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dsburdette

macrumors member
Apr 9, 2010
71
66
Alpharetta, GA
I would love to hear what people use.
Apples own mail client, how does that one work with multiple gmail accounts and also with contacts. I have no interest in merging all my gmail contacts with my phone book, will mail then be able to autocomplete addresses? And can I search through all my google emails without downloading all my emails?

I've been using Postbox for severals months now and am very happy with it. I got tired of some IMAP issues with Apple Mail and really love a lot of the filtering options in Postbox. I think the search capabilities are far superior too.
 

nickdylan

macrumors regular
Mar 17, 2012
126
0
I've been a big fan of Mailbox from the beginning, although for a while it was too feature-light for me to use. Maybe I'm in a minority, since I only use a .me, a .edu, and several Gmail accounts, but it works pretty much flawlessly for my purposes. I love the way it pushes you to deal with all of your mail as you get it and either respond or set a future time to respond. It helps me stop procrastinating. I'll definitely give it a try on OS X.
 

NStocks

macrumors 68000
Apr 3, 2008
1,567
18
England
Mac Mail looks so noisy in comparison to Mailbox.

Now, if only mailbox had the ability to track if emails/links were opened. ('Signals' can do this, but not on 10.10)
 

groovyd

Suspended
Jun 24, 2013
1,227
621
Atlanta
wish i had a problem with the stock mail app so i could justify even trying something else.

----------

the best feature of mail is SpamSieve... now that was worth trying!
 

iJon

macrumors 604
Feb 7, 2002
6,586
229
I really wanted to use this app on iPhone and Mac, but with their lack of Gmail Labels, it's unusable for me.

If you can work within the folders and parameters they give you, then it is great. For now, I use Mac Mail and Boxer on iOS.
 

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,361
3,378
I do love Mailbox on my phone, but every time I try one of these new "minimal" email apps for OS X (I HATED Sparrow), I always end up going back to Mail

I totally hate the custom interface it has. It feels incredibly un-Mac-like and is counterintuitive compared to just about every app. Hell, I can't even drag 'n' drop an email to another box. I'm forced to use the buttons or swipe. Mailbox for Mac is the perfect example of an iOS experience ported over to the desktop 1:1 and done wrong.

You both described my experience with Mailbox for Mac. The interface is just very awkward. It’s static, you are required to use the gestures (you’d better have a (Magic) Trackpad), buttons or hotkeys, there is absolutely no drag and drop and there are not even right-click menus. Folder management is almost non-existent with this app, unless you use the predefined ones.

I could live with the minimal interface if it wasn’t so absolutely wasteful. Everything seems so super-sized, especially on a larger screen.

I've been using Postbox for severals months now and am very happy with it. I got tired of some IMAP issues with Apple Mail and really love a lot of the filtering options in Postbox. I think the search capabilities are far superior too.

I’ve only had issues with Postbox, I never got it to work. It almost seems as if Apple’s Mail is the only decent, fast and reliable e-mail client. It’s certainly not the best client, but so far no developers seem to have taken desktop e-mailing to the next level.
 

snebes

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2008
810
713
Why would I use this over the stock mall app?

It is a different paradigm to handling email. I enjoy using it on the phone and iPad. Perfect for my personal email.

Not so much on the desktop with a mouse. Maybe a trackpad makes a difference, but I find using OSX Mail still fits my work email flow the best (mass-deleting spam, quick folder movements, etc.)
 

Yamcha

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2008
1,825
158
Awesome, That's good to know. I'm tired of the native email application, It used to be great back in the day, but ever since Mountain Lion I haven't been able to get it to work consistently.

And even though I'm running Yosemite GM I still find the new Mail application has issues syncing, so I'm usually stuck going to the official website of Gmail or Hotmail to see If I have anything new..
 

viachicago22

macrumors 6502
Sep 20, 2013
363
109
I do love Mailbox on my phone, but every time I try one of these new "minimal" email apps for OS X (I HATED Sparrow), I always end up going back to Mail because it has

- excellent system integration with Calendar and Contacts. I can add/edit contacts instantly right from Mail. I can also add an event to my calendar usually by clicking right on the date, and have it fill in with a lot of the salient info from the email.

- very very fast search. If you're running on a solid state drive, it's as fast as Gmail's search and without regard to internet connectivity.

- smart mailboxes (i.e. saved searches) that, if you set them up right, can really save a lot of time. At work, I have a single one for each person I contact regularly. I click on that person's name, and my whole correspondance history with that person pops up immediately

Minimal is awesome on my phone, but on my computer I want to, you know, get things actually done.

Great points.
 

darcyf

macrumors 6502a
Apr 25, 2011
781
1,266
Toronto, ON
When it comes to essential/integrated service apps like Mail, I like to keep things as Apple as possible. Maybe there's a feature or two I might enjoy from another app, but the overall integration between apps and services is what matters most to me.
 

Mighuel

macrumors regular
Aug 27, 2008
116
184
Finland
Has anyone used the Mac beta? How is it?

I don't have a Gmail account which was required when I tried it last. Is this still the case?

Mac version is really nice if you like the iOS version. They're practically identical. UI is clean and it's fast and very stable at least for me. I haven't experience a single crash so far. I've been using the beta for a few weeks now.

I think it still supports only gmail but I'm not 100% sure.
 

iMcLovin

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2009
1,963
898
You should check out Airmail: http://www.airmailapp.com

I switched after Sparrow was eaten by Google and have not looked back. The latest beta release looks phenomenal on Yosemite. The beta can be a bit of a RAM hog though.

thanks for the tip, airmail looks good and its nice to see its still in development. Ill start using this after I upgrade to Yosemite. Mailbox just isnt for me, I want to use Googles labels and gmails native systems. and I dont like consider my emails as a to-do list.
 

tMac7

macrumors newbie
Nov 7, 2013
20
1
I've been a Mailbox user since day 1 (never gone back to the stock iOS mail app) and been testing the Mailbox for Mac beta since it's first release for registered testers.

I think it has big potential, but there's still a lot of work to do with the Mac version.

And i've read some really good points in this topic and would like to add mine:

- right now MfM is just a blown-up iOS-app. Even the preferences are/look the same. With more features like drag&drop and more complicated filters MfM might get a really good alternative to the stock mail app (as it is the case with the iOS app)

- although the design is quite minimalistic, it doesn't really fit into the Yosemite-UI. Mailbox is just plain white, there's no translucency. The buttons and fonts are so big, it seems like the app was made for a touchscreen, not a Mac. And I personally think the space for the actual mail itself is way too less.

So I keep using both - the stock mail app and Mailbox for Mac.

But let's be realistic: the current version of MfM is 0.3.12. I really hope that they add some features and adapt the Yosemite design. Then the stock mail app will disappear from my dock :D



edit:
Thought about the Mac app for 5 more minutes. I think Mailbox for Mac (or the Mailbox-workflow in general) could be a really big thing:
The iOS app should stay as simple as it is right now: you just check your mails, quickly move them or send them to your Mac.
The Mac app should be a little different and not a 1:1 port of the iOS app: It should integrate perfectly into Yosemite, including contacts, calendar, and a transparent design (iOS app should fit to iOS, Mac application to Mac-OS). The size of the font and mail-list should be similar to the stock mail app, but you should be able to set up filters and mailing lists.

I would really love to see that happening.
 
Last edited:

txa1265

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2002
1,035
291
Corning, NY
It's really, really not. At least not on the Mac.

It's actually kind of hideous on the Mac.

I am actually interested in hearing your thoughts on what works better ... I grabbed it yesterday and after using the app on iPad and iPhone it is very natural and rounds up my iCloud and GMail accounts effeciently and keeps me focused on actually *doing something* with all of the crap that flows in every day.
 

0970373

Suspended
Mar 15, 2008
2,727
1,412
Does the app have notifications? I don't see it in notification center.

All I want out of my email app is:

- Push notifications
- Support for multiple emails
- Swipe to archive
- No Gmail app

I'm using Acompli and I'm really liking it a lot. Push is working well for gmail accounts, has unified inbox and supports aliases. Swipe half left to archive, swipe all the way left to delete. Swipe right to "schedule" or remind yourself to look at it again. It's a very well done app.
 

bpeeps

Suspended
May 6, 2011
3,678
4,629
I'm using Acompli and I'm really liking it a lot. Push is working well for gmail accounts, has unified inbox and supports aliases. Swipe half left to archive, swipe all the way left to delete. Swipe right to "schedule" or remind yourself to look at it again. It's a very well done app.

Thanks I'm gonna try it out.
 

dBeats

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2011
637
214
what makes this better than the default Mail app in Yosemite or pass OS X versions?

Mailbox is a task-based email system. If you're like me, I used to be literally buried in a giant Inbox sea. While it's possible to makes folders and archive emails, the reality is OS X Mail is not very good at doing this. Mailbox can help me triage emails into "now" "later" "much later" "probably never" etc. and check off the emails I'm done with. They don't get deleted, they just move to another folder like an archive. It seems like it's not doing much, but the reality is the UX is invaluable to busy email workflows. It doesn't have to replace OS X Mail. In fact I still use OS X Mail for the integration features, but I clean my inbox and organize my work with Mailbox for Mac and iOS. When I go back to OS X mail, it's cleaned up there as well. I've been using the beta for a couple of months and say what you want, a few swipes of a the magic mouse or trackpad and my email is back under my control.
 

warriorz

macrumors regular
Jun 25, 2010
126
0
I never really saw the fuss with this app. On iOS it was buggy, slow, feature lacking, initially very feature lacking, no real integration with Apple Mail and just generally not worth the hype. I found myself returning to the native Mail app and it was almost a relief!

(Oh and to top it off if you wanted to use the app since it was bought out you had to sign up to Dropbox, fine if you have an account and use the the service but not if like me don't use Dropbox).
 

attila

macrumors 6502a
I do love Mailbox on my phone, but every time I try one of these new "minimal" email apps for OS X (I HATED Sparrow), I always end up going back to Mail because it has

- excellent system integration with Calendar and Contacts. I can add/edit contacts instantly right from Mail. I can also add an event to my calendar usually by clicking right on the date, and have it fill in with a lot of the salient info from the email.

- very very fast search. If you're running on a solid state drive, it's as fast as Gmail's search and without regard to internet connectivity.

- smart mailboxes (i.e. saved searches) that, if you set them up right, can really save a lot of time. At work, I have a single one for each person I contact regularly. I click on that person's name, and my whole correspondance history with that person pops up immediately

Minimal is awesome on my phone, but on my computer I want to, you know, get things actually done.

----------



Two-factor authentication has gone live for iCloud.
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/08/apple-reminds-app-specific/

Mailbox really want people to use lists, but the interface is so poor. You can't order lists, you can't have sub lists, and the desktop app doesn't take advantage of the screen real-estate. Imagine if Mailbox desktop was like Tweet Deck, with customisable columns!
 
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