The main breakthrough needed is a sustainable business model for a robust, does-the-basics-well app.
When I’m looking for a new email app, I am attracted by the absence of “modern features”. But I do want the basic capabilities I got used to 20 years ago!
Is it righted enough that it doesn’t do dumb stuff like fail to render entire emails? I gave AirMail a few goes and always ended up deleting it in disgust when version after version had the same basic issues.
This is an very capable and interesting mail client! Integrates well with Gmail, and it displays Gmail labels. Has autocomplete for folders when moving messages around, which is a key feature for me, although it requires some clicking with the mouse.
Edit: given that it is a multiplatform client, I took a peek into the app package and it seems it is built with Mono so it should have some edge against multiplatform Electron-like web based apps.
I haven’t seen any rendering trouble in quite a while.
I’ll try it and letcha know. Do you recall what the problems were?
Do you recall what the problems were?
Your Mar 21 post suggested that Send Later wasn’t working?
Airmail was my preferred choice before I found Spark. I was a beta-tester for a fair while but had to switch when the bugs and glitchiness impacted my workflow too significantly and didn’t seem to be getting due attention. I remember how customisable it was though… wouldn’t mind giving it another go if stability has improved…
I think your right! I haven’t heard much about VC investments for mail, but plenty for PKM and notes apps.
Glad that Airmail is still working out well enough and has occasional glimmers of greatness. I’m going to check it out.
Summary of my thoughts on EM over in this thread
I still miss Eudora.
I haven’t seen that issue. In fact I don’t remember ever seeing that issue. So I guess my answer to your question is Yes.
Because for the vast majority, basic apps are good enough, and very few people will pay for a mail client, one time or subscription. Also in general, younger people do not use email the same way, only when they have to.
I never tried it, but hey.com sounded interesting, but for the facts that it didn’t allow aggregation of email from multiple accounts, and it seemed to lock people into hey.com without the ability export email (but I may have got the wrong end of the stick)
I don’t miss Lotus Notes 4. Rubbish.
I imagine you’re right — that it’s a business model question — but that doesn’t explain the dozens of Logseq/Roam/Obsidian/Notion alternatives that have been built and invested in lately. The difference in innovation would have to be measured in orders of magnitude.
I suspect that in addition to email not being worth it, cash wise, email’s also just not fun to develop for.
My theory is that that happened with email clients years ago, and they found that it wasn’t worth the investment. I’m guessing that will happen with notes clients too eventually. I think we have to be coming close to that time based on just how many that have been released.
I do think it’s difficult to work with email though, and many people who would/could create something great, simply don’t because of the legacy hassles involved. Notes apps don’t bring with them lots of legacy baggage.
I thought the same thing!
I think this is a big part of it. The stock apps, or web based accounts like gmail probably work fine for most people.
I was just talking to a 20 year old woman who does babysitting for us and asked about what email app she uses. She didn’t really consider there being anything but mail.app. She’s totally connected with a new iPhone and MacBook, but as @geoffaire said, she rarely uses email.
I know this isn’t scientific, but an interesting conversation to have today given this thread.
We have people joining the workforce who do not see Email as a primary contact method.
That’s not the worst thing in the world.
Hey has an Mbox export, but only that and there’s no way to do an incremental export (only emails and files since your last export) so it’s a bit cumbersome. I was doing more exporting do search locally when Hey’s search was weaker, but that’s not needed anymore.
Heck, I just plain miss OS/2 Warp. Loved that system.
OS/2? As I recall you could move a file to another drive and it’s alias would sill open the file.
I had a mechanical problem with an IBM optical library shortly after taking a new job in 2000. Turns out it hadn’t been rebooted in over 10 years!
EM client does have consistent sync problems that the developers have never fixed. I speak from experience. I do have the $100 lifetime license, and I still don’t use it anywhere.
thanks, good to know before I put my money in
