Create Your Own Unroll.me Using Google Script
Unroll.me, a newsletter unsubscribe service, just crashed selling out more data than most of us thought possible, so it goes without saying that many are unsubscribing from this service. The good news is that a Google script can unsubscribe you from a lot of emails almost as easily.
While the main feature of Unroll.me was not only its one-click unsubscribe ability, but also “collapse” all the newsletters you want, sometimes you have to make some sacrifices for your privacy. At Digital Inspiration, Amit Agarwal created Google Script for mass newsletter unsubscribe. The idea of how this works is pretty simple: first you go through your inbox and mark any mailing list that you no longer need with the label “Unsubscribe”. The Google script then analyzes the content of the bulk emails, finds an unsubscribe link, and automatically follows that link.
With this script, you don’t need to share your Gmail account with any third party services, it just uses your Google account and the services you already have. Alternatively, you can apply the Unsubscribe tag from any third-party email client, Gmail app, or regular web app. This is an additional manual step, of course, but it’s still easier than clicking each link individually, and you don’t have to worry about your data being sold to a third party. As with any Google script, installation here takes a couple of steps:
- Copy your Gmail unsubscribe sheet to your Google Drive.
- In this Google Spreadsheet, click the Gmail Unsubscriber link in the top bar, then click the Configure button.
- Allow the script to access your Gmail account. Don’t worry, the script doesn’t store any data outside of your Google account.
- Save the configuration with the default name.
- Go to your Gmail inbox, then create a shortcut called Unsubscribe. Select any emails you want to unsubscribe, then apply the “Unsubscribe” shortcut to them.
It may take 10-15 minutes, but eventually you will start to see a list of emails that you marked on a form inside a Google Spreadsheet, along with a note about whether the script was successful. Once the script is set up, you no longer need to look at it unless you’re just interested. Otherwise, you just need to mark the email as Unsubscribe and the rest will happen behind the scenes. You can find more information on exactly how Google Script works and more information at Digital Inspiration.
How to Unsubscribe from Mailing Lists and Unwanted Newsletters in Gmail | Digital inspiration