Open-Sourcing InboxSDK (YC S11)
Dev tools
browser extension sdk
SHOW HN2022
257points
55comments
#183of 2,570 in 2022
Top 8%of 2022 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
12 positive, 14 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 6 critical, out of 33 comments about the project. Thread score +0.27.
Execution: 4 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 2 againstIdea: 0 for, 2 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Saves developers from DOM hacking and Gmail compatibility work
From 2 comments
When I was a product leader at Dropbox back in 2015, we chose to build our Gmail integration on the InboxSDK and we're generally happy we did. It let us focus on our core user…
matt_holden on HNThis is awesome news! My team built the first version of the Pipedrive Gmail extension [1] and Inbox SDK was [2] instrumental to getting it to work we wanted to: among other…
nip on HN
Open sourcing is welcomed
From 2 comments
Nice move open-sourcing it. At the company I work for, we considered InboxSDK when making an Gmail-integrating extension. But at the time it was closed-source so we went with the…
josteink on HNAmazing news! InboxSDK is amazing and now it's even more awesome.
usamaejaz on HN
Objections
App ID reporting to the maker's servers raises privacy concerns
From 2 comments
InboxSDK is very nice. However my personal stopper is the use of YOUR_APP_ID_HERE for broadcasting to mothership. Didnt check the source code fully for a while. 1. hello-world…
adeptima on HNWow. This is bad in so many ways. Hasn't nobody made a truly free as in freedom fork?
worewood on HN
No Firefox support
From 2 comments
Any chance Firefox support is on the roadmap?
michaelmior on HNUnderstandable, but really a deal-breaker for many.
kiliancs on HN
Locks users into Gmail rather than open mail standards
From 1 comment
> Over 1.8B users spend their days in Gmail! Way to absolutely depress me one paragraph in. It's really unfortunate to see a whole ecosystem trying to ossify this problem with…
ocdtrekkie on HN
Requests
Make the app ID opaque or optional
From 2 comments
The fundamental motivation for the app id concept is that part of the value that InboxSDK provides is cushioning the developer from version conflicts, both from Gmail updates and…
frew on HNFred, your comment is greatly appreciated! Will investigate more
adeptima on HN
Firefox support
From 2 comments
I don't believe so, but we target everything in the Webkit ecosystem (Chrome, Edge, Safari), so Firefox would be the only odd browser out.
frew on HNAny chance Firefox support is on the roadmap?
michaelmior on HN
Status page for SDK changes
From 1 comment
This is incredible! A few years ago we used InboxSDK to build a custom interface to visualize all kinds of interaction information from a corporate database, based on a currently…
btown on HN
Questions
Does it work with Manifest V3?
From 2 comments
Does it work with manifest V3?
another_devy on HNIt does! That was actually one of the motivations for open-sourcing.
frew on HN
Does it work with TamperMonkey?
From 2 comments
This is interesting. We're shifting away from browser extensions to TamperMonkey scripts because of the futility of trying to get everyone in the company to use the same browser.…
bilalq on HNI don't believe so, but we target everything in the Webkit ecosystem (Chrome, Edge, Safari), so Firefox would be the only odd browser out.
frew on HN
Risk of Google blocking accounts?
From 2 comments
Is there a higher risk of the user's account being blocked by Google after using this?
soco on HNWe haven't seen that at all. 10's of millions of users have used apps built on this SDK. I think the reason it isn't an issue is because Gmail (the client/server) doesn't really…
alooPotato on HN
Alternatives named
Gmail.js
From 3 comments
Nice move open-sourcing it. At the company I work for, we considered InboxSDK when making an Gmail-integrating extension. But at the time it was closed-source so we went with the…
josteink on HNSame this side. We are happy user of Gmail.js[1] [1] https://github.com/KartikTalwar/gmail.js
koolhead17 on HNThis is actually great, we use aria labels at inboxpirates.com to extract most of the Gmail data. Saw this and Gmail Js (https://github.com/KartikTalwar/gmail.js/) It seems more…
goforbg on HN
Missive and Front
From 2 comments
I love Streak for singleplayer but prefer Missive or Front for collaboration. It would be awesome if someone can turn Gmail into a collaboration hub like https://missiveapp.com/…
samuelstros on HNhow do missive and front compare to each other? Do you find one superior?
kak9 on HN
Hey.com
From 2 comments
Yes there are lots of users of Gmail. But I feel like email in general is one of the more open protocols we have. I understand it's hard to self host nowadays but at least it's…
alooPotato on HNWill it be possible to create a 'allow/disallow list'? I have been dreaming of an inbox where I can block all incoming emails by default. A separate page shows tags of incoming…
fillskills on HN