Technology Tuesday: Unroll.me!

Unroll.me is a handy new service that is currently in Beta which helps rid your inbox of clutter by letting you unsubscribe to emails. While there are already several ways of handling this task (filters, reporting spam, manually unsubscribing, etc), nothing handles the task as gracefully or quickly as Unroll.me. Additionally, a fantastic feature is the ability to choose which emails you do want to receive and have them arrive as a once-per-day digest.

Currently, the service works for GMail, Yahoo! Mail or AOL Mail with more providers planned for in the future. While there is currently a waiting list, read on for an instant invite.


How does this work? Simply grant access to your email account by heading to Unroll.me and entering your credentials. The service will instantly start scanning all of your email and searching for ones that are newsletters or other frequently sent correspondence. In my  case, in under a minute, over 100 were found. Certain info is legally required in newsletter email headers  making them relatively easy  to find. In the left hand column of your “dashboard” is an alphabetical list of all the found subscriptions. A simply click on the minus sign unsubscribes you from that newsletter permanently! Sweet and simple.

Some services are indicated with an asterisk. For example, eBay. Clicking this will instantly bring you to your email notification preferences where you can change or delete several different types of notification options.

Here’s the secret sauce: Clicking the ‘Plus’ symbol adds this subscription to a single email daily digest where you can receive all your requested emails in one message. So rather than getting six emails daily, you can consolidate your Woot!, uBid, Groupon, Google Offers, Rue La La and Kayak deals for example all into one convenient email. You can also pick when you want it delivered: Morning, afternoon or evening.

Hmmm, can’t I just do this myself with another service? Sure you can, but it will take you exponentially more time. Creating filters in GMail is certainly an option but that is cumbersome and inconvenient if you have dozens or hundreds to create. Similarly, going through the unsubscribe flow from the footer of most emails is also a real pain. Sometimes having to fill out surveys about why you are leaving, entering your account info and other time consuming requests. Simply marking an email as Spam is a one click solution. However, it blackballs the sender as Spam and prohibits future email that you may want to receive from getting to you.

Any other benefits to using Unroll.me? Other than easily ridding your inbox of unwanted email and getting a sweet daily “roll up” of the newsletters and subscriptions you do want? Sure, unlike some other options that are an add-on or extension, Unroll.me works outside of your email application so it will not clutter your interface or  slow down your computer. Log into your dashboard as frequently or infrequently as you want to banish additional senders after your first slash and burn encounter. There are “Recommended for You” subscriptions that can be added from your dashboard as well. Though, I am doubtful I will ever add more clutter when I am frankly there to rid myself of clutter. Also, the service is completely free.

Anything else I should know? I successfully unsubscribed from 58 newsletters in less than two minutes total time which likely accounts for at least 5,000 emails that I will not be getting in the coming year! Sweet! (Some were daily, some weekly and some periodically). However, after my first five deletions, I was asked to share a link with friends via email or Tweet about the service to continue using it. Oddly, I chose to Tweet, and continued unsubscribing, but I never saw my Tweet in my timeline. So be prepared to potentially help publicize the service if you’d like to continue using it.

Can I sign up now? Yes, you can sign up but there is a waiting list. I have a bunch of invites if you want to skip the line and start using this awesome service. Simply Tweet at me, email me or leave a comment here and I’ll get you an invite ASAP.

Enjoy!

pssst! – Miss the article on PaperKarma? That was an awesome mobile app to rid yourself of junk snail mail catalogs. I have now scanned 75 catalogs! PaperKarma and Unroll.Me are a great 1-2 punch against unwanted mail!

** Update: While unroll.me will be supporting Yahoo! and other email providers, at this time the Beta is only open to GMail addresses. Feel free to sign up with other addresses but I can’t add you at the moment.

** Update 2: I flew through all my invites and am temporarily out, hopefully I will get more shortly. 

** Update 3: The good people at Unroll.me sent me 20 more invites. If you Tweeted or emailed me and still haven’t received an invite, please resend request. 

_________________________________

Hidden Track Technology Tuesday
email: [email protected]
twitter@tmwsiy
voice-mail(781) 285-8696

Have an idea for an article? Product, app, or web service you are passionate about? Feel free to get in touch with me.

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9 Responses

  1. I would like an invite please.

    I have been loving the Tech Tuesday posts. Keep up the great work!

    Thanks!

  2. See update above, only GMail addresses are open for the Beta list right now. Others will be supported in the future.

    I think I have sent invites to everyone that requested them from email & Twitter, if I have missed you, please email me again at [email protected]

  3. I received a bunch more invites, I think I’ve gotten them to everyone that asked via Twitter, G+, and email. If I missed you, please request again and I will send you out an invite.

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