Internet technologies come and go, but there’s one that is for sure not going away anytime soon: email. Email is one of the internet’s oldest mainstays, and it’s become so widespread and commonly used that it’s hard to imagine it ever being replaced. There’s no doubt that you use email, and even if you aren’t sending out tons of messages a day, it’s worth looking into tools to make emailing easier. There are many add-ons and plugins to improve the email experience, but these three are ones you’ll definitely want to check out.

Boomerang for Gmail

First of all, if you aren’t using Gmail already, get onto it now. There’s a reason that it’s the largest email service in the world – it’s reliable, well-designed, and compatible with Google’s other products, as well as tons of other online services. That said, there’s always room for improvement, and Boomerang for Gmail is one add-on that you will benefit from.

Boomerang’s concept is fairly simple, but in practice, it’s super helpful. What this tool does is schedule emails for later, a feature that, surprisingly, isn’t already built in to Gmail. For example, if the person you’re trying to contact gets a lot of messages every day, your email could be buried amongst others, so scheduling for the right time could be key to getting your email read. Boomerang is also good if you travel around a lot and can’t count on a reliable internet connection. Also, if you’re someone who sends emails out at 3 a.m., you no longer have to worry about the person on the other end thinking you’re a vampire.

Rapportive

While we usually use our email to keep in touch with friends, family members, and work associates, there are times when we get a message from someone we aren’t familiar with, or worse, have forgotten about. At times like this, you don’t want to waste time Googling their email address to find out who it is. This is where Rapportive comes in.

Rapportive is an official email plug-in from the LinkedIn social network team, and here’s what it does: it inserts a sidebar into your email with information on the person who’s sent you an email, pulled from their LinkedIn profile. That means you can find out their current workplace, their other social networking profiles, and if they’re shared it, their location. Rapportive also works as a way for you to search for a person’s email address without having to leave your email window.

Unroll.Me

While the other two tools in this list focus on making it easier for you to send and receive emails, we oftentimes get emails that we never wanted. Spam filters are getting better and better, but there’s a good chance that you still get newsletters and other marketing emails from reputable companies, which tend to slip through the spam filters. Rather than go through each of these emails one-by-one to unsubscribe, you can use Unroll.Me to do this automatically.

Unroll.Me not only senses what email lists you’re subscribed to and gives you the option to unsubscribe from them. It also gives you the option of combining all your subscriptions into one handy email instead. And with an iOS app, you can take your cleaner, pared-down inbox on the go.

These three email add-ons are without a doubt helpful to any email user, but there are likely many other tools you could find useful. Have a look online yourself to find what works best for you. You may just find that indispensable tool that makes you wonder how you ever got on without it.