Google launches ‘Gmail Meter’: Monthly insight reports based on email habits

Élyse Betters | Apr 19 2012 - 11:45 am PT

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Google released Gmail Meter today, which is a tool for analyzing your inbox that is similar to the Google Account Activity feature launched last month.

The Google Team announced Gmail Meter on the Official Gmail Blog. Google Apps Script Top Contributor Romain Vialard developed the Google Apps Script-powered feature after looking at his sent mail one day and noticing there were many things he wanted to know about his email habits.

The video above explains the tool, but here is a quick run-down: Gmail Meter sends an email on the first day of every month containing statistics about an Inbox for detailing a user’s emailing habits. Some of the data measured regards volume statistics, daily traffic, traffic patterns, email categories, times before first response, word count, thread lengths, and top senders and recipients.

A screenshot for each data measurement is below.

Gmail Meter is painless to setup. Go to Google Docs. Open a Spreadsheet. Click on Tools > Script Gallery. Search for “Gmail Meter.” Click Install. A new menu item on the spreadsheet will appear called “Gmail Meter.” Click on Gmail Meter > Get a Report. Choose the type of report.

“Preparing a report may take some time and you will get an email once the report is ready,” the Gmail team explained.

The team also provided a script tutorial.