Back in the days of dial-up Internet, America Online (AoL) subscribers would hear a sound alert saying “You’ve got mail” every time a new email landed in their AOL mailbox.



Voice-over artist Elwood Edwards initially recorded these three words on a cassette tape to sell them as a .wav file, AOL decided to use the sound into their mail program and the line became such a hit that it even inspired Warner Bros. to create a movie with the same name - “You’ve got mail.”


Much of the world has probably moved away from Aol Mail since then but there’s a new Chrome extension (see update below) in town that adds the same sound alert to your Gmail. Just install the add-on (it requires no configuration) and you’ll hear Elwood’s voice every time there’s a new Gmail message in your mailbox.

If the alerts are too frequent, you can always hit the mute button and the add-on will display the unread counts in text much like the official Gmail notifier for Chrome. It works with both Gmail and Google Apps accounts.

Update: AOL legal has sent a cease and desist order to the Chris Baker and hence this extension has been removed from the Chrome store. The original .wav files of the “You Got Mail” sound are all over the Internet though.

You’ve Got Mail is a work of the same team that created Unbaby.me, a viral Chrome add-on that replaces baby pictures on Facebook with that of cats.