Mobile Technology

Mailbox wants to revolutionize mobile email

Mailbox wants to revolutionize mobile email
Mailbox is an email app with to-do list aspirations
Mailbox is an email app with to-do list aspirations
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Swipe longer to the right, and the email goes bye-bye
1/5
Swipe longer to the right, and the email goes bye-bye
Swipe left to make the email reappear later
2/5
Swipe left to make the email reappear later
Mailbox lets you choose when the email will reappear
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Mailbox lets you choose when the email will reappear
Is Mailbox an email revolution, or a fancy coat of paint?
4/5
Is Mailbox an email revolution, or a fancy coat of paint?
Mailbox is an email app with to-do list aspirations
5/5
Mailbox is an email app with to-do list aspirations
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Email is due for an overhaul. In many cases, social networking has replaced it. But for those cases where you still rely on email, it's a lot like traveling back to 1995. The team behind upcoming iPhone app Mailbox want to change that, transporting email into the 21st century.

Email can only be altered so much, but the Mailbox team thinks it has cracked the case. They want to make mobile email less like desktop email, and more like a to-do list.

Mailbox is about gestures and inbox management. After reading an email, a short swipe to the right will archive it. Swipe a bit longer, and you'll delete it. Want to revisit the email later on? Swipe to the left, and choose when it will reappear.

21st century email?

Mailbox lets you choose when the email will reappear
Mailbox lets you choose when the email will reappear

Mailbox doesn't fundamentally change email, but perhaps it can change the email experience. If you regularly drown in a cluttered inbox, forget to respond to important messages, or simply appreciate minimal design, Mailbox is for you.

If you use anything other than Gmail, though, Mailbox isn't for you. At launch, the developers are pitching it as a Gmail companion. Yahoo, Hotmail, and iCloud users will initially be out of luck. The developers are, however, promising more email providers down the road.

The right stuff?

Is Mailbox an email revolution, or a fancy coat of paint?
Is Mailbox an email revolution, or a fancy coat of paint?

Mailbox adds other essential capabilities, like multiple accounts, and (unlike Sparrow) push notifications. The iPhone app is in closed beta now, and is coming to the App Store "in the New Year."

Will Mailbox be a game-changer? Or is it just a gimmicky facelift on the same old email? Let us know in the comments, and check out the promo vid below.

Source: Mailbox, via 9to5Mac

Introducing Mailbox

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9 comments
9 comments
Rt1583
So, basically the only thing that changes is the way you interact with your email account while accessing it from your smartphone?
Not game changing, revolutionary or even a fresh coat of paint. Just another app in a market place that is already crammed past capacity with apps.
dutch
And no simultaneous Android launch? Missing almost half the market?
Tommo
gimmicky facelift
Arf
Yep, gimmicky facelift. And they're not changing email, just a user interface. Hardly revolutionary.
ADVENTUREMUFFIN
nice music, good concept-it's what I have been using for some time-folders for today addressing emails now, later, never-just not as pretty!
Sambath Pech
What makes this revolutionary? You could already add "reminders" and such to e-mails in Outlook. The only thing that's different is adding gestures - which if anything, only adds to the complexity because you have to remember all of the gestures for that specific app. The use of the Android system's menu button is a much better alternative to app-specific gestures.
Sam Joy
Or you could create folders in your email account of different categories and do the same thing? and just make the email program do all these gesture or intuitive type things?, you could even program predictability based on what's in the email?, even if it's documents or pictures or videos or other such attachments, including a more intelligent spam & junk filter.
dave be
So they made an email client, limiting themselves to one platform, and then limited it to the corporation's email website thats constantly fighting with their chosen platform's corporation... Odd.
Its just an email client.. No more no less
Mathlol
Different options. Email is still the same. Id rather use my pirority inbox with the gmail app without learning a new interface with its "exclusive" options as its been so over-hyped.