Giving Airmail a second chance

For what it is worth, I just bcc OF or Things using Apple Mail. The subject is the task, the message is in the body and the deep link is automatically added to the task. Works perfectly and no subscription and for all that it lacks, Mail is stable and reliable. :slight_smile:

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it has a link or message option but I only use message. I set the due date and fire it off. if I need to slide it into a project I just do it in review later.

Okay thanks - then the Airmail - Dispatch - Newton - Mail.app clipper remain the superior solution unfortunately.

I really, really hope they rewrite this for Spark 3.

@bmosbacker thanks - I find this a tad too involved for mail processing on the go though (have to process it again in the inbox and you have tons of useless forwards sitting in your sent folder). Mac works well for all this, you have plenty of solutions, but iOS remains a poor environment for proper task integration. Unless you use Dispatch for as long as it will work…

Ok, you got me curious so I reinstalled Airmail. I go to the Services to add Omnifocus and then I see Workflow sitting there… not Shortucuts. Workflow. Its really hard to take this app seriously

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So now you have me curious. I have the same workflow on the Mac and iOS/iPadOS—I forward. Other thank being easier to drag/drop an email, what solutions are available on the Mac that are not on the other devices?

As to forwarded emails and the need to process in the inbox, I do that routinely anyway as part of the GTD weekly review so I don’t find it a particular friction point—but obviously, everyone’s needs and preferences are different.

PS, I’ll add that I don’t like the web-based email links in Spark, which I’ve tried too many times to use as my default. I assume Airmail does something similar.

Never said you should :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

@Bmosbacker This is what I get when I use the Mail.app OF service (or Airmail, or Newton) on macOS:

I can immediately fill all task details without a second pass (it’s the prepopulated OF quick entry with a backlink)

On iOS, I want to see this

which I only get through Dispatch, Airmail and Newton again.

(Of course, backlinks need to work cross-platform)

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It’s been pretty decent so far. Search is a lot better than it used to be.
Still, it’s just been a day and I haven’t removed the other apps—just turned notifications off.

Annoyingly, it’s still a rough around the edges like in the e-mail composer, and it doesn’t seem to have a toggle to show/hide email quote history like Spark does (Airmail cant hide after expanding). Small QoL polish is missing.

What are you using these days?

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iOS. Seems ok on iPadOS too.

I wouldn’t touch macOS Airmail at all. Mimestream is far superior and it’s still in beta.

This is just for my Google Workspace account. Native Gmail features are nice to have here so Airmail has an advantage over Spark and others.
My email accounts are all in Apple Mail as well (with Gmail.app as a fallback for the Google accounts) on iOS and macOS.
Good to have some backup options and it doesn’t affect me much with notification redundancy reduced.

Forgot to add: I don’t use OF and prefer to manually add deep links to my Things 3 items at will manually and not always. This is where we differ.

I sheepishly went back to Mail.app augmented by Mailbutler for send later. I’m on a Mac most of the time (and I plan on replacing my iPad Pro on the road with a 13’ MBP) so it works well enough. I wish I had a better way of processing email on iPhone though but so far Dispatch still works.

If only Spark would fix its task integration though I’d be back in it. I find Airmail’s delayed send really untrustworthy especially with aliases.

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It takes an extra two clicks to do this in Spark. After you send it to OF, we are looking at OF. we just click the inbox and there its is. click on it to add the info. it is clunky of Spark and I wonder why they have not fixed it.

But Sparks notifcations work on non-Google iMAP servers whereas Airmail does not.

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Mail.app is pretty alright on macOS so I totally understand you there. Fingers crossed that MailKit enables a new set of developers to take the app further.

I am disappointed to yet again admit Airmail is not cutting. A day of emailing later and that app has been continually breaking reply and forward formatting and I just cannot work with that. It’s a shame really, because the labels and workflows were much appreciated.

Also I admit I don’t believe Airmail processes any email sending unless I see the bar at the bottom says so.
Even Spark sometimes fails to send an email if I leave the app too quickly while the undo option is ticking down.

Anyways, back to Spark for me because Mail.app on iOS 15 still doesn’t support Gmail aliases.

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Thanks for taking one for the team and letting us know. It’s mystifying that Airmail remains in that state after so many years. It will always be thus, I’m afraid.

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Yes, but I had his back …. Though pretty far back after being burned my Airmail before! :laughing:

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why do you keep making me install Airmail?!?! :grinning:

I had decided that Spark had won the iOS war by sucking the least, then you pointed out the omnifocus flaw that I had just accepted as ok… now Airmail handles the omifocus integration but does not have notifications. so I am stuck with two faulty mail apps again… :sob:

I am starting to believe that mail app developers are the least talented devs in iOS…

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I use Hook to tie my tasks and Spark mails together. Works great.

It’s not me this time! Not me! I didn’t start it again! :sweat_smile:

I did the same calculation as you did, that Spark was the one sucking the least (I even devised an OF inbox perspective to specifically catch Spark deep links in notes for processing tasks). That is, if you use iOS and macOS on a roughly equal footing. If not, the balance shifts a lot when you have access to macOS’ scripting capabilities. At the moment, I find that Mail.app + Mailbutler is the most stable / powerful combination. (But fear not, it’s gonna change in in three months :grin:)

There definitely is a Spark 3.0 on the way (as stated by Readdle on Twitter). I really, really hope they revisit their task integration at that time. If they do, Spark is definitely going to be the clear winner.

I wholeheartedly agree with you: how is it that no email app does everything right? It’s not like it’s a very opinionated thing.

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Doesn’t work so well on iOS though. :wink:

for macOS, Spark is missing the macOS services menu unless you select all of an email’s text but Airmail on macOS is a cobbled together disaster. So winner by default, Spark.

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aaaannnndddd… I am back on Airmail iOS and macOS… :dizzy_face:

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Ahahah you got there faster than I did :laughing:
How is it going?

On my end, I have KM’ed the hell of out Apple Mail to have the Airmail action sounds :grin: