Apple’s aging email app opens the door for another contender

3 points by colincarter41 10 years ago | 9 comments

Apple Mail is, like the company’s other core apps, displaying what looks to me like a gradual deterioration in quality. Its biggest problem is a technical incompatibility that makes it slow to receive messages from Google’s Gmail, which now has a billion users.

chmaynard 10 years ago |

I recommend that you write a blog post on this topic, and try to support your assertions with formal evidence and citations. When you're done, post a link to your blog post on Hacker News.

chmaynard 10 years ago | |

Also, please report any issues with Apple Mail here: https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/. Whatever the problem is, it won't get fixed if you don't report it to Apple.

brianjking 10 years ago | |

Agreed!

softinio 10 years ago |

I must admit inbox by gmail is so good I am never going to need to use a mail client on any computer ever again.

If you havent tried it give it a try. Its workflow is different and until you get used to it you wont appreciate it.

BjoernKW 10 years ago |

There are various competitors already and every few months or so another one seems to crop up.

The reason I keep using Apple Mail is that those competitors for the most part don't offer these features (at least to my knowledge there's not a single competing solution out there that supports all of them):

- non-GMail accounts (Exchange, standard IMAP etc.)

- email encryption

- multiple signatures for multiple accounts

SyneRyder 10 years ago | |

I'm pretty sure Postbox would tick all of those boxes. I definitely use non-GMail accounts and multiple signatures - each account has a different default signature, and I can change the signature on individual messages on the fly.

Not sure about encryption, but it's bound to have a PGP plugin or something similar. Postbox is partly derived from Thunderbird, so it would probably satisfy your requirements as well.

Edit: Just realized that I've assumed Apple Mail refers to the Mac version. I'm not sure about iOS, but the new Microsoft Outlook (rebranded Acompli) might do some of those things. Personally I use mobile only for triage, and write emails when I'm on my laptop.

chmaynard 10 years ago |

You're referring to the Mail app on the Mac, correct? I have two email accounts, gmail and icloud. Mail seems to handle them both very well in OS X, except for Search on the gmail server.

AznHisoka 10 years ago |

The alternative is gmail, either the native app or web version. Case closed. Nothing to see here.

manibatra 10 years ago |

Using Airmail since long instead of the stock mail app. Could not be happier.