Someone smarter than us once said that email is a “to-do list made for you by other people”. Be that as it may, email is a necessary evil for most of us, but navigating it needn’t be a pain. The vast majority of email users use Microsoft’s Outlook or Google’s Gmail, but that’s no reason to stick to their accompanying mobile apps. Here are some of the best alternatives for getting on top of your inbox, and staying there.
Technically a reworked Gmail, Inbox is a free app that tries to ensure you never miss an important email while keeping the frivolous ones at bay. It groups related emails together, shows you pertinent info (like upcoming travel plans and recent online purchases) without needing to actually open the email in question, and lets you set reminders or mark key emails for follow-up. Sadly, Inbox only works with Gmail accounts, but if you already live in Google’s email ecosystem it’s well worth a look. You can also run it alongside other email apps to see if its smart-filtering is for you before committing to it entirely.
Edison Mail (Android, iOS)
Designed with Apple users in mind, Airmail supports Gmail, Exchange, IMAP and POP systems, and offers a range of gesture controls, powerful filtering options and excellent third-party app support for importing documents or saving attachments. It’ll also handle multiple accounts (and multiple email signatures) with aplomb, and support for 3D Touch makes it possible to peek at emails without opening them. We particularly like the option to open links in browsers other than Safari. Airmail costs R80 once off.
Trove (Android, iOS)
Designed with enterprise users in mind, Boxer offers a range of gesture controls and lets you manage multiple email accounts, calendars and your contacts all from a single app. You can also create canned responses for frequent replies and, in addition to supporting Exchange, Office 365, Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud email systems, it also integrates with third-party business apps like Box, Evernote and Google Drive to make handling attachments and getting them to the necessary people easier.
Astro Mail (Android, iOS)
This one costs R110 and really does take the email-as-to-do-list approach to heart. Serious about sorting and categorising, Dispatch’s real strength is the way it can interact with other apps like Evernote, Pocket and Fantastical. It’s other secret weapon is the ability to create “snippets” of frequent responses that you can add to replies with a tap, so you’ll never again have to type your office address or diplomatically decline an invitation to an irrelevant event. Dispatch is good with IMAP mail service, but sadly doesn’t work with POP email accounts.
So, you’re a card-carrying member of team open source and you’re looking for an email client with support for IMAP, POP, and WebDAV accounts? Want support for multiple email accounts and a unified inbox, too, along with support for OpenPGP encryption via an OpenKeychain add-on? Well then, you’ve come to the right place. The layout might look a little dated, but you can jazz it up with various themes. And because it’s an ongoing project, who knows what features are yet to come?