Anyone else think the new mail app in iOS 13 is a step backward?

Software
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Hi, folks.

I am curious to know what others think of the new Mail features in iOS 13.1.2

Here’s my take:

It’s a shame that a company with the amount of staff, developers, etc. like Apple can’t get the core set of features right in their own mail application.

My most aggravating use case is archiving email. To do this, I have to long press an email. When I do, the archive option isn’t available.

That is, unless I go to Settings and change the account options from delete to archive. Why do I have to make that choice at all? It’s been this way from the beginning and I think it’s one of the quirkiest and dumbest things I’ve seen in the app.

Assuming I do that, I am at least two taps away from removing the email from my inbox. Or one tap when I change that option in Settings. I really wish I could have Archive and delete options in the bottom menu bar when looking at the email list. This is just not an option. It’s either/or and never both.

FYI, swipes are no better as they mirror the long press options and the Settings parameters.

It wouldn’t be so bad if we had the ability to customize the swipe, lower menu bar, or long press options.

Having to choose between archive and delete is a miss in my book.

Yes, I can use other mail clients (and I use 3 or four different ones, with Spark being the current incumbent).

The issue is that using another app means I have to agree to their 3rd party license agreements and privacy policies.

Given Apple’s marketing around security & privacy, the ads seem very much like a gimmick given the lack of user options in the stock Mail app. Clearly they weren’t thinking about these things when improving the mail app.

In the end, “lipstick on a pig,” seems like an apt expression to describe my perspective.

Okay. Now that I have that out of the way, I’d like to figure out a solution.

What, if any options have other MPU users found to deal with this situation? Again, I have the, “use another email app,” down in spades. I’ve been looking at options and researching on line and while I have found a number of complaints, I’ve not found any real working solutions.

For example, is there a Shortcut that would allow for a one-tap Archive function in the stock mail app?

Thanks in advance for helping me noodle through this one.

//swh

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I swipe right to archive, and left to delete. It came that way out of the box for me, don’t recall changing it.

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When viewing the message on an iPhone, the swipe right/left still requires a tap on the archive or delete icon. If the archive icon existed at the bottom of the screen next to the delete icon, the extra motion would be eliminated.

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If you use an iPad with a keyboard there are different shortcuts for delete and archive.

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No, you can also just swipe.
Keep pulling one way or the other. It’s a really quick way to go through email.

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6

Same here - I do this all the time!

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Swiping to the right marks a message read/unread. What am I missing? (Genuine question, no sarcasm)

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You can modify the swipe actions in settings. Should be able to customize to whatever you need.

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That’s much more likely to work than the stern looks that I was giving it :slight_smile:

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I don’t think it’s possible to add a second action to swipe right in 13. And the available actions for left and right are either archive or delete depending on what you have set discard to do in account -> Advanced Settings. But I am happy to be corrected.

I did find out you can long press the archive icon when viewing an email to get the non-default action (e.g., if you’ve set discard to trash, you can long press and choose archive instead.)

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I can get a long swipe to work from the summary view (the one showing all messages in a mailbox) but not when actually reading the message. When reading the message, an attempt to long swipe just bounces back to show the icons.

I cannot get the video to play so not sure if it shows the summary or the individual message.

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I actually like the Apple mail app on iOS a lot!
Works great, no frills, easy swiping to archive-delete, vip options for quick retrieval, easy (and fast) search.

I know the google implementation of imap (which is way off industry standard) sometimes does not play well. But if that’s all?

I’m fine with it as a basic, free (!!!), and well integrated email app.

My only issue with it: no share-sheet option!

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I’m finding Mail on iPad OS 13 buggy. However, it’s the only email client I can use for work emails.

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Don’t get me started on the lack of automation here. :stuck_out_tongue:

In all seriousness, I agree. If the stock mail app could be opened up to 3rd party developers so that I could have a one button tap to export email to a Devonthink database as a PDF, well then, life would be swell.

Until then, I have to use very capable 3rd party apps, and agree to their less than ideal privacy policies.

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13.1.3 did not fix my “marking an email as read when you open it is unreliable” bug.

There was one advertised mail fix.

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I agree, that is too many taps (5)

They could easily solve this by adding a sharesheet to mail. But hey… one can hope