Airmail 3 - A Unified email Experience to Rule Them All

Several months ago I wrote about my discovery of Spark email. I wrote about what I like and disliked in the app. Although Spark wasn’t perfect, I preferred it to the built-in iOS Mail app. I used Spark exclusively on iOS for a month.But then, a reader wrote and told me I should check out Airmail by Bloop. I had tried an earlier version of Airmail, but was less than impressed. Regardless, I decided to check out what had changed in the latest version.When I read the updated features of Airmail along with the promise of a simplified unified experience across all devices, I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did—I’ve used Airmail exclusively as my email client since mid-July.From the Airmail website:

Airmail 3 is a new mail client designed for El Capitan with fast performance and intuitive interaction. Support for iCloud™, MS Exchange, Gmail™, Google™ Apps, IMAP, POP3, Yahoo!™, AOL™, Outlook.com™, Live.com™Airmail was designed from the ground to retain the same experience with a single or multiple accounts and provide a quick, modern and easy-to-use user experience. Airmail is clean and allows you to get to your emails without interruption - it’s the mail client for the 21st century.

Beside the unified experience, I particularly appreciate the ability to customize every aspect of the email experience.In addition, Airmail supports services (the actions I use most commonly include saving attachments to Evernote or moving an email to an Omnifocus task).There are 4 customizable swipes. I  chose to customize this feature in the following manner:

  1. short left swipe-DELETE email
  2. long left swipe-bring up action menu
  3. short right swipe-Archive
  4. long right swipe-Snooze (message disappears to re-appear at a future time).

Another nice perk is the ability to synchronize accounts and settings using iCloud. This feature alone saved me tons of time when setting the app up on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad.I’ve been incredibly happy with Airmail over the past several months and don’t anticipate this changing. I hope you’ll give Airmail a try.

Spark by Readdle - my new email app

eMail is the bane of everyone's existence. Although I’ve been pretty diligent about reading email on the go, a problem I frequently faced was the issue of “skimmed emails”-those emails I read on the go but failed to immediately process. Later, when I returned to my Mac, I often missed the skimmed email because each appeared "read." Unfortunately, until recently, I had not found a suitable solution to this recurrent problem.I am a big fan of Macsparky. One of my favorite features on David Spark’s Web Site is the sharing of user’s home screens. In a recent post, I saw Brett Kelly (Website)(Twitter) mention Spark by Readdle and decided to give it a try. I have to say I’ve been incredibly impressed. Spark has completely replaced Mail.app on my phone and iPad. I can’t imagine going back.Spark is one of those apps that is a delight to use. The developers paid a great deal of attention to user-interface design. Even now, several weeks into my exploration, I continue to find subtle features that really do live up to Readdle's promise to have me “Like Your email Again."Spark has almost completely eliminated the Skimming problem on my phone. I now process 98% of my emails as I read them on the go. My Inbox has remained essentially empty since I started using the App.A few minor suggestions that could make the program even better: 1. the ability to add actions to swipes (ala Drafts) and 2. the addition of other gestures (taps?) that would further enhance the number of customizable processing options.Spark is now my iOS email client of choice. I hope you give it a try too.