I think I heard that David is once again trying different iOS email clients.
I’m also trying to see how much I can move some of my Email workflow to iPad instead of using a Mac.
I’m looking for an iOS email app to supplement the built-in mail app for one specific use: Sorting and filing emails.
I’m ok with the Apple email app for reading and composing, but I’ve got a complex nested folder structure for filing and archiving email that I have developed over many years and I don’t want to change.
Yes, I know the classic “hunter vs gatherer” arguments, but I’m looking for an app that works the way I do without my changing to fit the app.
Anyone have a suggestion for an email app that makes navigating deeply nested folders and moving emails around as easy as it is on the Mac?
With a few apps I’ve tried, I have to scroll forever because they either expand or collapse the entire nested tree of folders with no other capability.
The last time I took a look at various apps (about a year or so ago), they all had trouble with syncing and crashed a lot. Obviously, sorting into folders isn’t going to fly for me if I can’t depend on the changes syncing back to the server and being available across multiple client devices.
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Airmail seems to be working well for me. I have multiple IMAP accounts with Google and this allows me to select an email in the combined inbox - allows me to transfer the message between email accounts, and then select which folder or subfolder for it to land in. Search from the combined inbox seems to work fairly well too.
I recently moved back to Apple Mail from Airmail due to the issues SpivR highlighted with Airmail. I am enjoying my return to Apple Mail after a multi year hiatus.
I wanted to like Airmail but it was acting up for me as well. Although I’m a big Readdle fanboy and use pretty much everything else they make, I just was not bowled over by Spark.
I’m currently using Apple Mail and Yahoo Mail apps (I pay yearly for the Pro plan, which yields extra email addresses in addition to disposable ones, larger mailboxes, no ads, and more), which I’ve festooned with folders.
My setup chugs along, but it’s not something I’d necessarily recommend to others.
Airmail has been working okay for me. The actions are useful. I’m still looking for something else though. Tried Spark, didn’t work out (don’t recall why).
Spark is worth a look. Not because it makes navigating folder structures any better (though you can create smart folders and favorites). But because Spark’s auto-suggestions for filing an email are better than any others I’ve found on iOS.
Mail, as you know, will suggest a single folder to move a message to, but allow you to pick others. This works sometimes, but is annoying if the suggestion is wrong.
Spark, in contrast, suggests 4 folders that I thinks might match, and then allows you to choose a different folder if none of the 4 are right. This increase in suggestions makes far more likely that the suggested folder will be right at your fingertips when you go to move.
I have other issues with Spark and have been using Mail for my daily driver. But Spark is definitely king of the suggested filing bit, at least for now.
How do you like the Swiftpoint GT? I’ve been thinking about trying Jump Desktop with my iPad Pro and an external mouse. The small size of the GT is appealing, but it definitely looks a little…diffferent
I am using Outlook, which is great in every single way. Keep in mind two things:
By removing the stock Mail app, you are giving away the option to send emails by clicking the contact (mailto:) link.
Outlook for iOS is not yet integrated with Files app for Attachments. So if you are using a lot of attachments, this might be challenging. But if you have OneDrive, it makes everything super easy, as both are MS products.
In my opinion, Outlook is one of the greatest Mail clients in desktop and iOS.
Aaargh, the great Airmail/Apple Mail saga. I’ve given Airmail a good try for a couple years now and waver back to Apple Mail a few times a week.
Recently I’ve been trying to move squarely back to Apple Mail as it meets most of my needs except ‘Reliable Rich text or HTML email signatures’ and I’m talking a typical combination of custom font sizes/colours plus an image or two.
HTML you can pretty much get there by:
Mac – the hack of making a blank sig, digging in to the support files and inserting raw HTML in the new sig file.
IOS – no support
Rich text:
Mac – I can get there if I always paste or create the rich text in Text Edit/Pages first then copy and past that in.
IOS – Super buggy!! I can get the rich text in the same method as Mac, however the images don’t display. If I send the image through Apple mail, copy it from there and paste it in to Pages and try again, image shows up but text formatting dissapears.
Bloody hell, to be considered usable for any professional use, iOS Mail should have solved this years ago.
I LOVE a lot of features and integrations that AirMail provides, however over the years:
– Markdown support came to Mac, but never to iOS.
– iOS basic rich-text formatting such as lists has no keyboard shortcut and required 2 taps (sometimes a slide over as well) to begin one.
– It constantly has new bugs crop up as well like: stopping syncing and not letting you know, or occasioanlly forgets ALL your Google account authentications and you have to re-authenticate each one through your browser, and while it continues to pull new mail more browser windows keep popping up until all resolved.
– I’ve pasted rich text in and it looses all formatting or recenlty made an entire thread (including next replies) white text on white background. I think dark mode incompatability.
I could go on and on, buggy as heck. I’ve tried every other iOS mail app in existence. Want the stability of iOS Apple Mail with:
Working rich-text sigs
Ability to share an email with share sheet (the link to navigate back to). Really? You can’t do this core iOS feature??
That’s a great suggestion. I realised I set that up long ago and moved away from it, but might use that on Mac (so I only have to update them in one place as well, company changes them all the time).
Doesn’t work on iOS however! Rich text gets stripped out of Mail (when using the clunky TextExpander keyboard).
Both Spark and Airmail allow a quick Move function (including search bar at top if you need to filter a lot of folders!)
In addition, in Airmail you can set up ‘Custom Actions’, a macro of as many steps as you want including sending to a set folder – for ones you use consistently. You could even go as far as assigning one of the few keyboard shortcuts to a couple!
