Best Mail App - your thoughts
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
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.
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.
Permanently Deleted
@weedwhacking I want to do this but my 10 yr plus gmail is so entrenched in my life lol
I switch between apps often, but I tend to use Spark more often than Apple Mail/Outlook/gmail.
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.
Thunderbird on PC
Default Mail app on Mac and iPhone
I prefer using the default mail app.
Thunderbird on desktop for my Gmail accounts and own domain. Built-in iOS mail app for those on mobile. Outlook web interface for work desktop, and Outlook iOS app on mobile to keep work and personal emails separate.
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
Thunderbird on desktop, canary or stock mail on mobile
will take a look at canary :)
Yeah, I love thunderbird and hope the iOS app release gets some news soon. Supposed to be releasing this year but nothing yet ¯(ツ)_/¯
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.
Mail.app on iPad , iPhone and Mac. I see no need to change it. I wish the search was a touch better but it’s rarely an issue.
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.
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
Spark is the closest to how Inbox use to be. At least in my experience so that's what I'm using these days.
Spark for personal and Outlook for work. Really wish Outlook had the option to show pinned emails at the top like Spark does though.
Gmail for web, Thunderbird for client and Bluemail for Android.
I use Spark on Mac and iPhone. Multiple accounts with only one login is nice. Also being able to "done" (not a fan of the verbiage) all Newsletter emails at once is a must-have for me. I do miss Inbox though.
I’m forced to use Outlook on mobile for work, so I have my personal email in there too. At least until Thunderbird for iOS gets made, at which point, I’ll find room for a second mail app.
I still use Gmail over the native app because I instantly get the email when it comes in vs every 15 minutes or whatever it is without manually refreshing
On iOS/Android/Mac I like Spark most
I'm very happy with Edison
I use outlook on the iPhone and the gmail and outlook websites on my desktop.
Outlook does a good job of presorting my mail so I’m not bombarded with all the read at your leisure emails.
For me, the gmail app on iPhone is still my favorite. I like the Mail app, but there are two things that really keep me in gmail. One is the instant push delivery. The other is the simple swiping: right to save, left to trash. Given how good searching in mail is these days, I don’t bother to organize emails into folders. I just need to make a very simple decision: keep or toss. That is so fast to do in the gmail app.
You should be able to set the swipe options for the default mail app in the Settings menu.
I was forced to use Outlook at my new job. Hated it at first but now I prefer it to anything else.
I’m also using Spark; I like it but don’t love it. I often think about switching back to Apple Mail, but Spark’s block button is just too convenient. If junk mail filtering in Mail worked better, I’d switch.
Agreed. While junk doesn't get through for me, it also tags plenty of false positives.
Has anyone tried Vivaldi’s mail client? I use Mail right now, but the snooze function not working is kind of bugging me. Oddly enough, I lived without it up to now. Somehow, since they added it I expect it to actually work!
Using Outlook on iOS for its multi account support. Work is Office 365 based so it makes sense. I can use a unified or separate inboxes and switch between them at will.
I cannot recommend Canary Mail enough. It’s like the redesigned Mail.app that Apple themselves should have made. Looks, works and feels like a system app that Apple shipped, but adds a ton of neat stuff like PGP encryption, read receipts, GPT-powered email composition and email thread summaries, and more.
I don't even know what half of this stuff has to do with me writing a simple email, so I do t see the point in all this bloat in my app
I mean, you asked for the best mail app without any criteria! If you don’t care about anything but the basics, then you already have the best one - Apple’s Mail.app.
Canary’s features are really useful for work. If you use encrypted email, it’s really the best client out there because it “just works” easily without all the encryption configurations and shit.
I’ve been trying to find a good one, but it seems like all e-mail clients are bloated as hell. Like Jesus Christ I just want to read and reply to emails, I don’t need chatGPT, teams, calendars, real-time whatever the fuck, just… just email.
I use Fastmail for my personal email so I just use their app for that, and the gmail app for my business email. I’d much rather have both in one app but I don’t want the shit all these devs are putting in.
My Apple mail kept opening for no reason so I just switched to MailMate. It's a simple IMAP interface with a ton of backend options and hidden command line settings for the techies, a heavy-lifter email app. It's a one time payment and is as powerful or simple as you need it to be. Originally written around 2010 and still updated, it's a very mature program.
Most email apps on iOS and macOS route emails through their private servers which is a security risk. This risk magnifies when one has also set up their work accounts on their devices.
Also, many email apps cater to Gmail, which I understand is the most popular email service, but prohibits me from using with my accounts.
Therefore, the native, default mail clients on both platforms is what I use.
Do let me know if there are email clients that do not reroute one’s emails. I would love to try those out.
Thunderbird on desktop and Gmail on iOS. Would move to Apple's Mail app but unfortunately Gmail accounts dont support "push", only "fetch" so messages are a bit delayed sometimes.
thank you for all the great feedback. I will take a look at some of the apps as soon as I'm back from my honeymoon!
for the next days i go with the standard mail app from apple just because I realized that I don't need all that fancy stuff. Let's see how that will work out for me...
i tried some of the clients but neither satisfied me like gmail does.
The search, the functionality and also the swipe behavior of the native apple client is way worse then the gmail client. This also terminated the use of an icloud mail adress, so I forwarded this to my gmail.
I also do not want another account for my email client just to access my mails, so most of the other clients were out of the race. In the end I stick to my gmail account and it's app, cause it satisfies me the most.
Thanks again for all your answers :)
Going to show my privilege here and say Superhuman. It’s expensive as hell, but if you’re like me and email is a major part of your job, it may be worth it. I can get the gmail web client to do about 90% of what Superhuman does, though. So for an economical version, perhaps look up a guide on how to setup and use the Gmail web interface with nothing but a keyboard. In my experience, taking the time to learn how to navigate your inbox in this way pays dividends down the road. Good luck!
