According to the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, there are at least 1.9 billion email users around the globe or one out of five of the world’s entire population. Meanwhile, about 294 billion emails are sent every day, and that’s about 2.8 million emails sent per second and a total of 90 trillion annually.
There are also 730 million business email inboxes, about 25% of all email accounts in the world, says the Radicati Group. And Gmail, search engine giant Google’s email service, is currently the world’s most used email with 425 million users worldwide.
These numbers can be quite overwhelming but for the average business professional, it can be distracting if not stressful. In fact, according to figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC), an office employee spends 13 hours a week or 28% of office time on email. And that’s 650 hours a year!
Moreover, it can take an employee an average of 64 seconds to recover from an email interruption and get back to work on the same work rate before the email came in, says a study from Danwood Group and Loughborough University in UK. And that those without access to emails within a week are more focused at work, according to a study by the Department of Informatics, University of California.
Whew! Those were quite some figures! Thankfully, the Internet, mobile devices, and mobile apps found a way to help busy business professionals manage their inboxes. RingCentral, a leading VoIP provider in the US, said that most of today’s businesses use mobile technologies to boost their business’ efficiency. Here are a few email apps that can help increase productivity in the workplace:
- AwayFind
AwayFind is an email app that categorizes emails that come into your Inbox according to its importance. And every time an important message comes in, this email app notifies you through SMS or phone call so that you’ll only have to check your mail for messages that need to be dealt with ASAP. You can get started with AwayFind at $4.99 a month.
- Rapportive
A free app for Gmail, Rapportive connects you with the people you send emails to through social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, among many others. This way, your emails won’t be easily brushed off as spam or trash and can help you send genuine emails, which are more “personal and effective”, to business partners, current and prospective clients, suppliers, and others.
- SaneBox
SaneBox is an email app that filters messages that come in your email so that only those that need your attention can get into your Inbox. Others are stored in a separate folder, which you can leaf through in the future or when you have time to spare. SaneBox starts at $2.04 a month for various webmails.
- ToutApp
Among the priciest in the bunch of email apps is ToutApp, which you can get at $30 monthly. It allows you to create quick email templates, schedule when these messages are supposed to be sent, and monitor whether or not your addressee has received and read the email. This way, you can minimize the time that you allot for creating and sending emails.
- ClearContext
At $89.95, ClearContext is also among the most expensive email apps available in the market. Aside from prioritizing your emails according to its importance and auto-sending least important ones to other folders, it also allows you to transform emails into to-dos or appointments.
