Dropbox and Box have loads of tips, tricks, and third-party apps that will let you milk these cloud storage services for all they’re worth. One such app is attachments.me, a free service that helps you save time when managing your Gmail attachments.

From searching your attachments by the text in the email or the text in the files to connecting your Dropbox or Box account so you can easily move files between your email and your cloud-storage service, attachments.me is the perfect adhesive between Dropbox, Box, and Gmail.

 

As Advertised

Get control of the attachments in your Gmail account, and connect with Dropbox and Box.

• Integrates with Dropbox and Box
• Put your files into Dropbox or Box, or send files from your Dropbox or Box, all without leaving Gmail.
• Setup automatic filing to push all of your attachments into Dropbox or Box based on rules like file type or sender (sort of like IFTTT).
• Use your regular Gmail search, and get a thumbnail view of the matching attachments along with Gmail’s search results.
• Attachments.me allows you to search for text inside the documents, not just in the email.
• Save time when searching for old attachments in your email.
• Free iPhone application

My Take

The Web App

Setup is a snap. Visit attachments.me, click the Sign Up for Free button, then click Sign Up with Google, allow the app access to your Gmail and Contacts, and attachments.me starts indexing your email account.

Since attachments.me indexes your Gmail account you can search for any attachment, by file type, and even bookmark the search for later use.

Attachments.me indexes email addresses from each message, the contents of PDF docs, and content from sites like Flickr and YouTube <– way cool.  As you browse and search, you’ll have the option to View, Download, Share (email), or Archive the attachment. The sharing limitation is a bit of a fail. What about Twitter, Facebook, or even Google+? Perhaps this is in the works.

Sending and receiving attachments is the bomb. For real,  indexing is a parlor trick compared to what attachments.me can do when you connect it with the cloud and install the Chrome extension. When sending email  you’ll get an extra option to “Insert: Dropbox/Box file.” Just click which service you want to use…

find your file…

And the attachments.me extension will insert a link to the file via the cloud service’s web app.

Receiving an attachment is just as easy. The Chrome extension creates a dialog box to the right of the email listing all the attachments, including options to upload to Dropbox and/or Box and another to setup automatic filing.

To upload a file click either upload buttons, select the destination, and you’re done. If you want to make this an automated process click Setup automatic filing and create a rule. This works great if you want to lump family, work, social, w/e and have those files just dumped into a folder. I have rules for all of my projects and the attachments go straight to their respective folders.

What I find cumbersome about sending and receiving files is having to select files one at a time. This wouldn’t be so bad, but I have to navigate to the location of the file each time I want to insert or save an attachment. I’m also not keen on the limitation to a single Gmail  account. Minor annoyances, but annoyances nonetheless.

The iOS App

Setting up the free iOS app is pie. And I gotta say, the interface is pretty friggin’ intuitive. It took no time to figure out where things were. The main page has a big long list of files with a search bar on top. Good because going through 15,000 emails would be a pain. Once located, files can be previewed (provided the file type is supported by iOS), shared (via email), and/or downloaded (to the iPhone’s camera roll, Dropbox, or Box).

 

What I really dig is how easy it is to send and save attachments. Not just from attachments.me, but from Dropbox and Box. I’d even go so far as to say that the app moves faster on the iPhone than it does in Chrome.

In a Nutshell

Like

• Fast, easy, simple
• Indexes many file types
• Integrates Dropbox and Box
• Searching is ridiculously fast
• iOS app
• Free

Dislike

• Attachments saved/sent one at time. Must drill down to folder location each time you save/send an attachment. (support coming soon)
• Only supports one Gmail account (support coming soon)
• Sharing is limited to email. No social networks.
• No Google Docs support as a cloud service.
• No support for other browsers

Final Thoughts

Attachments.me makes it easier to find any email attachments in your email account, no matter how long ago it had been sent or in what thread it had been sent in. And between Dropbox and Box, I have more than enough space to let attachments.me save files that currently take up 3MB of space of my 7.5MB Gmail inbox.  If you’re looking for a way to manage your Gmail attachments then attachments.me is perfect.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

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Got thoughts on attachments.me? Share ‘em below or send me an e-mail at me@y2kemo.com.