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Why don't we admit that iOS does not have actual threaded email?

N

negro napoleon

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 19, 2011
66
0
When you're in gmail and you want to see the message you JUST replied to someone with an email, it shows it to you inline with all of the received messages from that person. It's a real thread. You can see who replies and you can also keep up with what you send.

Mail in iOS is NOT threaded email. If I reply to an email and I then want to review the message I sent to someone, I must exit the inbox, then scroll down to the accounts tab, then click on any one of the three accounts I have, then find the "send" tab, and hope to figure out which email I was replying to when I sent that message. It's horribly inefficient.

Even further, on iOS' Mail if you reply to a message or forward a message, all you can see is a little arrow showing a forward or a "curled" arrow implying a reply...but there is no way to see that reply inline with the emails you're receiving.

Above all, this is my BIGGEST pet peeve with iOS 6 mail. Way bigger than the lack of labels, or bigger than the fact that exchange emails don't play nice with notification center.

Only being able to view messages you receive from a contact is NOT threaded messaging. Threads incorporate what you send out as well. The desktop/web version of gmail does this. The Gmail app for iOS does this. Apple's Mail, does not.
 
Yeah, I'm hoping this is coming in an update. Right now it just shows the other person's emails together. But not your replies, which is kind of dumb.
 
The stock mail app is horrid. Really annoying to use compared to Gmail app. Thank god for the Gmail app update yesterday :)
 
A weirdly antagonistic way to request a conversation view in iOS mail. :)
 
LearnIIBurn said:
The stock mail app is horrid. Really annoying to use compared to Gmail app. Thank god for the Gmail app update yesterday :)
Click to expand...

I'm going to start using this gmail app more often.

Exchange doesn't even work well with the native Mail app and Notification center because deleted emails don't disappear from the notification center window.

Whats to lose?
 
Are there any other mail providers/clients that do threading like Gmail does?
 
Can you flip flop it and use Gmail to receive corporate exchange email?

EDIT: You can't....just tried.
 
negro napoleon said:
The gmail app itself that was just released/updated.
Click to expand...
Right, that's Gmail's own app supporting what Gmail does--I'm curious if there are other mail providers/clients (mobile/desktop/web/etc.) that do threading in the way that Gmail does.

For example, Gmail has labels and doesn't really have folders--pretty much no other email provider/client does that. That doesn't necessarily mean that those providers/clients aren't doing something right, it just means they aren't doing things the way that Gmail decided to do things (as good, or bad, as Gmail's way might be).
 
C DM said:
Right, that's Gmail's own app supporting what Gmail does--I'm curious if there are other mail providers/clients (mobile/desktop/web/etc.) that do threading in the way that Gmail does.

For example, Gmail has labels and doesn't really have folders--pretty much no other email provider/client does that. That doesn't necessarily mean that those providers/clients aren't doing something right, it just means they aren't doing things the way that Gmail decided to do things (as good, or bad, as Gmail's way might be).
Click to expand...

Outlook has a conversation view similar to Gmail. OS X Mail does as well (starting with Lion).
 
BaldiMac said:
Yep. So does OS X Mail.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I haven't really come across Gmail's thread view in other places, so I wasn't sure if it's done (or supported) by anyone else, similar to labels.

So, if that's the case, perhaps it's the difference between thread vs. conversation view (as someone pointed out earlier), and just a matter of some clients supporting one vs. the other?
 
C DM said:
Interesting. I haven't really come across Gmail's thread view in other places, so I wasn't sure if it's done (or supported) by anyone else, similar to labels.

So, if that's the case, perhaps it's the difference between thread vs. conversation view (as someone pointed out earlier), and just a matter of some clients supporting one vs. the other?
Click to expand...

Traditionally, email clients have supported a feature called something similar to "Group by Thread" which simply grouped messages within a single mailbox by thread. That's what iOS Mail uses.

Conversation view allows you to view the whole thread across mailboxes. It requires a client with more advanced search and indexing abilities. iOS Mail doesn't even keep all your messages on the device, so I'm not sure how they would implement it.
 
negro napoleon said:
Thats kinda my point. OS X Mail.app even does in-line threaded conversation.
Click to expand...

Yep, but like I pointed out in my last post, iOS Mail does not keep all of your messages locally because of limited storage and bandwidth, so building a conversation view would be a problem.

The Gmail app deals with this by indexing the conversations on the server. But iOS Mail doesn't have this option since it must support multiple email providers through standard protocols.
 
BaldiMac said:
Yep, but like I pointed out in my last post, iOS Mail does not keep all of your messages locally because of limited storage and bandwidth, so building a conversation view would be a problem.

The Gmail app deals with this by indexing the conversations on the server. But iOS Mail doesn't have this option since it must support multiple email providers through standard protocols.
Click to expand...

BlackBerry could do this with no problem...
 
BaldiMac said:
Again, because Blackberry handled this functionality on their own server. All your email went through RIM's servers.
Click to expand...

So all Apple has to do is to make their own servers to handle this issue?

I mean because what they have right now is REALLY piss poor.
 
Can't admit it since I didn't deny it in the first place. Mail is still not one of the better default apps despite getting updates nearly every major software update... Sigh:(
 
negro napoleon said:
So all Apple has to do is to make their own servers to handle this issue?
Click to expand...

I hope not. I wouldn't want all of my email to go through Apple's servers. I doubt it's even practical with multiple email accounts for 400 million iOS users!

I mean because what they have right now is REALLY piss poor.
Click to expand...

Not really. It's how most email clients work. It's just not what you want. Luckily, you have the option to use the Gmail app!
 
Sparrow would've been the best Email app if it had not been abandoned half-way and supported push notifications.

Bet everyone would've bought it if it supported push. Features-wise, it triumphs the default mail app in every single aspect. :cool:
 
If I have gmail, is there anything that the stock ios mail app can do that the newly updated gmail app cannot do? I remember I tried using the gmail app a while ago instead of the stock one but getting frustrated and returning to stock, but I don't remember my reasons why now.

Edit: I think maybe it had something to do with how email was displayed in the notification center?
 
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I hate thread email. :confused: Part of the reason I gave up on the web-access Gmail client is because it's confusing as hell to figure out what was a forward, what was a reply, what was a reply all, etc. I've also been in the corporate world (Outlook-dependent) for awhile now, so that may contribute to it.

Not everything has to function like a text message.
 
Prototypical said:
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I hate thread email. :confused: Part of the reason I gave up on the web-access Gmail client is because it's confusing as hell to figure out what was a forward, what was a reply, what was a reply all, etc. I've also been in the corporate world (Outlook-dependent) for awhile now, so that may contribute to it.

Not everything has to function like a text message.
Click to expand...
Disabling or enabling threading in Gmail is actually one of the general options available in settings, so it's fairly easy to use a more "regular" view with each message being separate if desired (or vice versa).

Outlook, at least the more recent versions, also have threading, or actually more like conversation view--which can also be enabled or disabled based on user preference--so it's actually closer to Gmail in that respect.
 
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