iOS mail client *OTHER THAN* Mail.app - any updates in the past few years?

Software
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It looks like this was discussed on the forum back in 2020-ish, but that’s a long time in app land.

Basically, I’m cranky with Mail. It just stopped sending/receiving one of my accounts for well over a day. No errors, no warnings, nothing. The account worked fine on other devices (and even on other devices on the same network), and the only solution was deleting the problematic account and setting it up again. At that point, Mail promptly forgot the password for a Gmail account and an account on a third, unrelated server.

So I’d like to actually give a reasonable-ish amount of money to a third-party developer, if there’s a decent multi-account mail client out there. All I need is IMAP (and, I guess, Google’s flavor of IMAP - although my usage of Gmail is minor). I would prefer a client that doesn’t have its own strong opinion about sorting/rules/etc. since that’s all handled on my headless server.

I’m currently looking at Preside (‎Preside email on the App Store).

Anything else I should be considering?

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AFAIK Google’s IMAP is the same patched up 40 year old IMAP that everyone else uses, that’s been extended to use OAuth 2 and multiple labels per message. Microsoft also offers OAuth 2 so Outlook might work well for you.

I’ve never heard of Preside. But it has good reviews and looks interesting so I say try it, if you think it’s worth $25 a year.

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I always liked Spark for my “I don’t feel like using the stock app right now” phases. Nice design, easy to use, and customizable.

There are some potential privacy issues, but I don’t think anything more alarming than other third party apps.

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I’m ruling out apps that feel the need to save a copy of my credentials on their servers. Nothing I do is NSA-level secret or anything, but I can’t justify the business risk.

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I doubt any email client can provide any advanced functionality on iOS - including notifications and send later - without storing access tokens (not credentials) as there needs to be a server to provide the send later functionality, or send the notifications.

At least Spark/Readdle are clear on how they use this, and how to remove this if you stop using the client. On the Mac, the latest Spark Desktop (3.0) is actually, once again, quite usable and feature-wise on-park with the Classic version (2.0).

I’ve been using Spark exclusively on iOS and the Mac since it launched and have never had any issues.

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To clarify, I don’t need super-advanced functionality. I just need a rock-solid IMAP client that works well for all of the standard on-device stuff.

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That depends on the email provider. Google and Microsoft, for example, offer native push notifications and send later, etc. A users credentials reside only on their iOS Gmail/MS Client.

Spark offers push and other features by providing their own intermediate server. Some people object to having their logon credentials stored by a third party.

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Spark followed by Outlook would be my non native Mail.app recommendations on iOS

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Preside is in many ways the iOS equivalent of MailMate—very powerful, solid, but definitely an acquired taste. Despite being a devoted MailMate user on the Mac, I could never get Preside to “feel” good on iOS, and have stuck with Mail.app.

If I were truly forced into using another app, I’d likely go with Outlook. If I were using Gmail or FastMail, I’d take a look at using their apps.

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+1

I’ve always found webmail to be the most trouble free email “client”. And an app from the same email provider the best performing mobile option.

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I am I’m currently using a mail app called MailMaven that is still in Beta. I’ve tried alternate email apps, Thunderbird, Mailmate, Spark, and I like Mail Maven the best. It is still in beta and probably could be considered expensive, but it is a really nicely laid out mail program with lots of functionality. Unfortunately it has some strong opinions like 14 options for sorting including tags. Joe Kissell is writing a TakeControl book on MailMaven to be released after MailMaven goes out of Beta. No IOS app.

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I’ve just started a new job, so I’m firmly back in the Microsoft world (for work), and am finding Outlook to be surprisingly great when integrated with M365 backend. It does waste a pile of screen space with stupid elements that aren’t required, it also doesn’t go out of its way yet to use AI to help sort email very well (the Focused & Other mailbox options are limiting these days). It does offer great categorization, calendar experience and is quite performant.

My personal email, still using Spark, that is getting a bit of a tidy up right now (TestFlight is looking good).

What I really want is for Apple to put a bit more love into the native mail/calendar/reminders apps on iOS. To make them a little more like the products Apple expects others to make, share sheets, cross app integrations (for example creating a reminder from email, Siri isn’t the answer), smart folders/ rules, bring calendar & scheduling features from calendar into mail.app etc. Nothing earth shattering, just quality of life features that really shouldn’t be hard.

My gut feeling is that Apple could really leap forward with AI enablement that better intersects with where people actually work. Apple Intelligence is really quite useful, and most of all free to use (I don’t value most of the services from Google or Microsoft to pay for top-ups) however is still too hidden in the background and something that I need to think about how to use. xOS 26 shows us that AI will be more useful, specifically with Shortcuts, however still doesn’t get AI to the masses.

Writing tools, hidden and difficult to engage
Image Playground, just too limited compared to others
Auto summary of e-mails, works well, but should be able to be enabled as default for specific recipients
Scanning of sending emails for errors by default, including attachment missing, wrong name, wrong greeting, no/wrong signature, missing words in sentences. All of this would be awesome (and really quite easy) yet Apple just doesn’t seem to get it.

And so much more.

I’m going to check out MailMaven, and still ponder the future backend of my private email. Currently a grandfathered Google Apps free service, however I could move to M365 or Apple without any additional costs due to the subscriptions that I need. To be honest, M365 is starting to make more sense…

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I’m not sure whether there just isn’t much market for email apps or what, but the entire ecosystem seems flat.

You get the odd new app coming out from time to time, but they’re invariably no good for people who need interoperability with Microsoft’s O365 environment.

I stick with Mail.app til I’m sick of it, then to go Outlook til I’m sick of that, then go back again.

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I’m a happy Preside user - very reliable and the ability to send emails over to a range of their apps I use frequently- OmniFocus and Devonthink mainly.

But, as said elsewhere here, it can be a bit ungainly.

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The thing is there are not much more options. I’d say that 80% of users that need O365 integration are under enterprise accounts that will ruthlessly disallow OAuth to unofficial apps. --not that this is an unreasonable posture!–, so we’re stuck with Mail.app and Office.

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Airmail.

It gets updates regularly and the 1 click create pdf is my favorite feature. It also has url schemes, 1 click shares to OF, Fantastical, Devonthink, Drafts, etc.

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I used Airmail many years ago - and recall it being quite buggy. How is it nowadays? And do you use it on MacOS as well?

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Do you wind up using the “Pro” version? And I’m seeing something about it storing credentials on their servers “in certain situations.” Do you have a use case that avoids the “certain situations”?