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Alternative Mail Apps
- Thread starter AJsAWiz
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I couldn't get the widget to work on iOS9.x. so it seems iOS10 only.
I haven't tried other things. I've sticked with Spark although not perfect either.
Does Spark do POP? Your spreadsheet indicates it does but I can't seem to figure out how. Under "other" in the set up page i get a sign up that automatically sets up as IMAP.
I finally decided to give Airmail a try (after using Spark for the past year or so). So far it seems really neat with all its customization, extra formatting options and whatnot. I'll give more feedback after using it for a while.
The only thing that bothers me right out of the box is the "compose new mail" button, which is located in the upper right corner of the screen - which seems really far up on larger phones and thus a tad inconvenient. In Spark, for example, you have a 'floating' button for composing new emails in the lower right corner, which is right within your thumb's reach, making it really convenient to compose a new mail.
Is it possible to enable something similar in Airmail, or would I have to request this feature?
The only thing that bothers me right out of the box is the "compose new mail" button, which is located in the upper right corner of the screen - which seems really far up on larger phones and thus a tad inconvenient. In Spark, for example, you have a 'floating' button for composing new emails in the lower right corner, which is right within your thumb's reach, making it really convenient to compose a new mail.
Is it possible to enable something similar in Airmail, or would I have to request this feature?
I'm sorry my bad. I thought they were supporting it. But it seems Spark can't do that at this moment in time.
I'm afraid that it's not possible to enable that in Airmail. You would have to file a request for that feature with the developer.
I have to confess to being baffled by this. People rail against PRISM and GHQ yet finding an alternative mail client for iOS that doesn't involve granting access authority to a random dev is nigh on impossible.
That said, after having had a conversation with Airmail support, is it possible such access is only required by third-party clients when using Push Notifications? This is what they told me not moments ago.
I'm trying to find a simple alternative mail client right now. Here's some excerpts from MS Outlook's current privacy policy:
But why do they need to have all this at all? Am I crazy? What am I missing here? Are we sacrificing privacy for some time-saving or vanity feature?
TL;DR: Anyone know of an email client that _doesn't_ require handing over my usernames, passwords and emails to the dev or some other third-party service?
perhaps there are Apple/iOS restrictions on apps frequently polling third party sites?? And doing so in the background?
@pacorob: I see, thanks. I've requested this feature.
Another thing that bothers me in Airmail is when you select a photo to send and you can choose between small, medium, large and original size. What's missing, though, is the info about the size of the pic you are about to send. It's rather surprising that the developer didn't include such vital information.
Another thing that bothers me in Airmail is when you select a photo to send and you can choose between small, medium, large and original size. What's missing, though, is the info about the size of the pic you are about to send. It's rather surprising that the developer didn't include such vital information.
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I agree that is an odd thing. I also wish that Airmail had an option to only show the icons as attachment of the name.extension e.g. photo1.jpg instead of showing the actual photo. Another thing that bothers me with both of these apps that you can't set an option to show the attachments above a message like Outlook does. You have to scroll all the way down.
Maybe you could also write to them about this... I already have regarding the image size info. Hm, yeah the show the attachments above a message would be useful as well.
Another thing I miss from Spark is the "smart" inbox option that groups newsletters and other types of incoming mails separately. Well, there is a "smart" button in Airmail too, but that just seems to group the existing mails in inbox together by sender or so?
I wouldn't mind using outlook 24/7, but hate how it shows different names from senders vs how ios's mail.app does. Is there ANY way to change this?
for example, iOS's mail app will show the name from my contacts list as the sender, whereas Outlook just shows either a first name or the email address.
for example, iOS's mail app will show the name from my contacts list as the sender, whereas Outlook just shows either a first name or the email address.
I installed Spark today and I really like it. I have 3 to 4 e-mail accounts. I noticed that all the mails are put together in the inbox. I was wondering if I can separate the accounts by colors so that I can know which e-mail belongs to which email account?
I wrote Spark and Airmail about my suggestions a while ago. For Airmail I've also created tickets see here for example the one for showing attachments above the message.
Another thing I like from Spark in comparison to Airmail is that you can attach multiple files in one go from Dropbox. There is also a ticket for that at Airmail (ignore the typo in the topic starter there though).
Spark does behave odd though with:
* showing a badge number but then when you open the app you still have to download the e-mail
* sometimes i open an e-mail from a certain e-mail account it opens the app and it says I already read/downloaded it. This is a POP3 e-mail account I think and it seems they don't support it so that must be it
There is that smart button is in Spark as well which I believe should filter those out but I'm not sure. Please check their website or contact the developers via e.g. Twitter they are pretty responsive.
I don't think you can. That would be a great suggestion to the developers (Readdle). Or have the options to let those e-mail come in as well in separate folders (besides all in one inbox folder).
Since you have written to Spark may be you can suggest them to have different colors for different accounts or to have separate folders for each account.
By the way, is it worth buying AirMail if using Spark?
I sent another e-mail to them suggesting showing attachments above the message and the color suggestion.
I have bought Airmail but the UI is not my cup of tea it has a lot of excellent features though which Spark lacks but it also lacks a few as mentioned earlier in this topic. See also the comparison I just updated here.
Another great free app is Email by Easilydo which recently got updated and now also has iPad support, save as PDF and thread view. It still seems to miss an good search in older e-mails though (you can't search in e-mails older then 3 months so it seems).
I have noticed in Spark when we are composing an email, we can attach pictures by clicking on the picture icon. This way the photos can be adjusted by size. However, when we are in the photo app and want to share a picture through Spark, the file can't be adjusted. Or am I missing something. This is another suggestion we can provide them.
Both Spark and Email by Easilydo show contents of the Drafts folder in Gmail, but Outlook and Apple Mail app don't..it seems they only show drafts created within their app not the ones added using a browser on a PC. Is there any way to view drafts in these apps?
Ok, so after using Airmail for the past week here are my observations in comparison with Spark:
THE GOOD:
- much richer text editing tools when composing a mail
- lots of customization (e.g. logos/icons next to the sender names, undo sent mail, ...)
- neat display of documents (attachments), as opposed to just a list of icons in Spark
THE BAD:
- no Smart inbox, emails won't get grouped by New Mail, Newsletters etc. as they do neatly in Spark
- sometimes you get the 'unread mail' badge number, but when you open the app it still needs to download the mail (Spark faces the same problem, though)
- the 'new mail' button is rather small and in the far upper right corner, much harder to reach than the floating button in the lower right corner in Spark
- in inbox some emails don't include the paper clip icon that indicates attachments, even though there are attachments in them; so far this seems to be the case with some emails where attachments within that email have already been downloaded, while those where they haven't do include the paper clip icon next to the sender's name. A bug?? (you can reproduce this by selecting a photo or more from Photos app, then "add to Airmail" and sending it to yourself. When you receive the mail there won't be any paper clip icon for attachment)
- when you want to send photo(s) and are given a choice of a) small b) medium c) large d) original size, Airmail doesn't tell you how many kb/Mb each of those actually is. In my opinion, this should have been included from the get-go!
- Conversation view: I don't like how it doesn't give you full sender information etc. when you open a conversation email (see image 1 I uploaded). Why doesn't it show everything as in image 2? (see attachment) - this would've been much better.
- oh, and 'undo Archive' doesn't seem to work for me. I've accidentally archived several mails but were never able to retrieve them by tapping 'undo Archive'. Why??
It's mostly small things like these that make me a bit reluctant to recommend Airmail to people over Spark, which may not be a big deal to others but they do bother me, especially given that Spark is free and Airmail isn't.
Airmail does that too, though.
THE GOOD:
- much richer text editing tools when composing a mail
- lots of customization (e.g. logos/icons next to the sender names, undo sent mail, ...)
- neat display of documents (attachments), as opposed to just a list of icons in Spark
THE BAD:
- no Smart inbox, emails won't get grouped by New Mail, Newsletters etc. as they do neatly in Spark
- sometimes you get the 'unread mail' badge number, but when you open the app it still needs to download the mail (Spark faces the same problem, though)
- the 'new mail' button is rather small and in the far upper right corner, much harder to reach than the floating button in the lower right corner in Spark
- in inbox some emails don't include the paper clip icon that indicates attachments, even though there are attachments in them; so far this seems to be the case with some emails where attachments within that email have already been downloaded, while those where they haven't do include the paper clip icon next to the sender's name. A bug?? (you can reproduce this by selecting a photo or more from Photos app, then "add to Airmail" and sending it to yourself. When you receive the mail there won't be any paper clip icon for attachment)
- when you want to send photo(s) and are given a choice of a) small b) medium c) large d) original size, Airmail doesn't tell you how many kb/Mb each of those actually is. In my opinion, this should have been included from the get-go!
- Conversation view: I don't like how it doesn't give you full sender information etc. when you open a conversation email (see image 1 I uploaded). Why doesn't it show everything as in image 2? (see attachment) - this would've been much better.
- oh, and 'undo Archive' doesn't seem to work for me. I've accidentally archived several mails but were never able to retrieve them by tapping 'undo Archive'. Why??
It's mostly small things like these that make me a bit reluctant to recommend Airmail to people over Spark, which may not be a big deal to others but they do bother me, especially given that Spark is free and Airmail isn't.
Airmail does that too, though.
Attachments
Great things you spotted and compared
Both are definitely not perfect yet indeed. I did keep coming back to Spark but I still hate a few things though
Spark - GOOD:
- you can select multiple cloud attachments (e.g. PDF files from Dropbox) in one go without selecting them one by one
- handy/nice UI
- great search options e.g. smartsearch 'Jim attachments' and can search in archive e-mails
- quick menu settings lots of options
Spark - BAD:
- have the option to show attachments above the e-mail message
- have the option to show e-mails in different subject colors when the come in from different e-mail account
- show the actual e-mail when you open up the app. The badge shows that there is e-mail but there isn't any e-mail when you open up the app. You have to wait for the download of the e-mail(s).
- I still get that e-mails are deleted on my iPhone but there is still a badge icon on my iPad that shows there is an e-mail
- sometimes when I delete an e-mail on my iPhone it comes back again and I have to delete it again
- lacks option to quickly unsubscribe from newsletters
I've now written to both the developers of Spark (Readdle) and also to Easilydo from Email app.
I really like the look and feel of Email app which looks a lot like Spark but is much faster.
Email by Easilydo - GOOD:
- handy/nice UI
- see attachments above message
- fast
- quickly unsubscribe from newsletters
- you can favorite certain folders (unfortunately they can't show up on main screen though like Spark)
Email by Easilydo - BAD:
- lacks search in e-mails older then 5 months (super annoying) - e.g. for Gmail which I use
- can't attach multiple (e.g. PDF) files in one go from cloud storage such as Dropbox
- can't show icons from sender/receiver (optional)
- doesn't have a calendar - I must say I use a different app for that (WeekCalendar)
- doesn't have an option for actionlist (things to do) - I must say I use a different app for that (AnyList)
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Email app (by Easylido):
- you can swipe an e-mail to archive and then within the set time (seconds e.g. 3,5,15) get them back (recall) if that is what you mean. Or do you mean an uption to undo archive option for all e-mails where you did do this for in the recent day/days?
- they also show the name of the sender but not the e-mail address I'm afraid. You can press the name of the sender and then see the e-mail account. I haven't found a setting where you can change that view. You could ofcourse suggest it to the developers for both apps.
That really depends on what you prefer and need. The UI can very a bit and also some have features that others don't have. See also the comparison sheet(look at the images especially) I recently updated in this other forum topic from a while ago.
Overall Airmail, Spark and Email by Easylido are great options feature wise.
There are many more e-mail apps out there though as you can also see in the comparison sheet.
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Spark has separate folders for each account already...but not as subfolders of of the inbox or smart inbox. It is worth buying Airmail if you need POP or just want to play around. I settled on Airmail because I need POP but keep Spark and the Easily-do app set up for certain accounts just to watch how they are updated.
One thing about Airmail. There are separate inboxes for each account in addition to the general inbox and you can color code like you wish. However, the trash, spam, archive etc from all the accounts are all in one folder. You have to be careful with the bulk processing etc.
There is one more e-mail app called "TypeApp".
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/typeapp-email-mail-imap-exchange/id979735370?mt=8
Is it any good?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/typeapp-email-mail-imap-exchange/id979735370?mt=8
Is it any good?