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Former Apple Engineer's Mimestream Gmail Client for Mac Gets Official Launch, Free Beta Access to End Tomorrow

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Mimestream, the Gmail client for macOS founded by former Apple Mail engineer Neil Jhaveri, this week ended more than two years of beta development with the official release of Mimestream 1.0.

mimestream-1-0.jpg

As a native app written in Swift and designed with AppKit and SwiftUI for a clean, stock appearance, Mimestream's UI will be familiar to many Apple Mail users, but the app is exclusively for accessing Gmail (support for other services is being considered).

Mimestream uses the Gmail API rather than a standard IMAP connection to support features like categorized inboxes, aliases and signatures, server-side filters, templates, labels, vacation responses, mentions, undo send, archive, and more.

Support for multiple Gmail accounts is included with a unified inbox, and the app integrates fully with macOS to offer system-level notifications, system-level Dark Mode support, keyboard shortcuts, swipe gestures, and linking email profiles to Focus Filters.

Among several new features for its 1.0 release, Mimestream also supports Profiles, so separate Gmail accounts can be divided into "Work" and "Personal," for example, and different icons and colors can be assigned to them. There's also a Mimestream menu bar item for quickly checking for unread messages without opening the app.


During its lengthy free beta phase, more than 220 updates and over 100 features were added to the app, and the startup has expanded from its original solo developer to a five-person team.

Now that beta development has ended, it's becoming a paid-for client. Mimestream 1.0 is $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year, but the annual plan is being offered at a discounted launch price of $29.99 for the first year until June 9. A free 14-day trial is also available, with no credit card required.

Of the more than 167,000 people who have been using the app in beta in macOS 12 or later, access to the app will expire on May 26, 2023, but users will be able to move onto the 14-day trial in Mimestream 1.0 to try the new features. For users on macOS 11 or 10.15, the existing beta versions will continue to work on those OS versions. Interested users can check the company's roadmap to learn about what else is planned for the app.

Article Link: Former Apple Engineer's Mimestream Gmail Client for Mac Gets Official Launch, Free Beta Access to End Tomorrow
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/25/mimestream-gmail-client-macos-released/
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grmlin said:
It's the best native Gmail Client I used but it's not worth the subscription cost imo. It's just too much. I'll use the Mail app and webinterface again now.
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Sadly, I agree. I certainly don’t begrudge anyone charging for their product and making money, however, the cost is a tough one for me considering the free options available. Not sure what my price point would be, but subscriptions are still tedious to me.
 
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It’s a really nice gmail client, I’ve been using it since very early beta, but the subscription price is, quite frankly, grossly excessive and paying an expensive subscription for an email client is not something I’m prepared to do.

The fact that beta testers (who have made the product what it is) only get an extra $5 off for the first year is a bit of an insult too.
 
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I tested it and its quite a nice client but I shifted away from Gmail in the last 2 years so it's kind of pointless to me. especially as there's no one-off cost that I would have been more than prepared to pay for. I suppose Gmail users who spend a lot of time on email will get their value for money, but its amazing that we are now in an age where email clients are now subscription based. They can count me out.

I paid 12 months for Spark as I have been using it since day 1, but quite frankly nothing much has changed since they started charging and the new v3 client is horrendous. So effectively I am paying to get premium features, none of which make it to the old v2 client that I had to roll back to.
 
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Now that beta development has ended, it's becoming a paid-for client. Mimestream 1.0 is $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year…

I was considering a utility of this app until getting to this line. If I wanted to pay for my email service, I would definitely look into more privacy-oriented one. Proton, for example, charge the same amount per month, but it is a real deal, whereas this offering is just a paid front end for the same usually free Gmail service, so what’s the point? Gmail free web-based client or iOS/iPadOS apps are working quite well as they are, IMO.
 
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I love the app but the price is ridiculous, if you want me to pay each year give me a reason to upgrade, I am so sick of software subscriptions, speaking as a software engineer.

Sadly I can't use Spark or Mail as they use IMAP and my company has turned it off for google mail, whereas Mimestream uses the Google API.

Since I have been using it for 3 years for free, I will happily pay the reduced cost this once as a thank you, but in a year's time there is no way I am renewing at double the cost for only 1 year so it'll be back to the crappy web UI
 
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grmlin said:
It's the best native Gmail Client I used but it's not worth the subscription cost imo. It's just too much. I'll use the Mail app and webinterface again now.
Click to expand...

What are the advantages of using a Mail app vs an official Gmail app? Since there is no push for Gmail in Mail, I find Gmail app much snappier, plus you get a better control of filters, labels, etc.
 
Subscription app for a free service.

Imagine what bad examples are being set for the future.

Subscription to breath clean air.

Subscription for free speech.

Subscription walking on the pavement.

Subscription to touch grass.
 
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one more said:
What are the advantages of using a Mail app vs an official Gmail app? Since there is no push for Gmail in Mail, I find Gmail app much snappier, plus you get a better control of filters, labels, etc.
Click to expand...
There is no offical Gmail desktop app, just the webinterface
one more said:
Spark is an email client, like Apple Mail or Thunderbird, which can be used with many email providers, like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.
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it's not. It tunnels all your mails though their own servers. It's a service with a client for said service
 
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