Email Assistant

AI-powered Gmail Chrome Extension that generates smart email replies with tone selection using Gemini API—boosting productivity with one-click response and send.

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🧠 Email Assistant – AI-Powered Gmail Chrome Extension

🚀 Inspiration

In today's hyper-digital world, professionals spend hours replying to emails — often repetitive and mentally taxing. We wanted to combine the power of Generative AI with a tool we use every day: Gmail. That's how Email Assistant was born — an AI reply generator that lives inside your inbox.

💡 What It Does

Email Assistant is a Chrome extension that uses Google’s Gemini API to generate smart, context-aware email replies directly in Gmail.

🔑 Features:

  • ✨ Adds a "Generate" button when you hit Reply
  • 🎯 Lets you select a tone: Formal, Casual, or Friendly
  • 🧠 Sends the email context and tone to the backend
  • 💬 Receives an AI-generated reply from Gemini
  • 📤 Auto-fills the reply and offers one-click Send

🛠️ How We Built It

🧩 Frontend (Chrome Extension):

  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • MutationObserver to detect Gmail's dynamic DOM
  • Injected UI elements (Generate button + Tone dropdown)
  • Handled reply insertion and Gmail interaction

🖥️ Backend (Java Spring Boot):

  • Exposes REST API endpoints
  • Sends email context and tone to Gemini API
  • Returns AI-generated reply text

🔍 Challenges We Faced

  • Gmail's DOM is dynamic; injecting UI using MutationObserver needed precision
  • Designing tone-specific prompts for Gemini AI to match user expectations
  • Managing CORS issues between the extension and backend
  • Ensuring speed without sacrificing quality in AI replies

🏆 Accomplishments

  • Built a fully functioning end-to-end AI assistant inside Gmail
  • Successfully used Gemini API for tone-aware responses
  • Created a seamless experience without needing Gmail API access
  • All built from scratch in under 48 hours

📚 What We Learned

  • Deep understanding of browser extensions and the Gmail DOM
  • Prompt engineering for tone-specific AI text generation
  • Handling cross-origin communications and backend integration
  • Designing simple but effective AI/UX experiences

🔮 What's Next

  • 🧠 Better context awareness using full email threads
  • 🌐 Multi-language reply generation
  • 🪪 Personalized replies with user signature and name
  • 🔐 OAuth login for secure personalization
  • 📦 Publish to Chrome Web Store
  • 🔄 Support for other browsers (Firefox, Edge)

📁 Tools & Technologies Used

  • Frontend: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Chrome Extensions API
  • Backend: Java, Spring Boot
  • AI: Google Gemini API
  • Browser: Chrome (extension tested and deployed locally)

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