My thoughts on Hey.com after using it for a few days

You are right there. However, emails do not look good without pictures

It has been brought to my attention that FM does go a bit further than most email services but this feature is limited to when using Fastmail through the web site.

Exact quote:

@jokull @dhh Hi Jökull! Fastmail webmail loads all images through our servers, not your computer, so image owners know as little about you as possible. You can also choose in Settings → Preferences to block images. More info on privacy here: http://fastmail.com/help/ourservice/security.html

1 Like

Backpack is still active. I just updated something in a backpack account last month.

You are right. Their version of Everything view is similar to ALL Mail in Gmail.

I updated the post accordingly. I must have missed that one. Kindly thanking you for brining this to my attention.

I also added the lack of alias as an issue for me. I use aliases - Clearly Mere Civilian isn’t my real name. However if it was, it would be rather cool lol

1 Like

Every single email app I have ever seen has permitted images to show on all emails not flagged as junk, out of the box. And turning off images to stop possible tracking is not a tenable option for most people; I know I see dozens of emails and newsletters daily with pics in them, and I want to see them.

However, if you use a Chromium browser or Firefox there are extensions to block 3rd-party tracking pixels in Gmail (there’s one built into Edge too, which is darkly ironic given how Edge hard-codes a Microsoft tracker in Edge that cannot be disabled), and there are separate extensions that block images from known adservers and trackers. That’s a much better option than the blunt tool of removing all images entirely.

Thank you for a great article, a good review and for saving me some time/money. I will stick with “Load remote content in messages” unchecked in Apple Mail.

Great write-up! I’ve also been using HEY and have an alternate perspective for those interested.

1 Like

Nice review! I agree the benefit ultimately comes down to the speed/design of the app and the time it’s saving, whether or not you think it should be based on the feature set.

I thought I had been good about my filtering system, but I’ve been surprised how much is actually in my feed when I go through it.

Unfortunately I’ve found a flaw with long email threads that doesn’t allow every new email to be read if the thread is 111 or more and you have 11 or more you haven’t read. While Gmail handles this situation, performance is awful, and I think Hey just erred too far on the side of performance and overlooked something. Hopefully support will prioritize this one for me.

1 Like

Wow! That does seem like a super odd bug. I hope they fix it for you soon.

Which bring another good point – HEY is super new and, while it’s been under development for a long time, there’s certainly still some things they are working on. It’s not 100% polished yet (or even public, right?)

For now, I am just forwarding my gmail into HEY and processing it there, so basically, I do have a backup if anything goes wrong.

1 Like

Sorry, forgot a key word (111 or more, not only 111.) I think it would happen to anyone in a busy reply all thread, but I realize it’s not common. Yes, definitely mindful it’s early access. I’m also forwarding from Gmail.

The review is really a defense of email as it is today and the workflows that go with it (Archive folders, rules Sent folder, etc.). I have to use that at work and I’ve also had to use it at home. If you listen to the CEO’s 35-minute or so explanation of how Hey works, though, almost everything he said as bad in email is exactly what I find bad in email.

What I find extremely appealing in Hey is:

  • You decide how you want the email handled with the review
  • Putting stuff into the Feed is exactly how I read most stuff (see: Twitter, Facebook, etc.) - and the resulting productivity of looking at all of those all at once and dealing with them is terrific.
  • I do love the Reply function for the same reason — I often check email with 10-minutes before a meeting and then can’t reply, so it stays in unread and gets lost. And doing one reply after another for the workflow works awesome.
  • I search Email all the time — and doing it by folder sucks. Much better to do it through Everything as it finds anything…sent, deleted, Imbox, etc.
  • Plus, if you know who you sent, received, deleted email from, you just go to that person’s page and find it there.
  • In Fastmail (which I like and pay for), I have literally about 75 Rules to manage my email. Ridiculous to do that. I’ve used Sanebox to accomplish the same, but its weird to buy something when you can create a rule for it once. So the simplification of where email goes via the workflow is appealing.

So, I buy the workflow. If you don’t buy the workflow, then Hey won’t be for you. But if you want to try a different way of processing email, Hey could be for you.

Now, having said all that, I have my own domain for email and I’m not giving Fastmail up until I see how that works in Hey. I agree, not being able to import current email is important and missing. Since we’re forwarding, we don’t know how Spam works. I’ve sent emails from Hey, but only so I could look at how it shows up in other clients; I’m still sending out of Fastmail since, as Hey notes, we have a lot invested in our email addresses and those of us who have domains are not giving those up. Yes, we lose the availability of multiple clients, but that’s because of the workflow, so buy the workflow or don’t use Hey.

And, this is still in Beta. Lots more to come. I’m impressed with the workflow and the ownership and will continue to use it until I see how using your own domain works. Until then, I’ll use Hey for the workflow. And the Basecamp folks aren’t a bad group to hang your hat on; they think through how things work really well and build that into their software.

6 Likes

Although support hasn’t responded to me yet after an initial clarification question, they stealth pushed a fix for that thread reading issue and are now returning every email in the thread when you ask to “show way earlier” instead of capping at 100, so every new email can now be read. That’s good enough for me! The availability and quality of Basecamp’s support team is a big positive for Hey, especially when compared to Google.

1 Like

SENT MAIL

Use the view of you to see all the emails you’ve responded to:

A quick work around for those who like Heys approach,

Archive folder

Use everything:

I’ll read your article, I’m struggling as I have a custom domain. I think I’m going to keep it and drop sanebox (same cost).

1 Like

I think you might have missed that the imbox is just new stuff. Once read or processed they move down to recently seen. The imbox is where action is required. Recently seen is there for reference (a partially visible archive folder that ages out over time).

But reading your article I completely agree. For those who are tech savvy enough to have bought a custom domain, set up Gmail filters (as similar), and aren’t drowning in email Hey.com isn’t really needed.

I’m torn - but bored of traditional email. So will be switching.

Along with tracking pixels you missed the other game changer:

Files view

Lots of mail reinvention going on. This morning I received an email from Mail Pilot announcing that they’re sending out invites soon (an email to let me know I might get an invite?) to an updated version of the app. The email contained a link to this new video showing off the ‘batch list’ feature:

1 Like

I get the fact that nobody likes spam. But as someone who does email marketing for my photography business, I don’t like the blocking pixel tracking. Some emailers are bad actors but that’s not me and its really helpful to know if you opened an email.

Hi @peedy,

I think this is Hey’s point. You as the sender want. Me as a receiver doesn’t want anyone to know what I do, or do not do, in my inbox. No one should be able to force their privacy philosophy on others. If your email has good content in it I’ll read it. Make it good and don’t worry what people do with it.

1 Like

‘As a private investigator I don’t like people having their blinds closed in their homes. Some people looking into your homes are perverts but that’s not me.’ :wink:

2 Likes

I’m sorry but the wishes of marketing people are none of my concern, in the same way that I block ALL robocallers.

3 Likes

Though @peedy used the term marketing, what he described does not make him a “marketing people.” He is trying to promote his business. That is the conundrum. None of us like getting solicited for products and services we are not interest in and yet business owners need to be able to advertise, market, and sell their products and services. I have not tried Hey (I’m not paying $100/year for an email service when I have and will continue to setup robust cloud-based email rules and filters) but from what I’ve read, Hey is attempting to initially filter emails so that the recipient can determine (thumbs up/thumbs down) what to let through going forward and what to block permanently. That seems like a reasonable compromise. It gives business owners an opportunity to tell us about their products and services once and gives us the opportunity to continue receiving the information or to block it.

2 Likes

I get your point, but peedy complained that

which is a bit more “intrusive”, and has little to do with getting your (business owner) message to the potential customer

1 Like