2 Free Digital Tools Hiding In Your Gmail Address
These also work with Google Workspace (their business email) tool
Hi there Friend+FreeDigitalTools!
No that’s not a typo! It’s actually a powerful hack hiding in your Gmail.
Before we dive into today’s tools, I wanted to let you know that Anat Shenker-Osorio joined me on my podcast and we had an amazing conversation about messaging. If you don’t know her, she’s one of the top messaging strategists on the left and she’s damn smart! And super fun!
You can find the full episode (which is also on YouTube!) here.
Hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
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Now get back Free Digital Tools!
Gmail (.)
Tool type: Email Utility
Picture this: You sign up for a free trial of a digital product. You have 7 days to test it out and decide if it’s worth buying.
You’re feeling productive — but then your phone rings. One thing leads to another, and before you know it, a month has passed. You never tried the tool, and your free trial expired.
But you still want to check this thing out.
So what do you do: You could use a different email to sign up for another trial.
Or, if you’re using Gmail, you can just add a dot (.) anywhere before the @.
For example, if your email is YourName@gmail.com, you can sign up again using Your.Name@gmail.com.
To the website, it looks like a brand new address. But to Gmail, it’s the exact same email.
Why?
Because dots in Gmail addresses aren’t real! You can add or remove as many as you want — Gmail ignores them all.
Bonus: This trick also works if you're using a professional Gmail (Google Workspace) address.
So next time you need a "new" email, just sprinkle in a few dots.
FREE or FREEmium: FREE
Totally free. Have fun!
Gmail +
Tool type: Email Utility
Here’s another clutch Gmail trick hiding in plain sight: If you’re using Gmail, you can track how it’s being used by the folks you give it to.
Just add a + and any word(s) before the @ and you’re ready to go.
For example, if your email is YourName@gmail.com, you can sign up for a service using YourName+Test@gmail.com.
Why Would You Use It?
So we don’t need this one for free trials — we already have the (.) for that.
This one is for tracking how your email address is getting used.
Let’s say you sign up for an email list. Use +[organization] when signing up and then you can track what that organization does with your email.
I once signed up for the email list of a political candidate who I didn’t like. (I’m a politico - I do this kind of thing all the time!). I got his emails for a while. Then one day, I realized that he sold my email (or somehow let it become acquired) to an organization who wound up working against him in a hard primary!
I wrote a whole blog post about that fun story 😏, which you can find here.
Like above, this trick also works with professional Gmail (Google Workspace) addresses.
FREE or FREEmium: FREE
This one too is totally free.
I asked ChatpGPT if these two hacks work for email programs other than Gmail and the answer is… it depends. It broke it down by email provider here:
If you’re still using AOL, I guess this is one more reason to switch. Or not, whatever works for you.
For everyone else, the + sign should work for you (though test it before using it anywhere important). The (.) trick will not I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you like Free Digital Tools, you probably know others who will too. Invite them to join us. They’ll appreciate it… as will I! When you refer friends, you can also win free stuff!!
See you in a fortnight.
Josh
joshklemons.com