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DigitalDouble

Inspiration: Every day people wake up. Open their email. They have to deal with a lot of messages. These messages are not emails. They have tasks, meetings and deadlines. DigitalDouble was inspired by a question of what if your email could separate the work that a computer can do from the work that only you can do? Of being another list of things to do DigitalDouble turns your email into a system that helps you get things done. It reads your emails finds tasks decides what a computer can do writes draft replies and gives you a view of what needs to be reviewed what is pending and what can be automated.

What it does

DigitalDouble connects to your Gmail account. Looks at your recent emails to find tasks. It then puts them into categories:

• Computer can do. Tasks like writing replies summarizing documents making comparisons writing reports or creating slide content.
• You must do. Tasks like going to meetings making decisions reviewing sensitive items or approving important responses.
• Draft replies. Computer-generated email responses waiting for you to review.
• Things to do. Tasks that still need your attention.
• Scheduled items. Events and time-sensitive obligations.

The goal is not to replace you, but to be your DigitalDouble for the work that takes up much of your time.

How we built it

DigitalDouble was built as a Chrome extension with an interface. The extension connects to Gmail. Reads your email data. The app then sends email information to a computer program, which classifies tasks finds deadlines and generates useful things like draft replies or task summaries.

The main steps are:

1. Connect Gmail.
2. Look at inbox messages.
3. Find tasks, deadlines and action items.
4. Decide what a computer can do and what you must do.
5. Generate draft. Task outputs when needed.
6. Show everything in a dashboard for you to review.

The dashboard was designed to be simple: overview at the top review items in the middle and priorities on the side.

Challenges we faced

One challenge was Gmail authentication. Setting up permissions and credentials required work. Another challenge was deciding what the computer should. Should not do. Some email tasks are safe for a computer like writing a response or summarizing a request. Others need your judgment like approving a contract or responding to an issue. We also had to think about your trust. DigitalDouble should never send emails without you reviewing them first. It prepares drafts. Lets you review them before anything is sent. A final challenge was building a system that's useful from the start. The dashboard needed to show value after one inbox scan not after hours of setup.

What we learned

We learned that the hard part of building a computer assistant is not just using a computer program. The harder part is designing the line between what a computer can do and what you must do. A useful computer assistant needs to know:

• What it can do,
• What it should not do,
• When to ask for review
• How to present work clearly to you.

We also learned that email is a place to start because it already has your real tasks. Of asking you to create tasks DigitalDouble finds the tasks that are already in your inbox.

What’s next

Next we want to make DigitalDouble more helpful. Future versions could automatically generate documents prepare slide decks, schedule follow-ups and write responses in your style. We also want to improve task confidence scoring so you can see why something was classified as computer-doable or you-must-do. The long-term vision is simple: DigitalDouble becomes the computer layer, between your email and your workday helping you spend time managing tasks and more time doing the work that matters.

Built With

• anthropic
• css3
• express.js
• google-gmail-oauth
• html5
• javascript
• manifest
• marked
• node.js
• openxml
• pptxgenjs
• puppeteer
• react
• tailwind
• typescript
• vite