Email app indecision - gmail or mail.app

[Jalm]

I have been struggling with my personal email management a bit. I have one gmail account For a few years I’ve used SaneBox to filter out the noise so i can focus on the real emails and save the other email to batch process which worked well for me.

Over the last few months I have been using the gmail app (web and iOS) and using their default mail sorting tools (all 4 additional inbox tabs active) in place of SaneBox. The idea here was keeping everything in gmails native apps and using their tools would make things easier and provide a more consistent experience across the devices I use.

After a few months I am split between the two setups and there are things i love in each but cant figure out how to replicate in both. I am curious how others have setup gmail to work for them or just abandoned the gmail app for mail.app.

Gmail setup:

Pros

• Extremely fast
• Great search
• Additional features are nicely implemented (snooze, delay send, nudges, unsubscribe, predictive reply)
• Push notifications
• Familiar keyboard shortcuts

Cons

• Even with the new design its too busy for me. Too many different colors/formats and poor differentiation between messages
• I hate the 4 tabs. It’s less about the number of tabs (i think 2 is the right number, but that’s personal) its more that the new bundles are always present. Each time i open the app/ look at the web app there is always something new in one or more bundles. The OCD side of me wants to clear these when i see them. This is the biggest con for me.
• The archive/trash buttons are at the top of the screen (not a quick place to react to an email)
• On iPhone, there is no auto advance to the next message always back to the inbox.
• Every so often the apps try to get me to move to Chrome / hate the ads

mail.app with SaneBox

Pros

• I can customize the sane folders to my liking and can make them favorites in mail.app for quick access
• Auto advance / quickly take action on emails
• Very familiar and comfortable with with the UI

Cons

• Have to jerryrig notifications (e.g., using VIPs) otherwise non-important emails trigger notifications occasionally
• One more service interacting with my mail
• poor search / access to advanced features

I have yet to find a way that SaneBox plays nice with Gmail iOS apps (cant favorite a folder and archiving messages in sane folders in particular).

[Applegeek]

Can’t give too much feedback on which to choose, but in terms of ease of use for Gmail, a quick tip is to use shortcuts. Very easy to archive, etc, without having to use the mouse.

[wweber]

With Gmail I actually use multiple apps for different purposes. I use Mail.app to move mail between accounts. I use Airmail.app to quickly browser, delete or archive email with swipe actions. I personally like the tabs in the Gmail web interface, so I use it as well. I believe you can set it up to display the tabs that you want it to display.

[rms]

Why not use both?

__________ (padding to make extra characters as req’d)

[Jalm]

That is a lot of apps to manage email I don’t mind the tabs if i could mute the new email notifications. That’s what i find annoying and problematic.

[Jalm]

If there were a good way to use SaneBox with the iOS gmail app i would. I haven’t found a way to make them work well together (this is different that gmail as a mail service with SaneBox which works great).

[wweber]

Some day I’ll find one I like… maybe.

[ldebritto]

Is there a way to have gmail message links work on iPhone?

[officelurker]

Since I pay for GSuite I have no ads. I have tried the viewing email with Mail but I still find the Gmail web interface vastly superior.

The four tabs can be configured to show none. Your inbox can be configured to show Unread first, then Starred then All. Its fully customizable. I don’t see anything too over the top on my config. See screen shot. My display density is set to Compact.