Ocean for Gmail: Inbox Triage, Tasks & Invites

Introducing Ocean: A New Approach to Email Productivity

A novel personal productivity application, named Ocean, is being released to assist users in effectively managing a high volume of emails. It streamlines inbox organization, transforms emails into actionable tasks, and facilitates the sharing of scheduling availability with contacts, all within a single platform.

Addressing Gmail's Dominance

Recognizing Gmail’s substantial market share in the email sector, Ocean’s developers opted for integration rather than direct competition. Functioning as a third-party client, establishing a presence can present challenges, yet successful email applications have historically proven to be attractive acquisition targets.

Previous examples include Yahoo’s acquisition of Xobni for $60 million and Microsoft’s purchase of Accompli for $200 million, both occurring within the last decade.

The Genesis of Ocean

This market potential drew together co-founders Martin Dufort and Scott Lake – an initial co-founder of Shopify – who established BigWave Labs in early 2019 to address the challenges of email management. Their efforts culminated in the creation of Ocean, an application centered on enhancing email efficiency. (Currently, Scott primarily serves as a financial supporter and advisor, according to Dufort.)

Transforming Emails into Actionable Tasks

The application is compatible with Gmail and Google Workspace accounts, empowering users to convert emails into tasks and action items, preventing them from being overlooked.

Central to this functionality is Ocean’s integrated Task Manager, which accesses the user’s email content. This eliminates the need to manually copy and paste information into separate to-do lists, while simultaneously providing features exceeding those available within Google’s native task manager for Gmail users.

Enhanced Task Management Features

Ocean enables the creation of tasks with rich text formatting, the setting of due dates, organization into folders, and the attachment of emails to task notes. Furthermore, it can automatically identify and extract action items from lengthy email communications.

Users can also designate emails requiring future responses as tasks, avoiding the practice of leaving them unread or applying simple labels.

Inbox Triage for Optimal Organization

For those striving for “inbox zero,” Ocean’s inbox triage capabilities represent a significant advantage.

The application allows for email filtering based on categories such as first-time senders, frequent contacts, and emails originating from your established network. It can even identify potentially misclassified emails flagged as spam, ensuring important messages are not missed.

Comprehensive Email Management

In addition to these features, Ocean incorporates subscription management tools – a functionality recently introduced by Gmail – alongside standard email operations like composing, replying, flagging, archiving, and deleting.

Streamlined Meeting Scheduling

Ocean also provides integrated meeting scheduling tools, allowing users to define their availability based on existing commitments. This includes the ability to block off time slots, preventing last-minute meeting requests.

Automated email invitations can be dispatched to meeting participants, meeting proposals can be confirmed through a web interface, and confirmed appointments are automatically synchronized with your calendar.

Availability and Pricing

The Ocean iPhone application is now available, with a Mac application currently under development, featuring iCloud synchronization. The team anticipates launching the Mac version by the end of the year. Revenue generation will be achieved through a one-time membership model, “Ocean Blue,” priced at $67.

This membership grants access to a year of updates, including new features and functionalities, as well as access to the forthcoming Mac application.

A Shift Away from Recurring Subscriptions

“We observed a growing dissatisfaction with recurring subscription models,” explains Dufort. “Our intention was to deviate from this approach while still maintaining a sustainable business model. This led to the creation of the Ocean Blue membership. The application itself operates on a freemium basis – core functionalities remain free indefinitely.”

He further adds, “[The membership] also places a responsibility on us to consistently deliver value to the application as it evolves.”

Additional Benefits of Ocean Blue

The Blue membership will also unlock AI-powered email summarization and insightful email analysis features.

Try Ocean Risk-Free

Interested users can evaluate Ocean with a 14-day free trial, which does not automatically convert into a paid subscription.

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