I LOVE Airmail. I use it on my Mac, iPhone and can't wait for the iPad version to be released.
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Alternative Mail Apps
- Thread starter AJsAWiz
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I LOVE Airmail. I use it on my Mac, iPhone and can't wait for the iPad version to be released.
@ AJsAWiz
When you started this topic, you were happily using CloudMagic. Now, after about 6 weeks, you switched to Airmail.
Care to compare and comment your choice?
I too am considering a Mail client. I purchased CloudMagic mainly because of it's totally different approach to handling email. AirMail looks like Apple's Mail a lot (from the outside). I'm probably missing a lot of details, hence my question.
I'm still satisfied with Cloud Magic and use it on my iPad Pro, well at least until Airmail is released for the iPad. The best thing I like about Cloud Magic is that I can click on an URL right from my email and it opens up there instead of going to Safari or another browser. From there I can, seamlessly switch back and forth from the web site and the email. I also, like the bare bones approach because some times that's all I need.
Now back to Airmail. I first started using it on my iMac when I became disenchanted with Apple Mail. One by one Apple started removing some of the features that I liked the most (like the ability to "bounce" email) and I started having issues with my Gmail account when using Apple Mail. I believe that Airmail is more full featured and customizable and I like that a lot. Some of the things I like about Airmail are: being able to "bounce" again, the colorful interface is pleasing to the eye, reminder integration and having it available on both Mac and IOS platforms. It serves almost all of my needs in an email client.
Now, even if the iPad version of Airmail emerges, I may still use Cloud Magic on a limited basis.
Hope that answers your question.
I switched from CloudMagic to Boxer and now to Spark. CM & Boxer were good but I often found them lacking. I could never understand why I couldn't add people to my contact list from the app. CM doesn't have alias support, which is important for me personally. Boxer was a better fit and I liked it. They all have 3rd party app support for things like Dropbox, etc But Spark really checks off the boxes for me. Multiple acts support, Alias support, Custom sidebar & filtered mailboxes. They've come a long way from their first release which I deleted after a day. lol.
It also has the most intuitive signature options - you can swipe between them or to blank in the composition window. I do a lot of consulting and work on multiple projects at a time on behalf of clients. I have multiple emails and multiple signatures. It was always easier to leave it off for mobile replies but they have really changed the game here.
I'm on the iPad beta and so far so good. I've reported a couple of bugs, made a couple of suggestions and their dev team does reply as quickly as they can. It's not immediate but it is timely. I'm really looking forward to their OS X app as well.
What it comes down to is personal preference and which features are important to you.
It also has the most intuitive signature options - you can swipe between them or to blank in the composition window. I do a lot of consulting and work on multiple projects at a time on behalf of clients. I have multiple emails and multiple signatures. It was always easier to leave it off for mobile replies but they have really changed the game here.
I'm on the iPad beta and so far so good. I've reported a couple of bugs, made a couple of suggestions and their dev team does reply as quickly as they can. It's not immediate but it is timely. I'm really looking forward to their OS X app as well.
What it comes down to is personal preference and which features are important to you.
Question to the Spark users:
I have two business accounts and two private accounts in Spark.
Both the Smart and regular Inbox show all incoming messages in one list.
Is there a quick way to see the messages of just one account?
I mean, other than:
1- tap to show left side bar
2- drag down to the individual accounts part
3- tap to open the listing of the account I want to see
4- tap on it's Inbox
5- tap right to reveal the messages list
I have two business accounts and two private accounts in Spark.
Both the Smart and regular Inbox show all incoming messages in one list.
Is there a quick way to see the messages of just one account?
I mean, other than:
1- tap to show left side bar
2- drag down to the individual accounts part
3- tap to open the listing of the account I want to see
4- tap on it's Inbox
5- tap right to reveal the messages list
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See my comparison sheet in this topic to see the major differences between these two and other apps. CloudMagic has a nice clean UI but lacks quite a few features which Spark, Airmail and Outlook have (e.g. snooze e-mails).
You can go in Spark to Settings > Personalization > Inbox and turn on/off specific e-mail account so you only see the ones you want in your 'Inbox' area. You can do the same via Settings > Personalization > Smart Inbox > Inbox > ..
Unfortunately there isn't a button to turn Unified mailbox off if you want. This is possible with the Airmail app via Settings > Account settings > Advances > turn off 'Combined inbox'.
I like both e-mail apps but would still love to see a bit more features to switch to one or the other.
I would like to ask few questions regarding Airmail vs Apple mail (for both iOS and OSX).
Are there differences in security, reliability, stability and performance when apple mail in ios and osx is better?
Do you trust third party mail application with sensitive bussiness emails?
Thanks
Are there differences in security, reliability, stability and performance when apple mail in ios and osx is better?
Do you trust third party mail application with sensitive bussiness emails?
Thanks
Well, snooze e-mails, to me, sounds like a fancy word for procrastination
Thanks a lot for the Spark tip, setting everything "per account" instead of "unified" works fine for me now.
Yes there are security differences. Both can work without using a third party storage location when accessing your e-mails from e.g. Gmail, Microsoft, your own domain or company. But still they are also third parties but they are using e.g. OAuth2/security that your e-mail provider supplies and you can wonder if there isn't a bug or issues in the security of these apps. However when you turn on push notifications for Airmail these will go via a third party cloud storage (probably Amazon AWS) which has a copy of your e-mails and login info. Push is not possible via Apple Mail app. I'm an iOS user only. I do think the OSX versions are similar in this way.
Regarding reliability and stability you have to decided for yourself. Mail on iOS is pretty stable. Airmail just recently launched on iOS and works pretty stable but still needs some fixes here and there.
I won't trust a third party mail application for sensitive business e-mails therefore I'm not using such an app for work and if I would I would carefully decided what to turn on/off in the app and if they store your data. I've mentioned a link a few times already in this topic. Check it out and see also the security part to see what iOS app can be used without storing your data on a third party cloud storage. I would also discuss such a think with your company before you start using such an app.
For personal use I think it's ok to use and app such as Airmail or Spark do have great features that are really worth it to use them instead of the Mail app from Apple.
Spark would be perfect if it didn't have sync issues. Not sure why but it doesn't sync properly in background, so I'll sometimes get emails late. And if I read an email on my computer, it doesn't update on Spark that it's read until I open the app. This doesn't happen with Outlook.
But Outlook has a strange problem where the 'flagged' section doesn't seem to correlate with my flagged/starred emails on Gmail (don't have this problem on Spark). -- Actually seems the issue is that only messages from past 30 days are downloaded which is why I'm not seeing all my flagged emails. I also really hate the UI on Outlook with the unnecessary buttons on the bottom which I never use.
Inbox, which I've been using for months, is great.. but if I ever need to navigate the archive/done section it's a mess with way too much categorization. I have to always search for an email to find it.
Ugh so hard to find the perfect app... Anyone know if Polymail will have smart inbox support? I thought about giving Airmail a try but hard to give up smart inbox after using Spark/Outlook/Inbox for a while
But Outlook has a strange problem where the 'flagged' section doesn't seem to correlate with my flagged/starred emails on Gmail (don't have this problem on Spark). -- Actually seems the issue is that only messages from past 30 days are downloaded which is why I'm not seeing all my flagged emails. I also really hate the UI on Outlook with the unnecessary buttons on the bottom which I never use.
Inbox, which I've been using for months, is great.. but if I ever need to navigate the archive/done section it's a mess with way too much categorization. I have to always search for an email to find it.
Ugh so hard to find the perfect app... Anyone know if Polymail will have smart inbox support? I thought about giving Airmail a try but hard to give up smart inbox after using Spark/Outlook/Inbox for a while
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I've been using CloudMagic for a week now, both on Mac and iOS.
I really like the iOS app's clean looks, even though some translations haven't been given enough attention. Example: if you translate "Undo" by "Ongedaan maken" (dutch), you get "Ong...ken" in the interface. "Herstel" would be perfect. Small things, yes - but they disturb one's experience.
However, the Mac version still has a long way to go. Personally, I find the interface elements (buttons, fonts...) way too big - feels like being in a child's app. Some finesse of the iOS version is missing. And the Dutch translation is only half way, really sloppy job. IMHO the Mac version isn't yet ready for release, at least not for € 19,99. That price should give me a near-to-spic-and-span app.
But, because I do like their original approach to email management, I'll patiently sit by and look where they're going (and at what pace).
I really like the iOS app's clean looks, even though some translations haven't been given enough attention. Example: if you translate "Undo" by "Ongedaan maken" (dutch), you get "Ong...ken" in the interface. "Herstel" would be perfect. Small things, yes - but they disturb one's experience.
However, the Mac version still has a long way to go. Personally, I find the interface elements (buttons, fonts...) way too big - feels like being in a child's app. Some finesse of the iOS version is missing. And the Dutch translation is only half way, really sloppy job. IMHO the Mac version isn't yet ready for release, at least not for € 19,99. That price should give me a near-to-spic-and-span app.
But, because I do like their original approach to email management, I'll patiently sit by and look where they're going (and at what pace).
I've also noticed this in the iOS version that e.g. badge app icon has an incomplete/incorrect Dutch translation.
CloudMagic has a very nice and clean UI but lacks quite some features if you compare them to e.g. Outlook, Spark, Airmail e.g. snooze and swipe left (long/short) among others. On iOS and Mac I think Airmail is currently my favorite but they also are missing certain features Spark or Outlook have and vice versa. The perfect e-mail app still isn't there yet unfortunately.
Yup that missing iPad support (although it's in Beta) is a huge thing. I have Spark in Beta and they will release the iPad supported app later this week. Another thing that I really miss in Airmail (but also Spark, CloudMagic) is that the attachments are shown below the e-mail message. Outlook is the only one which shows the attachments above the message which is great.
A concern on Outlook for iOS.
I hate it that I can swipe to delete on the lockscreen without unlocking my phone. Isn't this a potential hazard? Is there any way I can change this?
I hate it that I can swipe to delete on the lockscreen without unlocking my phone. Isn't this a potential hazard? Is there any way I can change this?
Even if you swipe to delete, you still need to unlock the phone with your password or Touch ID. And even if the email is deleted, you could always go to the deleted items and move the Mai, back to the inbox.
Nope. You can swipe to delete from the lockscreen without password/Touch ID. Sure you CAN go back. But how often do you open your deleted folder to check what has been deleted?
That is indeed a huge flaw of the Outlook notification widget. Besides the fact that Outlook lacks a good search feature (it can only search in e-mails of the last 2-3 months). I also hate the filter button which takes up so much space.
I tested this about 10x and the result is the same each time. If I swipe to delete and actually press the button from the lock screen, I am brought to passcode entry screen. If I enter a wrong code and are unable to unlock the device, pressing cancel on the passcode screen brings me back to the lock screen with the email still there. Now, I didn't go further because of my passcode attempts and wiping options set, but from what I can see so far you cannot delete the email unless you successfully unlock the phone.
While I agree that the feature to do that seems confusing, I haven't been able to delete an email from the lock screen unless I unlocked the phone with my passcode or touch id. I would be happy to try (within reason) a situation you have found where the email is deleted even without unlocking the phone assuming that you do indeed have a passcode/touch id set up. Of course, all of this is null and void if you don't use a passcode to unlock your phone in which case, perhaps you should. You can't call something a "hazard" if you don't take the measures required to enforce security.
Update: I was able to use the archive function and I was indeed able to put the email into my provider archive folder without an unlock. But still was not able to delete.
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