The problem started small.
I needed to download a PDF. Simple enough, except the site wanted me to "create a free account" first. Sure. I opened a temp email site in another tab, copied the generated address, signed up, and then… waited.
Refresh. Nothing.
Refresh. Still nothing.
Refresh. Finally, there it is. I clicked the verification link, switched back to the original tab, and got my PDF.
Total time wasted: about 3 minutes.
Not a big deal, right?
Except I was doing this 5–10 times a day.
Free trials for SaaS tools. Gated whitepapers. "Sign up to continue reading" articles. Download links hidden behind registration walls.
Every single time, the same dance:
- Open temp email site
- Generate email
- Use it to sign up
- Switch tabs
- Refresh inbox
- Refresh again
- Copy verification code or click link
- Switch back
- Paste code
- Finally access the thing I wanted 5 minutes ago
The worst part? The dead time. Just sitting there, refreshing an inbox, waiting for an email that might take 10 seconds or 2 minutes to arrive. It completely killed my flow.
Existing solutions weren't solving the actual problem
I tried every temp email service out there:
- Temp-mail.org
- Guerrilla Mail
- 10 Minute Mail
- Half a dozen Chrome extensions
They all did the same thing: gave me a disposable email address and an inbox to check manually.
None of them solved the actual annoying part — the waiting, the refreshing, the tab switching, the clicking.
They solved "I need a temp email" but not "I need to actually use this temp email without it being a pain."
The breaking point
I was researching tools for a project and needed to test about 8 different platforms. Every single one wanted an account.
After the fourth temp email signup, sitting there refreshing the inbox again, I thought: "This is stupid. A computer could do this for me."
The verification email was going to arrive eventually. When it did, I was going to click a link or copy a code. Every single time. Like clockwork.
Why was I manually doing something that followed the exact same pattern every time?
So I spent the next two weeks building AccountGenie.
What I actually built
AccountGenie is a Chrome extension that does one thing really well: it handles the entire temp email verification process automatically.
Here's how it works:
You click one button. It generates a temp email address for you.
You sign up on whatever site using that email.
Then you just… wait. But you're not refreshing anything. The extension is monitoring the inbox in the background.
When the verification email arrives, the extension:
- Extracts the verification link or code
- If it's a link: opens it in a background tab and clicks the verify button automatically
- If it's a code: shows it to you so you can paste it
By the time you get to the "check your email" step, it's already done.
The technical stuff (for anyone curious)
The auto-verification was the hard part.
I needed to:
- Poll the inbox fast enough to feel instant but not hammer the API
- Parse emails in different languages and formats
- Extract verification links from messy HTML
- Unwrap redirect links
- Figure out which button to click on verification pages
- Handle OTP codes in various formats
- Do all this reliably across hundreds of different sites
I built in retry logic, exponential backoff, token refresh, and a confidence-based system that chooses the best verification method.
Everything runs locally in your browser. No data goes to my servers (because I don't have any). It talks directly to the mail.tm API to create temp inboxes.
There's also a vault that stores all your temp accounts locally so you can actually find them later. Search, rename, export to CSV, whatever you need.
What changed
I don't think about temp emails anymore.
When a site asks me to create an account and I know I'll never use it again, I just click the extension, generate an email, sign up, and keep working. The verification happens in the background.
I'm saving probably 10–15 minutes a day. More importantly, I'm not breaking focus every time I need to access gated content.
Limitations (because nothing's perfect)
It doesn't work on every site:
- Some sites block disposable email domains entirely
- It won't solve CAPTCHAs (obviously)
- Complex verification flows with multiple steps can trip it up
But for standard email verification? Works on about 90% of sites I've tested.
What's next
I just launched it on Product Hunt and it's free on the Chrome Web Store. I'm not planning to charge for it because the problem it solves is annoying enough without adding a paywall.
If you sign up for trials, download gated content, or just want to keep your real inbox clean, it might save you some time too.
The goal was simple: stop babysitting temp email inboxes. Turns out a lot of other people were tired of it too.
AccountGenie is available free on the Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/accountgenie/blcmhgdfaajieaiokjoienclhgobjabe
Launched on Product Hunt today: https://www.producthunt.com/products/accountgenie?launch=accountgenie
Have questions about how it works or want to suggest features? Drop a comment below.
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