Gusto, Mailbox, CloudMagic, and Molto make it easy to manage your mail on the go.
The Gmail app for iPhones and iPads makes you wonder what Google is
doing with all its money. The company certainly isn't spending it on
interface design. Four free programs give you an entirely new view of
your mail on a phone or tablet, letting you slice and swipe your way
through your inbox.
Of the four apps I tried, my favorite is Gusto, although Molto (formerly Incredimail) offers a first-rate mobile interface, Mailbox takes swiping to a new level, and CloudMagic integrates with your favorite productivity apps. (Note that Mailbox, CloudMagic, and Molto are also available for Android devices.)
Gusto separates your files and photos
My
on-the-fly backup method of choice is to attach important files to an
email I send to myself. Gmail's has:attachment feature lets you see all
messages to which a file has been attached. Gusto
goes Gmail two better by automatically separating the files and photos
in your email archive, and by integrating with your Facebook account.
I used a Gmail account to test Gusto, but the program also supports Yahoo, AOL, and Outlook accounts.
The
app gives you four views of your email archive: "All" lists attachments
separate from the message they're attached to; "Mail" is the standard
message view; "Files" lists Office files, PDFs, ZIP files, HTML, and
other files; and "Photos" shows icons representing your archive's MOV,
JPEG, PNG, and other image files. (I was hoping to see thumbnails of the
images themselves, but no dice.) The Gusto email app for iOS lists the files and images attached to your messages separately from the messages themselves.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
You
can toggle among three inbox views: list, two-column, and an
abbreviated preview. Press the down arrow at the top of the screen to
switch between inboxes, accounts, and folders. You also get three views
of your Facebook photos: list (thumbnail, identifying text, and date);
thumbnails by month; and preview, which includes controls for sharing,
deleting, emailing the photos. Get several different views of the photos in your Facebook account via the Gusto email app for iOS.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
Note
that the Gusto support site states the program is free "during the
trial period." The developer offers a desktop version; I tested only the
iOS version on an iPad running iOS 7.1.1.
Swipe your inbox clean with Mailbox
The version of Gmail for the iPhone lets you swipe the screen to open the next message. The free Mailbox
app puts a finer point on your swiping. The program creates five
"zones": your inbox is in the middle (the default view), your archive is
directly to the right, your trash folder is to the far right, your
snooze options are to the near left, and lists are on the far left. The
three default lists are To Buy, To Read, and To Watch, but you can
delete these and create your own lists via the app's settings.
From
your inbox, you slide your finger slightly to the right to archive a
message, far to the right to trash it, slightly to the left to open your
eight customizable snooze options, and far to the left to add the
message to a list. The app claims to work best when it holds only the
messages requiring your immediate attention, so it prompts you to use
its built-in cleaner to scrub your inbox. The Mailbox email app for iOS offers to help you get your inbox to zero messages.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
If
you have only a handful of messages in your inbox, you can select
several and batch-swipe them. The program lets you drag messages in your
inbox to reorder them. You can disable autoswipes and create a swipe
pattern by pressing and holding the list, snooze, archive, or delete
icons. The app's preferences let you disable the options for marking
swipes as read, unstarring moved items, showing "help me get to zero,"
and swiping right to view drawer.
Mailbox links to your Dropbox
account and works with Gmail, iCloud, and Apple Mail for OS X. Of the
four iOS mail apps I looked it, Mailbox is the one that most closely
resembles the Gmail interface, for better and worse. The program's
neatest trick is its four degrees of swiperation.
CloudMagic unites your inboxes and work apps
If you're looking for a splashy interface for your mail, CloudMagic
probably won't be your first choice. But if you're looking to get more
work done in less time, this may be the email program for you. (The
program is available for Android devices as well as for iOS; I tested
only the iOS version.)
The "magic" worked by this clever app is behind the scenes. You can
create CloudMagic Cards that provide access to your mail from within
Salesforce.com, Zendesk, Pocket, Evernote, OneNote, Trello, and
MailChimp. In addition to Gmail and Google Apps accounts, the program
supports Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Exchange, iCloud, Hotmail/Outlook.com,
Office 365, and IMAP accounts. It allows you to integrate as many as
five separate accounts.
To keep costs down, the cloud-based
service pushes to your CloudMagic inbox only the messages you've sent
and received in the past 30 days, although the developer states it hopes
to allow you to access your entire inbox in a future update. You can
set notifications for individual accounts, apply a passcode lock to the
app, add custom signatures, and display the number of new emails on its
icon badge.
After you create a CloudMagic account, you're prompted to add an email account by requesting permission to access the account. After you install CloudMagic and choose an email service, you're prompted to grant the app permission to access the account.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
CloudMagic's
interface is similar to that of Gmail and other mail apps for devices,
but it has a couple of nice touches: press the header of the message
you're viewing to open a sidebar that lists conversation details:
contact information for the sender and recipients; the To: and Reply to:
addresses; the date and time the message was sent; and the message's
subject. Press the current message's header to open CloudMagic's conversation sidebar, which lists more information about the message.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
CloudMagic invites developers to create CloudMagic Cards for their apps. The vendor's FAQ includes information for troubleshooting account-access glitches and other problems.
Get a capsulated view of your mail with Molto
If you're looking for a new way to browse your inbox, Molto's
swipable mail capsules are worth checking out. Gone is the standard
message list along the left side of the screen. In its place are five to
10 message summaries presented in two columns, complete with image
thumbnails for senders and attachments. The messages in your inbox are presented in two-column capsules, complete with image thumbnails, in the Molto app.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
Molto
works only in landscape mode on the iPad. It connects to iCloud,
Hotmail/Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail, AOL, and "other" mail systems (POP3 and
IMAP) in addition to Gmail. The app lets you add a custom signature,
and you can choose one of several email stationery designs, several of
which are available for free. Other stationery selections cost $3
apiece.
One of Molto's settings lets you share images and links
on social networks directly from your messages. When I tested this
feature, Facebook was the only service available for in-message sharing.
A "share" icon appears in the top-right corner of the attachment;
pressing the icon opens a small window for adding a caption to the image
or link before you post it. When it comes to Facebook integration,
Molto has a long way to go to catch up with Gusto.
Not a loser in the email-app bunch
Each
of the four email apps I tried beats the generic Gmail app for iOS in
one or more important ways. The programs are also a big step up from the
mail app built into iPhones and iPads. If you spend much time sending
and receiving messages from your phone or tablet, one of these programs
is sure to make your workday run more smoothly
If you want to use dual WhatsApp on the same device, you can do so by using Fouad WhatsApp.
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