Okay I have to say, this experience might turn out quite short as, after living in the beautiful land of Jony Ive for a few years, I find Gmail almost ugly to use to an almost unbearable point and the iOS Gmail app is stupidly limited in so many dumbfounding ways (no autoadvance? no syncing of custom symbols? And people think Apple Mail is lagging behind?)
Spark is so pleasing by comparison, it’s almost unbelievable.
Also having to keep my contacts in Google separately from iCloud makes me very uncomfortable.
There’s a good likelihood I’m not going to stay in Gmail, but using it made me realise what things it really does right and how I could emulate that in other systems.
The Gmail design is really too rough and material design on iOS is making my eyes sore, as well as the stupid lack of parity between web and mobile. Decided I didn’t want my contacts in Google to be able to use my email, and that I was happy being Google free.
However, the automatic filtering is very good, and that showed me how much more granular I could be with email.
So, I have finally cleaned all my systems to converge all to Fastmail the proper way (with IMAP import instead of forwards), I am back to Spark, with Sanebox reactivated, the whole providing three levels or urgency: SaneLater, regular inbox, pinned emails.
It’s by no means perfect, my dream would be Airmail that finally works, but it’s the best setup available at this moment with my requirements.
I might be a matter of taste but one thing is sure, I work with text all day and Google’s typography is not only ugly as hell, it makes no damn sense. It irks me as well that an iOS app tries so hard to look Android. I’ve used that enough, thank you. Microsoft makes a much better job at keeping their identity while leaning into the aesthetics of Apple platforms.
I’ve considered some really ugly programs beautiful because they worked well and made my job easier. I been using email a long time and Gmail/G Suite is my all time favorite service. I use the web interface or Mailplane on the Mac and the Gmail app on IOS because they do the job.
But that’s me. At some point, PCs, Macs, and most other platforms became just tools to get things done. I prefer some (Macs) over the others but then, like @MacSparky says, “There’s a certain amount of delight that comes with using the iPad.”
I am more than ready to use something that’s not enticing to the eye but highly powerful - among my daily drivers are OmniFocus, DEVONthink and Obsidian which, while not plain ugly, and not the sexiest of apps (Things seduces a lot of customers on appearance alone). But Material Design… nah. Google apps feel way too Googly but, above all, Gmail is not providing me with the level of power that would be worth using such an eye sore. (Typography! For a text app! Come on!)
I left Windows for the delight I found in the Apple ecosystem and since I spend most of my waking hours on devices, it’s true I want to enjoy my tools to some extent, not just get things done with them (would have stayed on Windows otherwise)
Thanks for your wishes - Spark promises « lots of features to come », I’m excited for a potential v. 3.0!
I have deleted the apps so I don’t have screenshots but my main gripes are
The Google brand font has atrocious legibility; it’s fine for branding, but refrain from using it in the apps for some regular text
The main font of the text is both extremely small and wastes whitespace around it. All other apps on iOS use system fonts which are perfectly fine and actually designed for the device
Nope, happens with Fastmail too. Spark is the best third-party app I’ve tested at finding stuff as long as it’s recent (must be in cache), Airmail sucks (as with most things they deliver but barely work). I have an Alfred custom search to fall back directly on searching directly on the Fastmail server when I can’t find something I know exists. Gmail definitely is king in that area.
Not to sound like a broken record, but native Mac UI with Gmail’s search quality is essentially the use case for Mimestream. It’s in beta but functional, and you might find it prevents some of that switching back and forth, or at least lets you load a performant native app for your searches.
Well, I write for a living so I’m bound to be a typography power user. There are long historic reasons, some which are centuries old, of why text looks the way it does and it baffles me the way digital sometimes ignores all that came before, as if it had invented everything.
I truly dislike working in email on the web. Esp the Gmail interface. But when it comes to email function over form for myself. I rely on search a lot. Maybe I should Spark a try but privacy and security issues why me away from Spark.
MailMate is old school and I have zero experience with it. Anyone have any experience with MailMate and its search capabilities?