Email app recommendations?

[flyinion]

So last year I dumped all my POP mail accounts associated with some personal website domains and went to GMail for personal mail. I'd never actually used my GMail account much and so I went with their Inbox app since it was being labeled as "the future of email" in their vision for where email was going. I loved it even though I didn't use as much of its power features I'm sure as some people. Now it's going away so I swapped to the GMail app. It's ok, but it also introduces ads into the system that show up as emails. Soooo, thinking of something new but not sure what to look at.

I've seen lots of recommendations for Outlook. I don't need its built in Calendar though but maybe that can be turned off? Of course I can always just use the default app and go back to 15 minute fetch pulls. Or I've also seen alternatives like Spark. What are other people using? What would you guys recommend for me to try?

As you might have figured out I'm not a heavy GMail feature user with labels/etc. it's just personal email with friend/family and as needed for website logins/mailing lists/etc. and I might even move to Proton for personal use and keep Gmail just for everything else that I don't want to lock down securely.

Oh, preferred price would be a well known free app, but paid is fine it it's really worth it and not going to disappear in 6 months. Also since I'm getting a Watch soon, having Watch compatibility might be nice. I know Outlook and Spark offer that and GMail doesn't.

 

[metllicamilitia]

I like Spark myself. If I was going to go with a more traditional email app approach I would use Timyo.

 

[blaine07]

I like Spark myself. If I was going to go with a more traditional email app approach I would use Timyo.

I’ll second this. I think Gmail app may have it but the Remind Me Later option in Spark is how I keep my sanity LOL. My ONLY complaint with Spark is not being able to email images inline as with iOS default email client.

 

[wolfee48]

I’ve tried a few. I bounce to Outlook often but stay with stock email app due to VIP notifications and the app just suites my needs.

Are there any other email apps that support VIP notifications?

 

[taeisme]

I like Spark.

 

[anon(8115241)]

I like Spark.

Why spark? They said it reads your mail.

 

[metllicamilitia]

Why spark? They said it reads your mail.

What I read is that Spark is one of the ones that did not read emails.

 

[anon(8115241)]

What I read is that Spark is one of the ones that did not read emails.

I just use stock

 

[flyinion]

Sounds like I might be giving spark a try. Some features seem very much like Google inbox as well which is cool. Might try Outlook as well just to compare.

 

[anon(8115241)]

Sounds like I might be giving spark a try. Some features seem very much like Google inbox as well which is cool. Might try Outlook as well just to compare.

Outlook tells you that there is an email then when you go to the app it just remember to update the emails

 

[flyinion]

So I just compared Outlook vs Spark. Outlook lasted 30 seconds when I figured out it was a pretty looking stock iOS mail app look basically. Then I hooked up Spark. I think that's gonna be the one. It's not quite as functional vs. Inbox where I could swipe away an entire category of new mail to deletion. For instance each morning I typically have a bunch of the standard marketing email from various case site or forum notifications and in Inbox I could swipe the category and delete all of them.

In Spark I can change the category action to delete but it will only delete the 3 headers showing so it takes a couple taps. If you expand the preview to see all the headers you can't do a one tap action anymore. Still, it's better than GMail since there's no adds and in GMail if you previewed the category to see what was in it and back out it moved it out of the primary view and you had to go back to the category itself to find them and delete.

Not sure if that made sense. Anyway, I'm impressed enough that I actually deleted GMail again. I think the only thing I'm missing offhand is how GMail and Inbox would only show badges for important email vs all new messages. Spark you can set notifications to that but the badges are either all or nothing. At first I didn't like that in Inbox and GMail but it grew on me so I'll miss it.

 

[Spencerdl]

Another "stock" user here. It just works for me with no hassles.

 

[Annie_M]

I am also a "Stock" user. I've tried Yahoo, outlook and gmails apps... and didn't really care for any of them. The Stock app works for me!

 

[anon(8115241)]

I had spark before but went back to stock before they said it might be reading my emails

 

[flyinion]

Eh if I start sending anything that requires real security I'll go get a Proton email. From what I can tell the only thing Spark does is look at it enough to do push notifications and the smart inbox if turned on. Stuff like that is a very personal decision though so I can understand why some people might be hesitant to use it.