It’s 2020 – how is that even possible?! (To: Microsoft & Google)

(Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)

Dear Microsoft, Dear Google,

How is it possible, that we have 2020, and there is STILL NO GOOD WAY to add privat comments or notes on emails? I mean, the most basic thing in the world, attaching notes to something you are working on (like a post-it on a letter just opened), is not available from the biggest “productivity” providers in the world.

Yes, hey.com has it – like it has tons of great features which all email providers should have. But it looks like a cartoon or a tool for kids, and it doesn’t work for business emails. And maybe, great apps like Spark will implement it soon – I have some trust in them doing that. But what about the big players, especially Outlook and GMail?

For 20 years, I am now forwarding email to myself, in order to attach a note to it – a feature that works because Outlook and GMail allow email threads, so my own email shows up below the original one. But of course that has one gigantic drawback: I cannot change the note anymore! I still need to send another email if I want to jot something different down. And even this trick seems to be unknown to 99% of all email users, because I see them constantly google’ing for that feature.

Sure, in Outlook and GMail, you can create tons of things “out of” emails – like Keep notes, or OneNote pages, or ToDo’s. But, and I cannot believe that I am saying that for like 1.000 years now, WHY IS THERE NOT CONSTANT LINK? I mean, how am I supposed to remember that I “created something out of an email” when there is no indication at the email itself? Not even an icon? Com’on…

So what do I do? I create a note “out of” an email, and I – again – forward the email to myself, attaching the link to the note (Outlook, Keep, Evernote, whatever…). In 2020!

Needless to say that this feature would also help small & medium businesses, who still use email as the main way of interacting with their customers. For them, CRM is mostly just that – attaching a few notes to an email in the one account all sales/service people are using jointly.

So, here is my last attempt: Dear Microsoft, Dear Google. I have a great idea. It is as stupid as bringing radio to the internet. It’s overdue for 30 years. And I hope that you FINALLY build it. Please – PLEASE – allow us to attach notes and/or comments to emails. Thanks!

All the best,
Julius