For several years, Airmail dominated all other mail clients on Mac. There wasn’t even much of a question about any other clients. If you didn’t like Mac’s Mail.app, chances are you went into the App Store, paid $10 and downloaded Airmail because it does mail so much better.
Airmail is designed from the ground up to be a powerful mail client which allows you to customize it to meet your needs. Integrate your favorite apps, and create custom actions to make your life easier. Whether you're using your Mac, iPad, iPhone or even your Apple Watch, Airmail can be wherever you need. Airmail requires iOS 9 at the moment, and if you have an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, there is support for 3D Touch. So you can long-press a message to view the entire thread, and pull it upwards to get.
But Airmail is no longer undeniably on top. I’ve long been a fan of Spark for iPhone and iPad for managing my mail and getting me to inbox zero every day. A few months ago, Readdle released a version of Spark for Mac. Like the iOS counterparts, Spark is totally free even on Mac too. It’s been pretty popular in the App Store since its release. So how does this free app stack up to the $10 reigning champ, Airmail 3?
Design and Customization
Airmail and Spark have thoughtful designs that are respectful of the macOS Sierra aesthetic. They’re also both highly customizable. Even though Spark lets you customize swipe gestures, the Smart Inbox, signatures, keyboard shortcuts, folders, snooze times, and much more, Airmail still comes out on top in this category.
You can make Airmail into pretty much anything you want to.
You can make Airmail into pretty much anything you want to. Hide or show sidebars or parts of them, tweak the menu bar shortcuts, edit folders and snoozes, change the entire appearance with several themes… the possibilities are incredible. I can’t think of anything I’d want to change about Airmail that I can’t already do from the Preferences.
Airmail even integrates with several third-party apps. Link services like Wunderlist, Droplr, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote and more to see relevant tasks in your menus. Linking Droplr automatically uploads your file attachments to the cloud or linking Wunderlist lets you quickly save messages in a to-do list.
Spark manages to have a clean and sophisticated design. It excellently balances features you need with its own prioritization for a smart inbox plus tools that enhance that. Airmail is an app for the most demanding. The level of customization is unparalleled and the features you can enable turn it from a regular email client into a productivity machine.
Features to Tackle Email Overload
Spark was built from the ground up to handle email overload.
The big problem with email nowadays is that most people just get way too many emails per day. Mail clients are supposed to manage mail and reduce clutter, but many still don’t do a good job.
Spark was built from the ground up to handle email overload and get users to that magical place known as inbox zero, i.e. a clean, fresh inbox. Right off the bat, Spark uses its Smart Inbox to organize emails based on type. New messages get divided into three categories. Personal ones show at the top from regular users like you and me, notifications are underneath from various services, and below that are newsletters. Spark categorizes any remaining emails together at the bottom. Additionally, Spark has optional smart notifications too which only notify you of personal stuff, leaving the rest to be seen later.
With one click you can archive or mark all the emails in a particular category as read. If you don’t feel like dealing with newsletters today, mark them and move on. Other useful tools are pin and snooze. Pinning an email keeps it fresh and stable in your inbox until you decide to get rid of it, even if you already moved it to the archive. Snoozing will remove an email temporarily then bring it back to your inbox as a reminder at a time and date you specify.
Spark and Airmail both have swiping gestures to quickly take action on an email too. They’re customizable, but Spark has double the options per swipe. For instance, a swipe from the left in Spark gives me the option to archive or delete an email, while Airmail only lets me archive. Both apps have solid, powerful search too with lots of refinement options. Spark gets the edge because it lets you type with natural language. I could search “emails with a JPG attachment” and I’ll get every email with a JPG file instantly. Airmail isn’t quite as smart.
Airmail does have one unique productivity feature. It creates dedicated folders on top of the ones you already have to help with organization. They’re somewhat like labels: To Do, Memo, and Done. The feature seems a bit redundant to me though. Folders and labels exist already on top of these, as does Snooze.
Still, Spark is clearly the winner at defeating an overwhelming inbox. That’s what it’s meant to do so beautifully and efficiently. I find that because Airmail has so many customization options, folders and app integrations everywhere, all of that adds to the clutter. Not pretty.
Composing Emails
There isn’t much to talk about regarding the experience composing emails in Spark or Airmail. Compose windows can only vary so much.
Airmail does have two pro features that I like: reminders and send later. You can include a reminder in a draft to send or finish it at a certain time. Better yet, finish the whole email and choose a future date and time to have it send automatically if you want. I don’t imagine these are features most people use on a regular basis, but they’re nice to have on hand.
Taylormade clone driver for mac pro. One advantage Spark has over Airmail is quick replies.
Airmail has important formatting perks too: being able to write your email in Markdown or HTML. HTML in particular is useful if you send out newsletters because you can craft a professional, graphical letter right within Airmail. Spark is brand new so I’ll cut it some slack, but hopefully this will come in time.
One advantage Spark does have over Airmail is quick replies. Think of them as Facebook reactions for emails. Instead of replying to an email just to type a quick expression, you can use a quick reply to get that done for you. The defaults are like, thanks, smile, great idea, call me, cool, love and agree, but you can set your own too. Quick replies intelligently show up as a reply option to personal human senders, not automated newsletters. You can find the button at the bottom of a compatible email.
The Winning Mail Client
If both apps were free, I’d give the edge to Airmail because of the sheer amount of features.
I hate to say this, but I have no choice: it comes down to a tie. But don’t worry, depending on what you want in a mail client, it should be pretty easy to break.
If you need excellence at getting rid of clutter, organizing your emails, and ultimately spending as little time with email as possible, get Spark. I’ve used many mail apps and none tackle email overload like Spark. If you need a client that lets you do just about anything with your mail, integrates with other apps and services, and you’re willing to deal with clutter in your inbox, go with Airmail.
If both apps were free, I’d give the edge to Airmail because of the sheer amount of features. But Spark is free while Airmail is $9.99. The bang for the buck in Spark is huge, while the value in Airmail is certainly justifiable to its intended user base.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#comparison #email
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Microsoft Outlook, Spark, and Airmail offer more than basic email experience on a small device.On iOS, Apple has been improving the default Mail app with each iOS interaction. With iOS 13, the company has added a bunch of features to level up against the rivals.The competition is stepping ahead with frequent updates and more customization options with better organization and more.Spark and Airmail are two of the most feature-rich email apps for the iOS ecosystem. Both apps have focused on the shortcoming of the default iOS Mail app to improve the user experience.In this post, we are going to compare Spark to Airmail and conclude which email app suits better for your usage. The comparison will cover differences in UI, features, email organization, availability, and more. Let’s jump in.
App Size
Spark Mail weighs at 173MB while Airmail measures about 131MB.Download Spark Mail for iOSDownload Airmail for iOSCross-Platform Availability
After being on iOS for years, Spark recently made a debut on Android, making it truly cross-platform against the rivals. It has native apps for Mac and iPad too.Airmail only exists in the Apple ecosystem. The app is available on iOS and macOS.User Interface
In terms of the user interface, it feels like the same team has designed both the apps. Let’s talk about Spark first. The app uses a standard iOS design guidelines with a hamburger menu and major options at the top. Smart Inbox, calendar, and search menu are at the top while the compose mail button is at the bottom.It uses a white theme and supports iOS 13 dark theme.Airmail is identically the same. It follows the hamburger menu with major options such as compose and search at the top. Airmail should explore the possibility of using the bottom bar menu for major options.Theming options include Aura, Ruby, Neon, and Dark theme from the Settings. It’s a paid feature, which I will explain later.
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Read MoreEmail Organization
Here is where Apple’s default Mail lacks compared to third-party apps. A clean and efficient organization is where power users start looking for alternatives.Spark, by default, enables Smart Inbox, which is similar to Outlook’s Focused Inbox.Smart Inbox categorizes emails based on the subject and content. There are different tabs for notifications, newsletters, pinned mails, and read ones. I like it. It keeps me engaged with the most relevant emails.Airmail doesn’t offer anything like that, but it has a quick trick up its sleeve to get things done.When you tap on the account name on the top, the app will showcase a bunch of options such as Unread, Attach, Threads, Star, and Sort at the bottom. Tap on it and get through the important emails in seconds.
Features
Mac Airmail Vs Spark
Both Spark and Airmail come loaded with a bunch of functions. Spark integrates a full calendar function and it lets you link Gmail, Family, and Holidays schedules in it.You can snooze an email to get a notification at the set time. Open an email, and you can give quick replies, mark it as spam, and even add services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Trello, and more.Head to Settings, and you can use every option of Spark. The personalization menu lets you change the look and behavior of the app. Siri shortcuts let you search, compose mail, or open a folder with voice commands.The other functions are email scheduling, Face ID protection, add email templates for quick replies to common emails, and more.Airmail marches ahead here. First, it supports iCloud syncing and lets you back up every possible setting to the cloud platform. The services list is also bigger than Spark’s and includes Google Tasks, Asana, Instapaper, iA Writer, Drafts 5, and many more.Apart from that, you can snooze a mail, apply a label, create a pdf, use Siri shortcuts, unsubscribe a mail from one-tap, and more from the mail options.
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Read MoreAirmail Mac Review
Compose a New Mail
Spark nails this one. In the compose screen, you can add media, use mail templates to add general responses, set the app to remind about a no-response from the other side.You can also set emails to send it later at a fixed time. Spark lets you create teams from the setting, and you can invite team members to compose an email.The compose mail screen is a hit and miss in Airmail. It’s loaded with functions, but the menus and icons are too small for precise input.Airmail offers proper word-processing options such as Bold, Italic, Paragraph alignment, and more.The other options are send later, remind me function, signature, templates, and the ability to attach files and documents.
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Here is where Spark pulls up ahead. The app is completely free to use, with no strings attached. It’s surprising given the kind of options and functions it provides.Airmail is free for basic stuff, but you need to pay $12/year to make the most out of it.Achieve Inbox Zero
As you can see from the comparison above, both the apps offer plenty of reasons to choose one over the other. Spark is feature-loaded, looks good, and its completely free to use. Airmail offers better organization and compose mail screen.Next up: Apple Mail is also capable of nifty tricks. Read the post below to find top tips and tricks for Apple Mail on iOS.The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Read NextTop 11 Apple Mail Tips and Tricks to Use It like a ProAlso See#Tips & Tricks #apple
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