So basically the title. Which App is your favorite one and why? I’m still mourning the loss of google’s inbox and never found an app that scratched the itch like inbox did…
On desktop I use Spark and on mobile currently google mail, because it got the job done but nothing more.
So I’m excited to hear your picks!
I have found Mail on both iPhone and MacBook to be enough for my use. Otherwise I use and prefer Thunderbird on other operating systems.
I never used mail and always deleted it immediately, but i give it a try
Inbox was so good, made email so easy. Can’t believe how long it’s been and no one has been able to replicate it. Still mad at Google for killing it off.
amen!
amen!
Mimestream was promising in beta. The subscription model is too much for me though.
Outlook is good. Apple mail is good. But I still like Spark the best, I think. But I dislike Spark’s terms of service and feel like they don’t respect my privacy or data.
I’ve tried them all and feel that Outlook (for Mac options) is probably the best. $2/mo is acceptable, and it’s free with light ads. It surfaces cal and shipping info in the email list, and the focus inbox algo it has is solid.
I was using Spark for years and was fine paying them money (I wanted to pay them because their old app was great), but their pivot to the new app was just really disrespectful to users and turned me off. It came with condescending BS like the Home Screen that does not show my email when I open an email app*. They released a massively underbaked app, and took 6 months to reach parity with their old app. I paid for a year, will not renew.
Yeah I was just thinking the same thing. I really enjoy spark on both iOS and Mac OS. But as I am learning and adapting more into the fediverse and FOSS I am considering looking for an alternative client.
Yeah I was just thinking the same thing. I really enjoy spark on both iOS and Mac OS. But as I am learning and adapting more into the fediverse and FOSS I am considering looking for an alternative client.
When the pricing came out it was so disappointing.
I understand why developers want subscription models, but I simply cannot pay them monthly in perpetuity based on a promise that they will update the app so much that it’s value will increase in accordance with the monthly payments.
Gonna pop out the controversial opinion here and say I like the default mail app. It’s quick, simple, and does everything I need. The only thing I don’t like is that gmail doesn’t get push mail, but Google did that not Apple.
I hate that unlike iOS, mail does not run in the background on Mac though.
I require a functional snooze feature so Apple Mail is out. Outlook randomly deletes iCloud emails and Canary is too slow. So I am left with Spark on both Mac and iOS.
same for me, snooze is a must have
What does Snooze do?
The same thing it does on your alarm clock.
Is Snooze different than the Remind Me feature in Apple Mail? I want to commit fully to Apple Mail but Snooze is the one of the few quality of life things I love about Spark, but if Remind Me basically does the same thing then I’m all in.
Remind Me doesn’t remove the mail from your inbox, so a non starter for people that strive for inbox zero.
Good to know, thanks!
Which is what the “Remind Me” button in Apple Mail does?
Negative. Remind Me does not remove the mail from your inbox and then make it reappear at the desired time (which is what I meant by “functional snooze”). For those of us that aspire to achieve inbox zero, Remind Me is not a functional snooze.
Got it
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I’m in the same boat for the most part but was unwilling to pay a subscription for email. I was using Mailplane until they went subscription leaving me with the Gmail app, and Apple Mail apps for non-Gmail accounts.
I don’t love it, but at least it’s not another subscription in my life.
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I keep trying other mail apps but always come back to apples. It’s just the best, clean interface, always works. Even ended up ditching gmail and going all iCloud, yay privacy :)
Hide my email is so so so good.
hide my e-mail does not require mail app to be used FYI
Good to know but I have no reason to anything other than apples mail apps.
@weedwhacking I want to do this but my 10 yr plus gmail is so entrenched in my life lol
It’s Outlook for me. Trialed a bunch, disliked the data/privacy deets on many, and MS already worked it’s way into my heart via corporate America.
It does a nice job of pinning, snoozing, combining inboxes, and working cross-platform. FO FREE ;-)
can’t stand outlook and it never worked that smooth for me
Yeah, I think Outlook is much better now, than it used to be. At the very least, the UI makeover it had recently is welcome.
Ironically, the mac version of this new UI can handle combined inboxes and the windows version can’t!
It has definitely improved. For one, I don’t think about my PST files for my personal use, which is nice. I’m torn on the new UI, sometimes, but usually only when I’m trying to go old school outlook power user on things.
But the add-ins have been pretty nice. I use one that does local header analysis and full header viewing SxS with the email. It’s handy.
You made a good point on the Mac version with multiple inboxes, too. My primary email machines are my phone and Mac, so it’s gravy all the way.
I switch between apps often, but I tend to use Spark more often than Apple Mail/Outlook/gmail.
Big fan of Spark on both desktop and mobile. I like the feature set of the original app. Haven’t tried the free trial of the new AI feature.
I haven’t tried them either, but I intensely dislike email. I try to spend as little time as possible interacting with it.
Amen!
Thunderbird on PC
Default Mail app on Mac and iPhone
I prefer using the default mail app.
I use Mimestream. It’s a beautiful, well-made Mac app (for now, iOS coming soon) by a developer who clearly cares about making a quality product that adheres to the platform’s design language and usage idioms.
I absolutely do not begrudge him for wanting to make a living from it, and currently subscription is one of the only effective ways to do that for small devs.
I also don’t begrudge anyone who doesn’t like it. We all get to use our money how we see fit.
I’ve been considering Mimestream a lot lately, especially for how it works with focuses but I really need an iOS app as well.
I use Apple’s Mail.app on both macOS and iOS (on Linux I use KMail). I keep hearing people don’t like it, but it does the job for me. The only thing I’m missing from it is GPG signing/encryption support and having it automatically format what I write to 72 columns, but I can live without those.
(If I may ask, why do people not like Mail.app?)
I said this in another comment but, if you’re looking for a modern take on Mail.app as if Apple themselves made it, but with best-in-class PGP support and modern features like Inbox had (snoozing, read receipts, etc)… check out https://apps.apple.com/us/app/canary-mail-ai-email-client/id1155470386
Works across iOS / iPadOS / macOS
Some of the Google Inbox people did rebuild Inbox as “Shortwave” https://www.shortwave.com/blog/introducing-shortwave/
Which is available as both an iOS app and PWA. For those unaware, Outlook is also becoming a PWA.
I just wish the IMAP standard would expand to include contacts and calendar.
I just wish the IMAP standard would expand to include contacts and calendar.
Why? There are protocols for those already, CardDAV and CalDAV. Mail clients (or I guess at that point it’s more of a PIM suite rather than a mail client) worth using have support for those.
Shortwave is incredible if you get a lot of work emails with direction in then.
If you’re on Gmail, buy Mimestream for Mac and never look back.
If you’re not using Google for your email, and/or you’re looking for something on iPhone then it’s a tougher choice. I wrote an extensive review of the options not too long ago and landed on Spark, but your priorities may be different from mine. Have a look and see what you think: https://kevinyank.com/posts/email-apps/
You can’t buy Mimestream, you can only subscribe to it.
I don’t like how gmail shows ads even if you subscribe to Google One (I suppose this isn’t a problem on workspace accounts). I do like it’s rules to auto tag emails and the ability to set your own tags and rules.
Outlook app is a little bloated but it’s more functional than the native iOS mail.
Gmail is probably my favorite but since I transferred my domain to cloudflare after Google domains sold to square space, I’ve decided to use iOS mail again with my custom domain
