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Comment by alooPotato | Hacker News Reader

We (Streak yc s11) were a launch partner on this and launched our Add-on today. Even though we already have a chrome extension for desktop, add-ons allowed us to live inside the native Gmail mobile apps.

Happy to answer any questions about the add-on platform....

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Is there any way to modify the appearance of text within emails? My startup has a popular Chrome extension that works with gmail on desktop, but we'd love to be on native gmail apps also. For context (and to understand why we need to modify the text), see http://www.beelinereader.com

Unfortunately, no. This is not possible with Add-ons.

What were you using before? InboxSDK or something similar that Streak developed? Have you had any issues with limitations in the official add-on API?

See my other comment on InboxSDK but summary, yes we are using InboxSDK because we made it and because we still want the power it offers on desktop. On mobile we use Add-ons plus a native app that can be deep linked to from the Add-on.

EDIT: if you look at the docs of the www.inboxsdk.com/docs there is a lot of functionality above and beyond the sidebar API that add-ons offers.

As promised: https://blog.inboxsdk.com/gmail-add-ons-inboxsdk-e6d72fba60a...

Thank you -- I had expected some differences and I do indeed use some InboxSDK features that aren't present in the official API (adding to the Compose button toolbar). That was very helpful.

I’m unable to install the Streak gmail add-on in my GSuite org. The “install” button is just disabled. Is this due to a gradual rollout on Google’s part? I haven’t been able to find any settings in my admin section that would enable this.

Also, are there any downsides or missing features of the add-on version compared to the extension version?

There is currently a Google bug where admins of a G Suite domain can't install any add-ons.

In terms of functionality, we're keeping our add-on fairly lightweight. On mobile, the add-on lets you deep link into our native apps for more enhanced functionality. On desktop, if you have our extension installed, it just replaces the add-on entirely so you get the most functionality possible.

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