Dec 21, 2022

Integrations – upgraded

Improving the ways Flowrite integrates with different email clients and messaging apps has been one of our top priorities for Q4.

We had learned from new users that especially the way the extension had to be initiated was too unintuitive, so we introduced several improvements to our “non-deep” integrations to tackle the problems we had observed.

1. Opening the extension

Instead of having to open the Flowrite extension from the bookmark or by highlighting a text on the website, you can now initiate it directly from any input/text field on our supported websites.

This is a massive improvement that will make our product feel more native across different apps.

2. Highlight mode

If you’re a frequent user of Flowrite, you know that the most important piece of information to make your generation context-aware and personal is the received message.

To make picking up the received message more seamless, we introduced a new “Highlight mode” which activates every time the extension is opened on non-Gmail integrations.

Any text that is selected while the mode is activated will automatically transfer to the received message field. We also recognize the recipient’s name from that received message.

3. Copy-paste

A few months ago, we introduced the copy-paste feature in Gmail, allowing you to seamlessly move your generations from the Flowrite extension to Gmail’s compose field with one click.

The same feature is now available for the majority of our other integrations as well.

Improvements to alternatives & copy- and regenerate buttons

After a significant redesign earlier this fall, we continued refining the generation UI to make the use of generations easier and more intuitive.

Versions/alternatives

We moved the alternatives from the bottom of the window to the top and made them more tab-like.

We also improved the way the three versions are generated; instead of streaming in waterfall style, they now stream in parallel.

This significantly reduced the time it takes to compare and choose the best version.

Copy- and regenerate buttons

We made the copy- and copy-paste buttons more noticeable by increasing their size and adding them next to the regenerate button.

General Template

Last month, we released two new AI models for the General template reply mode; one based on a natural language cognitive architecture and one succeeding our legacy Automatic Template architecture.

Both of these models significantly bolster General Template’s ability to generate replies with a single click for a diverse set of received messages, thus reducing the dependency on templates.

We are expecting massive improvements across the spectrum of AI generation attributes:

• Better contextual awareness, including the understanding of the different actors, of the received messages in replies
• More context-aware generations when giving no instructions
• More optimized inclusion of the instructions (when given)
• Improved control over the length of the generations
• Improved human-likeness.

Freemium(ish)

Excited to try the latest improvements to the integrations or the new models in the General template?

You can now do so, even if your trial has already ended. Just be prepared to upgrade if you want to use the generations 😙

Improvements & fixes

UI updates & features

• We generalized the way the opening of the extension works on different platforms – it now takes place on click, not on hover.
• We adjusted the width of the instructions suggestions to only take the width that the texts within them need.
• After noticing the extension window getting cropped vertically with some users’ smaller screens, we adjusted its height to be more responsive.
• To optimize the onboarding flow to users who sign up for the product without yet having our Chrome extension installed, we introduced a new screen at the beginning of the flow to prompt them to do that.
• We changed the contents of the signup page as well as the light/dark mode step of the onboarding.
• We added a pop-up to prompt users to move to their browser/desktop if they started their onboarding on a mobile device, or on a non-Chrome browser.
• We added a subtle loading indicator to the extension and web app when they’re being opened.
• We added a reset button to the web app, allowing users to clear the state of the extension when switching from one context to another.

Improvements

• We removed the reply/outreach toggle for simplicity. The use of a received message will now dictate whether we opt for a reply or not.
• Instead of the three generations
• As we are continuing to make the product more accessible, we made it possible for qualified waitlist signups to signup for the product directly without the invite code.
• We improved the bumper-based onboarding flow that guides users through their first extension experience.
• We made it possible to remove the “Flowritten”/”Powered by Flowrite” tag from the signature.
• We made the “received message” recognition feature on Gmail more accurate and consistent.
• We adjusted the first name recognition feature on Gmail; [A, B] format now results in B, and the recognition defaults to recognition from the received message if a first name can’t be found.
• We made the selected instruction suggestion always disappear from the suggestions list upon selection.
• We disabled the received message selection feature in the web app.
• We improved the formatting of newlines in the generations to follow a consistent email-like format.
• We made the General template always display in the search results.
• We significantly improved the contextual awareness of the Sales email rejection template.

Fixes

• We implemented a set of fixes to our Stripe integration to tackle billing issues with, for example, users outside Europe & US.
• We fixed a bug that caused the instructions field to lose characters when typing quickly.
• We fixed a bug that caused the Flowrite button to leave its fixed position on Gmail.
• We made the nudge retain its state even when new text is selected on the integration website.
• We fixed a bug that cause users to be able to finish the onboarding without having to fill in certain identity settings.
• We fixed an issue where the generation wouldn’t start in the case of a long (>5000 char) received message.
• We fixed an issue where the "Install the extension" pop-up was not showing in the web app as it was supposed to.
• We fixed an issue that resulted in extra line breaks before the sign-off in one of our customer support templates.
• We fixed an issue in our recipient recognition feature where it would pick up the wrong name from the received message.
• We fixed a bug where the received message wouldn’t display in its field at the top of the extension window unless the field was opened.
• We fixed a bug where the generation would go on to load indefinitely if the user regenerated instantly after starting a generation.
• We fixed a bug where the extension window wasn’t appearing in the web app after the user had completed their onboarding.
• We fixed a bug where clicking the “+” icon next to a template didn’t always add the template to “My templates”.
• We fixed an issue where the visibility of the history wasn’t remembered from session to session.
• We fixed an issue where the lack of a first name in the generation settings would result in a “null” in the output.
• We fixed a temporary issue where selecting a template did no longer focus the cursor on the instructions field.
• We fixed a bug that caused the web app to crash when selecting instructions in a certain way.
• We fixed an issue where any texts from an external site would get unintentionally copied to the extension when navigating to the web app.
• We fixed an issue where the first name recognition from the received message didn’t work the first time the received message pop-up was closed.
• We made the pink blicking dot disappear immediately after being clicked.