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Airmail Users Frustrated About Sudden Switch to Subscription-Based Pricing on iPhone and iPad [Updated]

Airmail was fantastic, but it's been declining. Sadly there's no decent replacement. Last week they also revamped the whole iOS app without warning – all customisation features basically removed.

Edit: Where exactly is the 4 months free Premium? When you attempt to turn on notifications it asks you to pay up…
 
mfm77 said:
Not that I approve of their tactics (I stopped using that bug-infested app months ago), but if you’re changing your pricing structure, you at least should introduce a revamped app with improved UI, features, etc. This, however, smacks of a pure money-grab and, considering the number of bugs already present, is not worth it at all. I also can confirm that as a beta tester, the betas rarely, if ever, note the specific improvements in a new beta. Pretty awful all around.
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They actually have. If you go to their landing page you will see a new email app called GMAIL ZERO (I think that is what it is called).

Go to the Apple App Store and see the abysmal ratings for that app.

These guys can't do anything right.
 
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I did purchase Airmail both iOS and Mac. Wasn't satisfied with the product. I know you can't get your money back, and that's not the issue. This situation is a prime reason why Apple should provide a method for trimming your purchased (free or paid) app list in your iCloud account. You can with Android, not that I'd ever go back to Android....
 
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wow, as a long time airmail user and licenseholder on mac and IOS, I am appalled at this. Also, isn't push notification a function of my MS Office 365 subscription anyhow? Why would I have to pay extra to have my messages pushed?
 
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No advance notice is a big part of the problem here. Another issue? The people getting grandfathered are those who bought the full-price app within the last four months. Those of us who’ve been using it for years are apparently out in the cold.

The developer’s excuse that push notifications aren’t a core function is ridiculous. If they’re now publishing an app that doesn’t have, at a minimum, the basic features that the iOS Mail app offers, they’re just making things up to avoid Apple kicking them off the App Store.

I guess it’s time to switch to another client. Canary’s twice the price Airmail was, but I have a feeling it’s unlikely to go subscription. One never knows, though. I didn’t much like Spark when I tried it out some years ago; it’s time to take another look. Haven’t ever looked at Polymail - will be doing that today.

I’m not generally one for punitive action, but I would like to see Bloop lose App Store access over this unless and until they change their policies. At a minimum, previous purchasers should get grandfathered subscription access - at least until there’s a complete redesign with improved functionality (Airmail 2, or whatever). If they feel their product is good enough to win new subscribers, fine. Forcing existing customers to pay more to continue to use pre-existing features is immoral.
 
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Hey guys, based on this article, does this only apply to airmail for iOS? I paid for the Mac version, and haven't seen these changes for Mac users. In my case because Gmail, is my main email account, I typically just use Google's client on the iPad, and Apple mail on the iPhone. On the Mac, I use:

Apple Mail
Airmail
Spark

Anyway I must have missed the original article regarding this issue, as this came through as updated.
 
I bought the iOS and Mac apps a while ago, but stopped using it when the lag became too much of an issue. Add to it their seeming necessity to add folders for everything as a duplicate of already existing ones and it lost me as a client a while ago. This just cemented that decision, I guess.

Spark has been ideal for both iPhone and Mac, which I’ve been using since.
 
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NJRonbo said:
I would also suggest using Apple Mail, as I do, with the addition of MailButler.

Their free plug-in adds avatars to the message queue, which is really neat.

If you pay the $80 per year subscription you get all sorts of additional perks.
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People are complaining about a $9.99/Year subscription... No way they are going to pay $80/year for an add-on app.
 
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Well, push notifications cost money. And I can't even imagine how much they have to spend to run push notifications servers, because email apps are using them a lot.

But I agree they should have made the transition more customer friendly, but I think they count with losing quite a lot of their customers. However what are they gonna lose? All the customers have already paid for the app and those that will stick with the app will make them more money. So it's a clear win for them.

I think that subscriptions are the best thing what happened for developers and the worst thing for customers. I hate subscriptions too, at least in cases where do you see developers only milking their customers. I have no problem with content subscriptions like Spotify / Apple Music etc. But paying monthly for an email app? No thanks!
 
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dumastudetto said:
Developers need to eat. You can help feed them by paying for products and services.
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Sure. And I for one am happy to either pay upfront or subscribe for quality apps that I find useful. But it is outright dishonest to charge $5 or whatever for an app with certain features, only to later take away those features and charge a subscription for them.

If this company were scrupulous, they would have grandfathered in existing users and used a subscription model going forward. And defending your money-grubbing move by claiming that notifications aren’t essential to an email app is simply ridiculous.
 
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superfluous apps like this one, which are totally unnecessary, will never be able to maintain a subscriber base.
They're in the wrong business if they think customers are going to shell out cash every month to use their unnecessary app.

Can't make enough money selling your unnecessary app for a one time fee? Either make it a whole lot better or get another job.
Nobody ever said that maintaining an iPhone app could be milked into a lifelong career.
 
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Martius said:
Well, push notifications cost money. And I can't even imagine how much they have to spend to run push notifications servers, because email apps are using them a lot.
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Right but that is on them for a poor business model and planning then. If this was a free app, then sure, I see that argument. No one "lost" anything.

But they set a price, $4.99, which people paid up-front and then decided that's not enough suddenly. So that is poor planning on their part, not the customer's fault who already paid them now losing basic functionality.

If it needed to be $9.99 then it should have been.


Could you image, as mentioned earlier, if you bought a car and Ford/GM/etc suddenly decided they didnt charge you enough and not making enough money, and now want you to pay $10/month to use your key fob to unlock and lock your car? Sure you can use the keyhole but that is standard function for a car you paid for.
 
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I tried to love airmail. Have installed it everywhere, but it sucks, very slow and buggy.
I use outlook for business now, and it’s fast and stable.

So **** You airmail!
 
Wow. A lot of hate for a $4.99 app. Airmail will struggle with what they just did but so much drama for a cheap app with so much more alternatives. First world problems.

I mean if I get bad coffee, I won’t be posting this negativity, just get the next coffee.
[doublepost=1563207381][/doublepost]I mean we all paid $1500 for a MacBook Pro with bad keyboards and it had less outrage than this.
 
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The challenge with any SAAS is that a feature upon which you rely can just disappear. No warning. No way to get back to a previous version.

I cancelled my last SAAS last year after they killed the desktop app and raised prices at the same time. Key functionality + higher monthly fees? I will NEVER use SAAS again.

For the trolls. Before you start: no, I don’t use Apple Music or any other subscription service.
 
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1144557 said:
Right but that is on them for a poor business model and planning then. If this was a free app, then sure, I see that argument. No one "lost" anything.

But they set a price, $4.99, which people paid up-front and then decided that's not enough suddenly. So that is poor planning on their part, not the customer's fault who already paid them now losing basic functionality.

If it needed to be $9.99 then it should have been.


Could you image, as mentioned earlier, if you bought a car and Ford/GM/etc suddenly decided they didnt charge you enough and not making enough money, and now want you to pay $10/month to use your key fob to unlock and lock your car? Sure you can use the keyhole but that is standard function for a car you paid for.
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Well a good Ford costs $25,000. You should be outraged.
 
A **** app that has become ********.
Uninstalled in a few years ago and never looked back. Shame in that developer
 
That is just a poor decision on their part. Few people are going to pay 4.99 for an email app and then start paying a subscription just get to push functionality that was already in the app. I am deleting this app and will not use again.
 
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