Popular iOS Email App 'Spark' Expands to the iPad

[jamescobalt]

Out of all the apps I've tried, Spark is the most solid replacement for what made Mailbox so great - but goes further with additional smart features. If you're on Mailbox (which shuts down tomorrow), you've got to give this a try. I've been using it for a few weeks and really love it.

 

[adrianlondon]

Despite other apps working fine with it, according to Spark, my email provider "doesn't allow remote connections" and hence Spark can't enable notifications. It gets the mail ok, but won't tell me about it until I open the app. Unfortunately, that one bit of missing functionality takes it from useful to useless immediately.

If I notice anyone else having, and fixing, similar issues I'll give it another go. The stock mail app isn't actually that bad but the Spark interface is interesting.

 

[ActionableMango]

As a former Mailbox user, which is shutting down tomorrow, this is coming just in time.

the Spark interface is interesting.

You might try Google Inbox or Microsoft Outlook. They have interfaces and features similar to Spark. I do find Spark to be the best though.

 

[T-Will]

Snoozing email has become essential to my email workflow, so I'm really excited for the iPad version, and the Mac version can't come soon enough!

 

[stulaw11]

Despite other apps working fine with it, according to Spark, my email provider "doesn't allow remote connections" and hence Spark can't enable notifications. It gets the mail ok, but won't tell me about it until I open the app. Unfortunately, that one bit of missing functionality takes it from useful to useless immediately.

If I notice anyone else having, and fixing, similar issues I'll give it another go. The stock mail app isn't actually that bad but the Spark interface is interesting.

Odd maybe email their support. It may simply be something that can't be fixed other than using the stock mail app unfortunately. Apple has deals with some of these services or is set up in a way or something that allows a lot more services to work with it.

Can't really fault the app on that one though.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Make sure you guys set your notifications to "All" when you set your account(s) up. Otherwise it sometimes defaults to "Smart" and that's why you get inconsistent badges, etc.

The new iPad update is great, I LOVE the way they handled the side widgets and how they slide out. Really cool! The Bluetooth keyboard support is fantastic too.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Negatory there ghost rider. I have had the mail app crash repeatedly, fail to open attachments until I reboot my phone, long standing issues with adding gmail accounts in the mail app and continuous phantom unread email indicator that won't go away. These issues occur with my iPhone and my wife's iPhones 5, 6 & 6sPlus over the years. I welcome a 3rd party mail app and will look to see if it works better than the built-in mail app.

the comment I responded to said something like "said no one ever". I'm not saying that everyone has a first class experience with iOS mail.app, just that my experience has been great and I've never felt a need to search out a replacement. I'd expect others have similar experiences to me but my experience alone invalidates the statement "said no one ever".

edit: just realized maybe you were taking issue with my "just work" comment at the end. for me it does, your mileage may vary.

 

[rdlink]

it works well enough for my needs that I've never felt the need to look into a third party replacement. Actually that statement sounds like it's just satisfactory enough that I haven't felt compelled to look; I've never had any complaints, this is one of the things that actually does "just work".

I'm sort of in your camp on this issue. I'm not saying that their aren't apps out there that people might find use for. But I have been pretty happy with the native mail app, and I am typically loathe to use third party apps for something that I can do natively in the Apple ecosystem.

One of the reasons why I use and like Apple products is integration of native apps and the OS with each other. A product would have to really wow me to have me give that up.

But obviously a lot of people have a desire for this, or Readdle wouldn't have made it.

 

[stulaw11]

If you have Gmail or such a 3rd party app will act like "push email" since the notifications go through their servers vs. the iOS mail app lets you do 15, 30, 60, fetch only.

Depends what service you use too.

 

[jon08]

Does anyone know which server ports does Spark use for incoming/outgoing mail? And does it use SSL?

For example, in Mail.app you can set the following options:

SSL
IMAP path prefix
Server Port

while in Spark I don't see any of these. So I was wondering if it was as "safe" to use as the default Mail app?

 

[jdclifford]

Does anyone know how to get a reading panel on iPad in vertical view? I only get it when in horizontal view. Can't find a preference setting.
[doublepost=1456444674][/doublepost]

Does this support IMAP servers? I'm sick of seeing cool email clients that only do Gmail.
IMAP seems to work for me.

 

[devinthomas]

I can't commit to Spark because I can't choose San Fransico as a UI font

 

[stulaw11]

I can't commit to Spark because I can't choose San Fransico as a UI font

WAT?

 

[DoctorTech]

Like one of the earlier comments, I have always "gotten by" with the Apple email app but I have never been a big fan of it. I will have to get Spark a try.

 

[drumcat]

No. The built-in Mail app is just perfect.

False. Apple Mail fails for me with push mail. Spark does not.

 

[pacorob]

CloudMagic still the most complete email solution available (iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Wear). Love their clean, intuitive interface with powerful service integrations.

The UI is clean and nice indeed but that is about it. It lacks so much features I really like and need which are:
- can't search in e-mails older then 2/3 months
- snooze e-mails
- swipe left (short/long)
- landscape view
- save e-mail as PDF
- build in calendar
- attach multiple files from the cloud in one go (like Spark has)
- option to show attachments above the email message (like Outlook does)

There is also a general e-mail app discussion going on here and I've also created an overview here of all apps and their (lack of) features.

Something is wrong with yours then because it works fine here, even for gmail.

Do realize that the "push" is going through their serves to push you the notifications. It is not push email as in Exchange.

Make sure you guys set your notifications to "All" when you set your account(s) up. Otherwise it sometimes defaults to "Smart" and that's why you get inconsistent badges, etc.

It did seem to work yesterday but somehow not anymore this morning. The badge app icon only works with background app refresh on and then still sometimes doesn't show a badge number. I've turned on 'show badge' within the settings of the app for both my e-mail accounts and for 'new messages only' is ticked. it although when you open the app you see new e-mails. I have also allowed showing the badge app icon in the 'Settings app' > 'Notifications' for Spark. In the Spark app 'Protect Notifications Actions' is turned off (at Settings > Privacy). I have my e-mail set to fetch every 30 minutes now for Spark and have also turned on background app refresh for Spark (only). This morning I had 4 e-mail but didn't see a badge icon although this was all set. As soon as I opened the Spark app I noticed the 4 new e-mail showing up and these were all send in the night when the iPhone was in standby.

Thank you Jessica for your tip!! That was the solution to the badge 'problem'. You have to go to the Spark app > Settings > Accounts > press each mail account and set Notification Preferences to 'All'. In my case it was set to 'Smart' with one account and another was set to 'No notifications' for some reason. Maybe it would be good if this was set to 'All' as a standard.

I had see this FAQ page at Readdle's Spark website but didn't read it all. So dumb.

The way you can attach multiple images to a mail (which should be easy to do for Apple) makes spark my default mail app!
Keep believing that!

One of the unique features of Spark is indeed that you can attach multiple files (PDF/DOC whatever) in one go from a cloud storage location.

 

[jef82]

I find Polymail better. It's still in development. But the beta for the Mac will come out today and the IOS alpha is already in the wild. I love this app. It's absolute better than Spark or Mailbox. And the developers are really in communication with us.

 

[pacorob]

I find Polymail better. It's still in development. But the beta for the Mac will come out today and the IOS alpha is already in the wild. I love this app. It's absolute better than Spark or Mailbox. And the developers are really in communication with us.

I have tested Polymail on iOS (only) yesterday and today and although it looks nice and has already quite some features which they build since January '16 so respect to them for already creating this so quickly! But there is still a lot of work to do to compete with Spark, Airmail or Outtlook. See also my comparison sheet here.

These are the main features I'm missing in Polymail for iOS (Alpha):
- Add attachments from cloud storage (e.g. Dropbox) multiple files in one go would be quickest (like Spark)
- Save attachments to the cloud (like Spark)
- Option to show attachments above the email message (like Outlook does)
- Touch ID / password (like Boxer, CloudMagic have)
- Search in archived emails older then two months (like Airmail and Spark)
- Save email as PDF (like Airmail and Spark)
- Snooze to desktop (like Mailbox had)
- Customizable swipe settings (like Airmail and Spark)
- Create multiple signatures (like Spark)
- Task/action list for emails (like Airmail)
- Agenda build in (like Spark, Outlook)
- One tap reply (I read that it's there but couldn't find it in the Alpha version on iOS)
- 3D touch support

 

[stulaw11]

The UI is clean and nice indeed but that is about it. It lacks so much features I really like and need which are:
- can't search in e-mails older then 2/3 months
- snooze e-mails
- swipe left (short/long)
- landscape view
- save e-mail as PDF
- build in calendar
- attach multiple files from the cloud in one go (like Spark has)
- option to show attachments above the email message (like Outlook does)

There is also a general e-mail app discussion going on here and I've also created an overview here of all apps and their (lack of) features.

Agreed. And along those lines Outlook is missing HTML signatures and has the weird can't search more than 60 says or so back. Odd choice to make search that way.

So far, for me, from a business email standpoint (required features to do business, reliable and relatively bug free) Spark comes the closest to having it all; at least in working form.

Outlook has some of the missing things as "planned" but are really slow in implementing them (some have been "planned" status for months), and right now Airmail is way way too buggy to rely on for business. This is also being a beta tester for both of these (plus Spark) using the most current version as of today; Spark and Outlook being the current App Store versions with no current beta.

 

[Mockenrue]

Is there any way to increase text size within messages? Otherwise, Spark has everything I need to replace Mailbox, which I liked very much.

 

[stulaw11]

I have tested Polymail on iOS (only) yesterday and today and although it looks nice and has already quite some features which they build since January '16 so respect to them for already creating this so quickly! But there is still a lot of work to do to compete with Spark, Airmail or Outtlook. See also my comparison sheet here.

These are the main features I'm missing in Polymail for iOS (Alpha):
- Add attachments from cloud storage (e.g. Dropbox) multiple files in one go would be quickest (like Spark)
- Save attachments to the cloud (like Spark)
- Option to show attachments above the email message (like Outlook does)
- Touch ID / password (like Boxer, CloudMagic have)
- Search in archived emails older then two months (like Airmail and Spark)
- Save email as PDF (like Airmail and Spark)
- Snooze to desktop (like Mailbox had)
- Customizable swipe settings (like Airmail and Spark)
- Create multiple signatures (like Spark)
- Task/action list for emails (like Airmail)
- Agenda build in (like Spark, Outlook)
- One tap reply (I read that it's there but couldn't find it in the Alpha version on iOS)
- 3D touch support

I find Polymail better. It's still in development. But the beta for the Mac will come out today and the IOS alpha is already in the wild. I love this app. It's absolute better than Spark or Mailbox. And the developers are really in communication with us.

Do you have an extra Polymail invite code?

 

[jef82]

Do you have an extra Polymail invite code?

For Mac or IOS?

 

[pacorob]

Do you have an extra Polymail invite code?

I have one for your for iOS if you want. The app isn't stable in my opinion. I'm missing e-mails that I'm seeing in other e-mail apps like Spark, Outlook or Apple's Mail. Also it's constantly 'syncing' but still older e-mails from a week old (also from Polymail itself are not shown in the app although they are in my Gmail inbox).

 

[AliMacs]

Does anyone know which server ports does Spark use for incoming/outgoing mail? And does it use SSL?

For example, in Mail.app you can set the following options:

SSL
IMAP path prefix
Server Port

while in Spark I don't see any of these. So I was wondering if it was as "safe" to use as the default Mail app?

It uses OAUTH when accessing gmail and apple's iCloud services. For yahoo, exchange, and others that don't support OAUTH protocol your login/passwords are stored..they claim stored in encrypted memory and using Amazon AWS. They use TLS for end to end encryption, however.

See the notes: https://readdle.com/blog/2015/06/how-we-handle-your-account-information-in-spark/

 

[Readdlemate]

CloudMagic still the most complete email solution available (iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Wear). Love their clean, intuitive interface with powerful service integrations.

Our further plans include all of these platforms and devices too At least version for Mac this year

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456918211][/doublepost]

Then it sells to Google, and then Google decides to pull the plug. The faith of email apps.

Nope, we don't have plans to sell our apps Our plans are so huge

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456918331][/doublepost]

This doesn't seem to properly support Push. Across multiple accounts, when I get a new message the iOS Mail app will have a badge on it and give me a notification banner, while Spark just sits idle until I actually open the app.

We'll greatly improve badge in the nearest update Sorry for this temporary issue

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456918640][/doublepost]

Something is wrong with yours then because it works fine here, even for gmail.

Do realize that the "push" is going through their serves to push you the notifications. It is not push email as in Exchange.

We'll improve badges in the nearest update. For the moment all info processes on your device, but push notifications require server side processing. Anyway, it's safe and secure

You can check more detail on our blog: https://readdle.com/blog/2015/06/how-we-handle-your-account-information-in-spark/

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456918770][/doublepost]

Background refresh not on for the app in settings?

Wont update if that's not on.

You should activate it in device Settings. If is doesn't work properly, please contact out support at helpspot@readdle.com. We'll try to find the reason of this issue.

Thanks!

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456918856][/doublepost]

currently my #1 desired email feature is a "mute thread" button. especially when you work in an 80 person office and people start replying all with comments like "cool!" "yay!" "thanks for this!"

Agree! Disable threads option is planned for future updates

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456919474][/doublepost]

Out of all the apps I've tried, Spark is the most solid replacement for what made Mailbox so great - but goes further with additional smart features. If you're on Mailbox (which shuts down tomorrow), you've got to give this a try. I've been using it for a few weeks and really love it.

Thanks a lot for kind words

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456919620][/doublepost]

Despite other apps working fine with it, according to Spark, my email provider "doesn't allow remote connections" and hence Spark can't enable notifications. It gets the mail ok, but won't tell me about it until I open the app. Unfortunately, that one bit of missing functionality takes it from useful to useless immediately.

If I notice anyone else having, and fixing, similar issues I'll give it another go. The stock mail app isn't actually that bad but the Spark interface is interesting.

Would you please contact the team at helpspot@readdle.com? We'd be glad to take a closer look at this issue.

Thanks!

best regards,
Readdle Team
[doublepost=1456919889][/doublepost]

Does anyone know which server ports does Spark use for incoming/outgoing mail? And does it use SSL?

For example, in Mail.app you can set the following options:

SSL
IMAP path prefix
Server Port

while in Spark I don't see any of these. So I was wondering if it was as "safe" to use as the default Mail app?

We've written a big post on our blog how Spark handles information:

https://readdle.com/blog/2015/06/how-we-handle-your-account-information-in-spark/

Hope it helps

best regards,
Readdle Team