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).