To many frustrated Outlook users, Xobni has been, and continues to be, a breath of fresh air and the most potent tool in their arsenal. The flood of emails that hits my inbox on a daily basis at my day job is made infinitely more manageable by my use of Xobni, and I can honestly state that it has saved me hours of work and frustration. Almost two years ago, Xobni blessed my email driven life with Xobni for BlackBerry, allowing me to take that functionality on the go on my platform of choice. Finally, earlier this year Xobni launched Xobni Pro (formerly known as Xobni One in the Outlook/BlackBerry days) to tie their apps together, allowing me to leverage the data from both Outlook and BlackBerry versions of the app to create a central, always available contact list. Now, Xobni Pro becomes even more crucial for those of us operating on multiple platforms.

A few months ago, Xobni brought a Gmail offering into private beta, and more recently, a Xobni for Android app. Today, Xobni is bringing both of these applications into the bright land of open beta, making them available for all. Simultaneously with this launch, Xobni announces a new branding, dubbed Smartr, for its Gmail and Android offerings.

Smartr for Gmail brings all the power of Xobni to your Gmail inbox with the Smartr sidebar, appearing to the right of your inbox and providing the same functionality and ease of use we have come to expect from using the Outlook version. Also incorporated is a very cool “AutoSuggest” which provides real time suggestions on who you might be trying to email, not just with a name, but a full Xobni profile. Once you’ve chosen that person, Smartr will keep working, suggesting other people you might want to include based on your history.

Android users get a freshly minted application as well, with the addition of Smartr Contacts, a heavy duty contacts management application that will literally allow users to manage thousands of contacts, organized by importance, with full profiles assembled from email, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The app is fully integrated, available from the home screen, search bar, widgets or the Smartr app.

Smartr is more than just a new brand for Xobni. It represents a whole new platform, painstakingly built from the ground up with powerful new email and contact indexing, ranking algorithms and AutoSuggest to create the best and most powerful email and contact management solution available. Even the Apple boys don’t need to feel left out in the cold, Smartr Contacts for iOS is sitting quietly in a private beta right now, expected to hit the App Store in Q4.

A short introduction video of Smartr from Jeff Bonforte:

Jeff Bonforte Introduces Smartr

Both of these products are available for download from Xobni.com (www.xobni.com). If you are a heavy gmail user or the proud owner of an Android device, I would seriously recommend the download. If you use Outlook at all and haven’t used Xobni yet, grab that while you’re there too, and make sure you drop a comment to let us know what you think of the new brand and apps.

Your email life will never be the same.