AwayFind

Pros Email assistant that sends you alerts when important message arrive, based on criteria you set. Good selection of criteria. Alerts deliverable by phone, text message, instant messaging service. Creates a new inbox with only emails you want to see. Inexpensive.

Cons Twitter alerts never worked in testing. Some problems with mobile apps. Slightly inelegant interface design. Bottom Line AwayFind acts as a gate between your email inbox and you, that lets through only message you want to see and alerts you of their presence by phone, text message, IM, or through its the AwayFind mobile app. It's a worthwhile and reasonably priced service.

By Jill Duffy Billed as an "email assistant" service, AwayFind (freemium; subscriptions from $4.99 a month) is like a gatekeeper between you and your never-ending and highly distracting email inbox. Busy business professionals looking to unplug for the weekend or actually enjoy a little R&R on their next holiday would do well to look into the relatively inexpensive service, which alerts you of important messages based on criteria you set. Think of it as a secret email service that you can use when you want to temporarily cut yourself off from your main inbox.

AwayFind works by letting you enable notifications, which can come in the form of phone calls, text messages, instant messages, or alerts on a smartphone through the AwayFind app.  With an AwayFind account, you get a Web-based inbox where important messages land—and only important mail goes there, so you aren't distracted by dozens or even hundreds of less pressing messages. Generally speaking, it isn't as unilaterally applicable as SaneBox ($6 per month), which essentially weeds out unsolicited emails from your real inbox, whether it's Gmail or Outlook running locally or some other program. AwayFind creates a new inbox in the cloud with copies of messages you deem important, whereas SaneBox works its magic right in your primary email app. But for AwayFind's more specific purpose—helping you keep on top of important emails while you're out of office—it does a great job for a fair price.

What Does AwayFind Do?
To sign up for an AwayFind account, you have to give AwayFind access to at least one email address. You can add more addresses if you pay for a more expensive account (see the Pricing section), but one is supported at the Personal plan level.

You then work through AwayFind's settings to enable alerts. One series of alerts lets you add a list of specific email addresses, meaning if any of these people email you, AwayFind will let you know right away. Another lets you add an entire domain (such as @pcmag.com), meaning you'll get an alert if anyone from the PCMag company sends you an email. Another one lets you set keywords from the subject line, body of the email, and so forth.

You can add time and day limits to alerts, too, in case you only want alerts on weekends or never between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. The options are thorough, and the tools for turning them on and off are super simple to use.

There's a tab on the Web account page for Email Accounts & Notification Methods, and at the bottom is a link to "add a different method." Clicking the link creates a drop-down menu where you'll find options for iPhone, Android, SMS, voice phone call, Twitter (which requires following the AwayFind account so it can send you direct messages), Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo messenger, and email, should you want to add another email account for alerts only. All methods of notification require authenticating by entering a code that's sent to the account in question.

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