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

[Richu]

Tbh subscription is the way to go to create a sustainable business. Otherwise the business implodes after the initial sales surge and the app will deteriorate fast.

But pick a more reasonable price point.

 

[grmlin]

I would still call Spark a mail client. It's some software that offers you access to read and send emails. Calling the Spark app a "Spark client" doesn't really make any difference - I already agreed with you that Mimestream is using Gmail API to touch data, whereas most other mail clients use IMAP.

Sure. It shows mails. But mimestream can stop development and the app would still fetch mails from gmail just fine. (If it’s possible to unlock it of course. That’s why the subscription model sucks so much.)

If Spark closes it’s servers the client is a useless piece of software history.

But pick a more reasonable price point.

It’s just too much and it desperately needs a lifetime purchase option

 

[technicalFoozle]

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.

Totally agreed on Spark. I pay for it and the v3 client is bad. You can now hide the groupings which makes the client easier to work with but the Gmail shortcuts for navigating the inbox (j/k) don't work.

I like Mimestream and would consider this but there is no mobile app. And Gmail's mobile app is worse than Mail.

 

[DaPizzaMan]

Sure. It shows mails. But mimestream can stop development and the app would still fetch mails from gmail just fine. (If it’s possible to unlock it of course. That’s why the subscription model sucks so much.)

If Spark closes it’s servers the client is a useless piece of software history.

If Mimestream stops development, chances are the developer would stop paying for the Gmail API. There's also the possibility of something changing in the API which would break the app. But yes, obviously Mimestream has that advantage. In everything else, Spark wins in my book.

 

[dumastudetto]

$50 a year just to get rid of the increasing number of gmail ads is worth it for heavy users. Of course, you can do this with Apple Mail or any other email app but these don't play anywhere near as nicely with the gmail system as Mimestream.

The devs have invested a huge amount of time and effort building out this app and it shows.

 

[dumastudetto]

If Mimestream stops development, chances are the developer would stop paying for the Gmail API. There's also the possibility of something changing in the API which would break the app. But yes, obviously Mimestream has that advantage. In everything else, Spark wins in my book.

Yes building an app off a third-party API is risky as Twitter app developers found out.

 

[grmlin]

If Mimestream stops development, chances are the developer would stop paying for the Gmail API. There's also the possibility of something changing in the API which would break the app. But yes, obviously Mimestream has that advantage. In everything else, Spark wins in my book.

If they have to pay for the api access a subscription is the way to go of course. I don’t think that’s the case though? That would be weird to pay for accessing mails via an api locally on my Mac

Did they say anything about that in their faq or somewhere?

 

[DavidMalcolm]

I feel like an app like this only has one hope, get by on a small number of people who don’t pay for gmail but want a super clean native app… or get acquired by Google to build a better max and iOS app.

I might have tried this app if it was a one time fee. But it feels like they’re hoping to make a small amount of recurring revenue off a very small user base who is willing to pay for email in 2023.

 

[Wildkraut]

Thunderbird for iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Android is coming, use this or simply the Apple Client.

 

[Silverado]

Somehow, people keep building new email apps. I think the market for email apps is beyond saturated.

 

[emulator]

I might have tried this app if it was a one time fee. But it feels like they’re hoping to make a small amount of recurring revenue off a very small user base who is willing to pay for email in 2023.

Look at the comments on their Twitter account, there are some suckers who are willing to pay for this.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Tbh subscription is the way to go to create a sustainable business. Otherwise the business implodes after the initial sales surge and the app will deteriorate fast.

But pick a more reasonable price point.

How did software companies manage to stay in business before subscriptions? Translating what you said, subscriptions are a way for a company to make huge profits. Intuit is a fine example of a company that was doing just fine then went subscription, tripling costs for me and they rake in the bucks.

 

[REBELinBLUE]

You guys just don’t get it…… do you……​

​

Running a server to run an app like this is expensive, in addition to getting access to gmail server. One time payment won’t be enough. Subscription make sense for this app.

I do get it, they aren't running any servers for this software other than the webserver for the general website, all the email processing is done by google and Gmail API access is free.


Kaleidoscope just released v4 today which is also subscription at $8/$14 a month for a diff tool, these people are insane

 

[polarbearkev]

It's nothing special, it's basically Apple Mail for Google. Not worth the price, not even worth wasting your time trying it out.

 

[michaelprescott]

How did software companies manage to stay in business before subscriptions? Translating what you said, subscriptions are a way for a company to make huge profits. Intuit is a fine example of a company that was doing just fine then went subscription, tripling costs for me and they rake in the bucks.

I ask the same questions. How does any hardware tool manufacturer stay in business? They innovate. They improve. They adapt. They reach new customers in new ways. Somehow this has worked for decades upon decades and still does. So, we consumers get better products.

From my perspective, subscription based tools create the wrong incentives. It's a common strategy that I've experienced on the wrong end:

1. Founders, owners, or investors hire the best developers they can find, and that team builds a great product.
2. They push them hard to stabilize the product, setup various processes to automate and simplify maintenance. All great software development processes. Nothing wrong with that, but that step is the death knell for the original developers. Get your resume polished.
3. Oust that team of developers to maximize profit margins and hand off maintenance to a smaller and much lower cost team. This sucks because you pour your heart, soul, life into building something awesome, and then you're cut out before any big payday happens.
4. And, the bad part for consumers, is the innovation slows to a crawl, updates, and features trickle out if at all, but often they are just superficial revisions made to give the illusion of modernization. To use a simple analogy to hardware tools again, consumers are paying forever for a fresh coat of paint on their hammer every year or so (whether they needed or wanted a new color).
5. Again, the incentive is just wrong. Ultimately the founders and especially the company that they sell to will want to reduce cost of maintenance to zero, maximize profits again, while also steadily easing their customer base to higher and higher prices.
6. For consumers, they lose complete control of their upgrade schedule and budget. They give all of that control to the company. And if the business owners are really clever, as they often are, they design the product so that they trap their customers. The longer they use the product, the more stuck they become.

 

[StyxMaker]

How did software companies manage to stay in business before subscriptions? Translating what you said, subscriptions are a way for a company to make huge profits. Intuit is a fine example of a company that was doing just fine then went subscription, tripling costs for me and they rake in the bucks.

They didn’t call it a subscription, they called it an annual license payment. And, in the business world, that’s the way software has always been.

 

[REBELinBLUE]

They didn’t call it a subscription, they called it an annual license payment. And, in the business world, that’s the way software has always been.

Yes but at least for personal software licenses you could continue using the version you had purchased, if it was like that it would be fine but many of these software subscriptions *do not* let you continue to use the version you had subscribed to

 

[mudflap]

Not being snarky; I'm genuinely wondering why anyone still uses Gmail now that we know that Google literally reads every email, scans every attachment, and even opens every archive to peek at what's inside.

The app itself looks quite nice, but I'm not paying for a sub for an email app.

 

[michaelprescott]

They didn’t call it a subscription, they called it an annual license payment. And, in the business world, that’s the way software has always been.

Perpetual license. It worked. And developers and business owners alike were highly motivated to innovate, and it pushed an iterative development cycle that included those innovations.

That said, I can see it from the business owners' perspective as well. Subscriptions stabilize the income between cycles. And of course with simple tools like email clients, you quickly plateau on what the tool should actually do. To compare to a hammer, what more can you do to it to improve it. Sure, we've seen better balanced hammers created, which are more ergonomic, and production efficiencies, but ultimately it's still a hammer to hammer things. There are of course tools that are much more sophisticated, so this isn't a perfect analogy to hardware innovations. And, where subscriptions fit best are when new content is being created for them. Streaming services are a perfect example. Though I doubt we'll see rapid improvements and innovations of the apps that deliver that content, the bulk of the subscription we pay goes to the content creators (at least I hope it does). In the case of an email app, the content is, ugh, email. Not exactly exciting content that we're all on the edge of our seat anticipating the next email.

I've found one company that I've been willing to pay a subscription to for tools. Jetbrains. They have what I think is a fair licensing model that is a compromise that satisfies their need for stable income and my need for control of my budget and upgrade schedule. You pay a subscription for as long as you want regular updates. If your budget is tight this year, you don't have to pay, but you won't get the next update; however, your current version still works and you can keep doing your job using that last version of the software. It has worked so well, I can still handle the cost for now, and they've continued innovating, haven't gone stale, so I keep paying them. Everyone is happy. If they stopped improving, I'd probably stop paying, but I wouldn't be trapped, I could still use the last version of the tools for what they were designed to do.

 

[Osxguy]

Maybe he’s hoping apple will buy it… Apple mail does need an overhaul. That and the contacts app the recent bug of trying to drag a contact to a group then try it again and it just doesn’t work is getting a little old.

 

[michaelprescott]

Maybe he’s hoping apple will buy it… Apple mail does need an overhaul. That and the contacts app the recent bug of trying to drag a contact to a group then try it again and it just doesn’t work is getting a little old.

That's a fair objective and possibility. He has the connections, but also the freedom and agility to produce exactly what he'd envisioned outside the constraints of larger corporate bureaucracy. Maybe a subscription model keeps the lights on long enough to broker that deal, while also making it very clear to Apple that Apple could bring a much larger user base to it. Although, for myself, the moment my email client starts costing a monthly fee is the moment I stop receiving emails, and I probably wouldn't miss it.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

lol, and why do you think Apple is encouraging this sort of anti-consumer behaviour? For fun? Or do you think they are angling for their cut of someone else's work on a monthly/annual basis?

It’s to clean up the App Store From junk. Lot of consumers don’t want to pay ridiculous high upgrade price or let alone full price for new version again. Hence affordable subscription model. For casual users, they only need to pay for only a month or so, and that’s what’s Apple’s targeting.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

I do get it, they aren't running any servers for this software other than the webserver for the general website, all the email processing is done by google and Gmail API access is free.


Kaleidoscope just released v4 today which is also subscription at $8/$14 a month for a diff tool, these people are insane

Uhhhhh yes they do. Push notification requires server to run. If devs wants to run lots of notification, they have to have their own server to push it out.

 

[monster620ie]

umm another subscription.
I am dumping 1password, no more upgrading to their subscription.

 

[svish]

Don't like the subscription model. Would have liked a lifetime purchase option to be available.