar of Gmail will show a timeline of reads of each individual message. You'll find the reader's name, device and location. For even more details and stats, the "Show Details" link can provide more information displayed graphically

Finding Tracked Emails

There are several ways to find tracked emails you've sent in the past. Indicators appear next to any emails that are tracked throughout Gmail (inbox, labels, etc.).

There is also a special link under Sent Mail called Tracked Threads that will only show you emails that are tracked.

Finally, you can search for tracked emails by adding the "has:tracking" to any search query. This will limit your searches to just to emails that have tracking enabled.

Unlocking Unlimited Email Tracking

By default, you can send 200 tracked emails a month but its really easy to unlock unlimited email tracking by sharing Streak Email Tracking with friends or coworkers. You'll be given the option to share when you first start with email tracking or when you hit the 200 email limit in a month.

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= 'Hello World' to Formulas!

October 2, 2014, 5:14 pm

≫ Next: Email Box Filters

≪ Previous: Unlimited Email Tracking For Gmail with Streak

Today we are very proud to introduce a feature we've worked really hard to bring you: customizable formulas, right in your pipelines.

Adding formulas to your pipelines is a powerful new way to gain even more insight into your processes. For example, a column that represents how much each deal is worth. In a typical sales pipeline, you might set up your columns like this:

Previously, it would have been necessary to update the “deal value” column manually. This calculation is now easy using Formulas. You'll be writing and using your own formulas by the end of today's blog!

Get started by clicking on a column header and inserting a new column of type "Formula".

Great! We’re now ready to enter a formula. Streak formulas use javascript under the hood - but don't worry if that sounds intimidating. Our formulas are very friendly (and similar to Excel). Here's how we would write a formula that calculates deal size:

This simple formula multiplies the price per widget times the number of widgets times the probability the deal closes. We want to be sure and note the syntax we used to reference each column within the formula. Generally: $’SomeColumnName’. In this example, the column named Price/Widget is written: $’Price/Widget’. Easy! For a complete reference on the syntax of formulas, and all of the other powerful functions Streak now offers, refer to our help in the app.

Let’s dig in and have some fun with a more advanced example. We’re feeling kind of lazy, and although we could manually fill out the probability of each deal closing, we’d rather write a formula and have the computer do the hard work. In this example, we want to assign every deal in a certain stage to have the same probability of closing:

Selecting “Just This Stage" allows us to write a formula that will only be applied to the boxes in this stage. This is perfect for us to assign different probabilities of closing based on the stage the box is in.

A final example to show off: automatically filling in the price of a widget based on a dropdown field of product names:

Don’t be scared! In plain english, what we’ve told the computer is that the price of a widget should be based on which the type of widget. If the widget is a Thinger, the price should be set to $10. If the widget is a Bobber, the price is $20..... and so on. Cool! Now our formula automatically updates the price any time we change the widget type. And best of all, we built on top of the previously written formula without needing to edit any already completed work.

And here’s what our completed pipeline looks like:

There are an unlimited number of uses for formulas, and that is a beautiful thing. You can now precisely customize Streak to your specific use case.. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

For sales related pipelines, formulas can be created for lead scoring
For dealflow pipelines, formulas can be created for % ownership of an investment based on the total capital raised and the investment amount
For bug tracking pipelines, formulas can be made for the time it takes a bug to go from reported to closed.

Please let us know all of the different calculations you put together! You can get started right now, for free, with up to 2 formulas. Users of our paid Corporate plan enjoy an unlimited number of formulas.

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Email Box Filters

February 6, 2014, 1:14 pm

≫ Next: Permission Roles

≪ Previous: = 'Hello World' to Formulas!

Some Streak users have a one-box, one-user system. For example, they may track sales leads, or have a support box for each customer account.

Until recently, if an email came in from a user, you'd have to notice the email, remember whether you already had a box for that user, and then add the email to the correct box.

We're releasing a new feature called Email Filters to make this automatic.

If you want all emails with bob@gmail.com to get added to the Bob Smith box, you can set up an Email Filter on the box for bob@gmail.com. From then on, all new emails with bob@gmail.com will automatically get added to the Bob Smith box, no extra work needed.

How to Use Email Filters

To get started, add an email thread to a box. Streak will automatically suggest some filters you may want to add.

You can see your filters for a box at any time.

If you want to make an Email Filter that Streak doesn't suggest, the "New Filter" button is your next stop. You can add all emails with a particular user to a box, or you can also choose to box all emails with users on one domain if you want to group a company together.

Unlimited Email Filters

By default, you will be able to create up to 10 Email Filters. Unlimited Email Filters are available in our paid plans. We're starting to offer this paid plan to customers now and we hope to have full details coming soon. If you'd like to inquire about our paid plans, email us at sales@streak.com.

↧

Permission Roles

October 16, 2014, 5:30 pm

≫ Next: Deep Linking

≪ Previous: Email Box Filters

One of the key features of Streak is the ability to share information with other users. Your notes, comments, and emails are available for collaboration with everyone shared on your pipeline. Today we’re announcing a new feature to make sharing even better - Permission Roles.

Permission Roles allow you to choose what level of access each person shared on the Pipeline has, making it easy to provide only the data and access each person needs.

The “Edit” Permission Role is the same level of access users have always had. Users with Edit access can see every Box in your Pipeline and perform every action - create boxes, edit notes, and modify columns. On a sales pipeline, this role might suit a manager who needs to see everything, set up the overall structure, and make comments or edits as necessary.

The “Edit Assigned To” Permission Role gives users total access to only Boxes they are assigned to. Users with “Edit Assigned To” access can add emails, set reminders, make comments, and perform all other Box centric actions - but only for their assigned Boxes. On a sales Pipeline, this role might suit the salesperson who needs to to control their assigned Boxes, but doesn't need to edit Boxes assigned to others.

The “View” Permission Role gives users view-only access to every Box in your Pipeline. On a sales Pipeline, this role might suit the accountant who needs to be able to see all Box data in order to create a quarterly revenue report, but doesn’t need to modify any Box data.

The “View Assigned To” Permission gives users view-only access to Boxes they are assigned to. On a sales Pipeline, this role might suit the engineer who needs to see one customer’s feature request, but nothing else.

To assign a user a Permission Role, open the Share menu.

Add the user to the Pipeline.

And use the Permission Role drop down next to the user’s name.

We hope that these new Permission Roles will enable you to share your pipelines with more people, more productively. Permission Roles are available for users on our Corporate plan.

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Deep Linking

February 11, 2014, 3:02 pm

≫ Next: Recently Viewed Emails

≪ Previous: Permission Roles

Have you ever tried to collaborate with others in Streak, and tried to share a box with the other person? Up until recently, it was a frustrating experience, and there was no easy way to get someone on the same page. Now you can share links with anyone shared on your pipeline, and it will work exactly how you expect.

When you're on a box (or any other page), just copy the link from the URL and send it to them.

If they

have Streak installed
and they're shared on what you're linking

then they'll be taken to the page you link them to.

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Streak, Meet DocSend.

October 20, 2014, 2:15 pm

≫ Next: Same Great Streak, Shiny New Home

≪ Previous: Recently Viewed Emails

As Streak matures, we'll be integrating with different services to continue our mission of making work email better. And, we're ready to announce our first integration... DocSend! Gmail users can now access Docsend directly from their email:

This little blue icon is a powerful new tool in your sales toolbox. Why? DocSend is the first solution to answer the question: What happens to my documents after I've sent them? We've seamlessly integrated DocSend with Streak so you can start tracking documents immediately.

Streak Tracking (email analytics) combined with DocSend (document analytics) creates a powerful sales advantage. Call a lead in the moment they’re thinking about you, and be prepared to engage in better conversations based on which parts of your proposal caught their attention. Consultative, data driven sales has never been so simple. Or beautiful:

If you were already using DocSend, you know bringing a dedicated button into Gmail just saved you a whole bunch of copying and pasting. We’re pretty passionate about saving you time, so - You’re welcome!

If you aren’t using DocSend yet, it's super fast to get started tracking documents. Because you have Streak installed, simply "Enable" DocSend. To do so, first open to your Gmail settings and then head to "Streak Settings":

Toggle "Use DocSend" to "Enabled" and you're done! Save your settings, refresh Gmail...

...and open the Compose window! Using DocSend is as simple as:

See their pricing page for a full rundown of what they have to offer, but you can start with a free plan right now. We also cooked up a nicely designed page that highlights the integration of DocSend with Streak, which you can find: Here!

↧

Same Great Streak, Shiny New Home

November 19, 2014, 1:40 pm

≫ Next: Changing Pipeline Ownership

≪ Previous: Streak, Meet DocSend.

This is a very exciting time here at Streak. Our users love us, we're cooking up cool things inside Gmail, we've added new faces (introductions to follow), AND now we're taking the wrapping off our new home page! We're proud of our new look!

As a Streak user, we know you probably haven't left your Gmail tab in months. After all, when everything you need to close sales, get funded, and support your business is inside Gmail - where else do you need to go? If you haven't visited our page recently, here's what you would have seen last week:

Nostalgia in a URL

We'll take this obvious opportunity to do a bit of reflection. Two and a half years ago, when Omar wrote the first entry in the Streak blog, he wrote that "Our goal for Streak is simple: give you the tools to manage relationships in the place where you live and work - your inbox." To that end, we've been focusing on product. Here is a partial list of really-really-really-ridiculously-good-looking things we've brought you in the last 6 months:

Integration with Docsend, Email Snooze, Thread Splitter, Pipeline summaries, Permission roles, Support for formulas, Suggesting related boxes, Reworked and upgraded box views, 'Group by' date, and Streak indicators.

Launching a new site helps us better highlight the features we're building. You can also find a better explanation of how to apply Streak for a variety of use cases, including sales, fundraising, and support. And, they're pretty!

As always, feedback is much appreciated. Thanks for taking this journey with us!

↧

Changing Pipeline Ownership

December 8, 2014, 3:10 pm

≫ Next: A Better Search Experience

≪ Previous: Same Great Streak, Shiny New Home

We're very happy to roll out an important upgrade for our permission roles! Ownership of a Pipeline has previously only been available for the original creator of that specific Pipeline. However, if that owner later leaves your organization, you may want to transfer ownership of their pipelines to a different user. Thanks to the new Admin permission role, now you can!

All existing Pipeline creators are now Admins. The Admin permission role functions just like our other permission roles (can edit assigned to, view only, etc). ‘Admin’ users have two additional permissions above ‘can edit’ users: 1) the ability to change who is an Admin and 2) the ability to delete the pipeline entirely. If you’d like to make another user an Admin, first open the Pipeline's sharing menu (shown on the far right of the following image):

Then, share the Pipeline with the user:

... and select the Admin permission role:

Voila! You’ve now added Nikola Tesla as an Admin in your pipeline. Note that only an Admin can change the permissions of an Admin. In the example from the beginning: If Lucas was the old user you now wish to remove, Nikola would now be able to remove Lucas’s account from the pipeline. To do so, he need only click the “X” to the right of the user's name.

With the new Admin Permission role, you can give everyone in your organization the appropriate level of access. Access to permission roles is available as part of our Corporate plan.

↧

A Better Search Experience

February 2, 2015, 7:55 pm

≫ Next: Better Email, One Indicator at a Time

≪ Previous: Changing Pipeline Ownership

Search is an integral part of Gmail and Streak, and we've just launched an exciting new update that makes the experience substantially better. Now, Streak boxes show up in Gmail's autocomplete.

The best part about this update is that there's nothing special you have to do or new commands to remember. Just go into the search input like normal and start typing - you'll now start to see Streak results show up instantly. You can use the keyboard or mouse and select the results just like any of the other options.

We've also included additional information about the boxes, like the pipelines/stage/assigned to, so you can quickly distinguish boxes from each other.

You can also search for pipelines:

Just refresh Gmail to get this latest update.

Try it out and let us know what you think!

↧

Better Email, One Indicator at a Time

February 17, 2015, 11:53 pm

≫ Next: Hackday: New System Columns + Upgraded Saved View Management!

≪ Previous: A Better Search Experience

We're working on a couple of big product and Streak announcements that we can't wait to share with you. Stay tuned! Right now, we're really excited to announce an upgrade to the available 'inbox indicators'. Streak will now show you not just where a box is in your process, but who is assigned to that box. Previously, your inbox might have looked something like this:

Neat! You can see Jane's message is attached to a box. The name of box is "Ambarella - 3984", the stage is "New" and the name of the pipeline is "Orders". Streak gives you instant context right from your inbox so that we can save you time and clicks. Let's make those indicators even better:

In this example, because Nikola Tesla is assigned to Jane's box, his Google profile photo is displayed in our inbox. Note that all four of these inbox indicators can be used 'mix and match'. This indicator will help you understand not just the context of your incoming mail, but will help you to quickly answer the question: Of all of my incoming messages, which do I need to read and address immediately?

Here are just a few of the ways we're excited to see the new indicators make your life easier:

If you work on a Support team, use 'assigned to' indicators to know, at a glance, who is responsible for any given message in your shared support@ inbox.
If you work in a collaborative Sales or Deal Flow environment, use 'assigned to' indicators to prioritize your deals first.

To edit your inbox indicator settings, please reference this screenshot:

↧

Hackday: New System Columns + Upgraded Saved View Management!

March 17, 2015, 3:06 pm

≫ Next: Edit (and copy/paste!) Multiple Fields At One Time

≪ Previous: Better Email, One Indicator at a Time

We're excited to introduce 2 new system columns as well as a major enhancement to one of our favorite features, Saved Views. Here at Streak HQ we firmly believe there is no such thing as 'too many saved views' on a pipeline. Answering questions like "who should I follow up with today?" and "am I in danger of forgetting anyone in my pipeline?" are just a few of the many questions best addressed with Saved Views built on top of System Columns. System Columns automatically surface data from your pipeline and Saved Views allow you to filter on that data.

Here are two questions you can now answer with the new System Columns:

Not just when was the last email sent, but who sent that email?
Not just how many threads are contained in a box, but how many individual messages are there?

Saved View Management

There's a saved view for every occasion! (If not, there should be) Once you've created 6 or more Views on a pipeline, we'll created an extra menu to help you better manage your team's Saved Views:

On a pipeline with 6 or more Saved Views, we'll automatically reduce the number of Views that are displayed by default to a total of 4. In the below image, note you can use the 'Star' function to select which views are displayed to you. The system will display all starred views, so use the 'Star' function to show more than 4 views at one time.

From the same screen, also note you can now click and drag the list of Views to reorder them in your left navigation bar.

As before, Saved Views are shared with everyone shared on a pipeline. However, these individual options (which views are starred, the order of the views) are specific to each user.

'Show in Inbox' will pin that specific view to the top of your Gmail (original "Show in Inbox" post - blast from the past), while the remaining Edit, Rename, Duplicate, and Delete options operate as named.

↧

Edit (and copy/paste!) Multiple Fields At One Time

May 11, 2015, 2:30 pm

≫ Next: Power Tools Refresh

≪ Previous: Hackday: New System Columns + Upgraded Saved View Management!

Add a Column of Data and Change Your Flow... Whenever!

Gather 'round, it's story time: You're 6 weeks in to using Streak. Living inside Gmail is so easy you don't even realize you're using a CRM - it's just... Email like it should be. Things are good! And then... you realize you haven't been tracking physical address for your clients and you need to send them cookies (the chocolate kind, not the internet kind). Oh no!

As of now, adding the new information and updating an entire column in the pipeline is as simple as pasting from Google Sheets or Excel:

Neat! Let's spin another yarn: You've been working with Jasen. Things are great! But, Jasen is leaving the company to chase his dream in the NBA. Oh no! You need to update all of the 'Assigned To' fields to remove Jasen and replace him with Andrew.

No problem! Updating is easy as copying one cell and then pasting to the column:

The spreadsheet has been designed to just... work:

Quick tips regarding the New Spreadsheet for the power user and key command aficionado:
1. Arrow keys (and tab) will navigate directionally in cells.
2. Highlight a cell, and then type directly into that cell.
3. Copy/paste (command+c, command+v) works as expected across different column data types. Check out the full demonstration above!
4. You can skip a blank cell (or section of blank cells) with short cut: "Command+ArrowKey"

Final Note: With the "Delete Key" Comes Great Responsibility
Note that in the example I'm able to clear all fields at once with just a single press of the delete key. Cool! But, please also note there is no un-delete function. Delete with caution!

↧

Power Tools Refresh

May 27, 2015, 10:18 am

≫ Next: Mail Merge 2.0 - Merge ALL the things!

≪ Previous: Edit (and copy/paste!) Multiple Fields At One Time

We've recently released a series of upgrades designed for Sales/Hiring/Support management. This time, however, we're really excited to share some major upgrades to the 'Power Tools' aspect of Streak. If you use tracking, send later, snooze, or any of the 'little things' that make better email - we're happy to share with you a whole big bundle of good news!

Updated Snooze Menu: We started by sprucing up the design of the menu. Then, in response to a common user request for customizable time suggestions, we added a "Recently Used" section:

Selecting a snooze date via calendar widget (the 16th is a... Friday? No, Saturday - no, wait...) is another common request we are excited to show off:

Cool right? Next up we implemented these same functions for the updated 'Send Later' tool:

... and then added the ability to 'send later' and simultaneously add to box:

... and THEN... (drumroll) - Send Later and Tracking at the same time!

Finally, we refreshed the UI for our Tracking:

We've tweaked the appearance for easier use while still offering all of of the 'details' you're used to enjoying:

We've also implemented a fix that eliminates a problem with Streak adding 'views' when the sender looks at their own sent email. This covers many but not all potential issues - there are some scenarios we're still working on. Finally: Avid tracking fans will note we no longer differentiate between 'total' and 'unique' views. This is in response to a technical change by Gmail.)

Stay tuned for an update on Mail Merge!

↧

Mail Merge 2.0 - Merge ALL the things!

May 29, 2015, 11:08 am

≫ Next: Stay in touch With the Blog!

≪ Previous: Power Tools Refresh

Mail Merge is a beloved feature of Streak, and we've received a ton of feedback since we released the first version. We listened carefully! And then we went and built it. ALL of it.

Version 2.0 represents a complete overhaul of Mail Merge. We're really excited to share it with you:

Improvements even before you've begun to compose your message! With version 2.0, you can customize the email addresses that are pulled into the Mail Merge from the boxes in your pipeline. These email addresses are scraped from the 'people' section, which adds all email addresses from associated Gmail threads. Adding or removing an email address from a box, and thus customizing your recipient list, is now simple:

And now, for the Mail Merge reveal! At first glance, everything looks familiar:

So let's get started spicing things up by adding a BCC (or CC):

And, you know what? Why not change the'sent from' alias?

Looking good. Nice! But, I want to see if my message is opened. Let's addtracking:

We're getting there! Now we just need to attach a file:

Sweet! You know what would be really great? How about supporting images and gifs?

Great! But, I just realized it's after work hours on the East Coast, and I want my message to be received while everyone is in front of their computer. No problem! Let's set a Send Later:

We've very proud of the way everything came together and we can't wait for everyone to use the new version!

In sum, Mail Merge now supports: Tracking, BCC/CC, images, attachments, and customization of the 'people' section. And THEN you can send that fully built out Mail Merge at the time of your choosing using 'Send Later'!

↧

Stay in touch With the Blog!

May 31, 2015, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: Announcing inboxSDK!

≪ Previous: Mail Merge 2.0 - Merge ALL the things!

Follow the Blog to Receive Product Updates!

Public Service Announcement: You can now automatically receive product updates in your email by subscribing to the Streak blog!

Subscribe here:

Or, follow us on twitter if that's more your style. Stay tuned - we've got several big releases to announce over the next couple of weeks!

↧

Announcing inboxSDK!

June 2, 2015, 4:27 pm

≫ Next: New System Columns = Less Data Entry

≪ Previous: Stay in touch With the Blog!

Note: This is a technical update from a nontechnical person (me, Andrew) - Chris, Omar, Lucas, Henry, and Aleem will have a technical blog post at a later date.

You've no doubt noticed the pace of Streak's Product Development Increasing over the last couple of months. There are a couple of reasons for this (welcome, Henry! welcome, Zak!), but we'd like to highlight one event in particular: launching the InboxSDK!

What's an InboxSDK, you ask? An SDK is a "software development kit." If I may, allow me to paint the following analogy:

Imagine you've always wanted to paint an oil painting. But, you've never even put brush to canvas because the first step in creating your painting is making your own paints. And canvas. And paint brush...

Now imagine you've always wanted to paint an oil painting. You call someone, and they show up with all the supplies you need, plus they have a palette with 100 different colors, ready to be used right now. And, if you ask for a new color, they bring it to you and keep it nicely mixed up and fresh - all with no effort on your part.

Now imagine someone shows up with all of the above, and they'll hang your painting in a museum with a Billion visitors inside - THAT is the power of InboxSDK.

Using our SDK, any developer can easily create an app inside Gmail, and immediately be available to over a Billion users of Gmail. For example: Dropbox for Gmail allows you to save to Dropbox from inside Gmail. Docsend for Gmail enables you to capture document analytics. Giphy for Gmail finds the perfect gif and easily inserts it into an email. The InboxSDK is FREE and helps us further our mission of Better Email.

Neat! But... What do I, the user, get out of this?
1. Streak is now almost entirely powered by inboxSDK. As moved our codebase, we vigilantly reviewed every line of code to maximize speed and stability.
2. Because we're now built on top of our rock solid SDK, building new features in Streak will take fewer engineering hours. We're looking forward to a steady flow of updates to Streak!
3. Expect extensions built on the InboxSDK to play nicely together. Dropbox and Streak together? No problem! You’ll see far fewer conflicts between different apps.
4. Better, more useful Gmail experience. Fewer open tabs. Less time wasted clicking around. No need to run 25 tabs at once.

On a more personal note (again - Andrew speaking), InboxSDK was in it's infancy when I joined Streak at the end of last summer. Over the last 8+ months, I've seen the late nights, intense system design sessions, and constant barrage of small choices (not to mentioned never ending documentation) that go into creating a game changing piece of software like this. When you're in the middle of building, you can't know with certainty the answers to common, nagging questions... Will people build on InboxSDK? Are we creating something useful?

I'm personally very proud to trumpet the hard work (not my own) of Omar, Chris, Aleem, Lucas, Henry, and others. It's still early, but we're extremely proud to note that as of Monday June 1, InboxSDK has 1 million unique users over the past 7 days. Other notables:
1. Dropbox for Gmail, 849,000 installs (according to the Chrome store) at the time of writing.
2. Chad's extension was released and downloadable within 24 hours of releasing InboxSDK.
3. Closefox launched their extension to Gmail within 7 days of release, and re-used 95% of the codebase that was used for their Office based application.
4. Producthunt (#1) and Hackernews responded extremely positively.

5. We're excited by the reaction of the community!

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