Should I Use Mail App In Mac Download

Why You Should Use iCloud Email Rules And Not Mail Rules On Your Mac Mail rules in the Mail app on your Mac are robust and powerful but they no longer work well in a world where we get email on multiple devices. Instead, use iCloud email rules, or filters you can set on your email server.

Gmail is one of the most popular email products in the world. On a Mac, you can use the software through a browser as it was initially designed, or through the native Mail app. Another alternative is to bring the look and feel of the web-based Gmail to the desktop through a third-party app solution.

Which solution is best for you ultimately comes down to a matter of choice. Here’s a look at the best ways to use Gmail on your Mac.

Contents

• 1 Through a Web Browser
• 2 Using the Native Mail App
• 3 Third-party Apps
• 5 A Lot to See Here

Through a Web Browser

First introduced as a beta release in 2004, Gmail on the web officially launched for the masses five years later. The free email service developed by Google is now available in over 100 languages and used by over 1.4 billion users worldwide.

Gmail offers a basic HTML version that works across all browsers, while an AJAX version is supported by major browsers for Mac including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, among others.

In 2018 for the third time in its history, Gmail received a significant design upgrade. The redesign uses Google’s Material Design and uses the company’s Product Sans font. Besides a design change, the update also includes a Confidential Mode, which allows you to set an expiration date for sensitive messages, integrated rights management, and two-factor authentication.

Reasons to use the web version of Gmail

If you’re a heavy Google Chrome user, it might be best to stick with Gmail on the web. Through this interface, you’ll have access to all of the official Gmail tools. To customize your Gmail web experience, check out the Google Chrome Store where you’ll find hundreds of Gmail extensions.

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Using the Native Mail App

On your Mac, you can set up all of your email accounts through the official Mail app. When you do, your email tools are limited to those offered by Apple through macOS.

Why you should use the native Mail app

Using the Mail app is ideally suited if you have multiple email accounts, including more than one that’s being hosted by Google. In doing so, you can take a streamlined approach to all of your email needs.

Third-party Apps

These third-party apps do the best job of duplicating the Gmail web design on Mac. Each solution offers its own set of unique features.

Go for Gmail

Should I Use Mail App In Mac Offline

With the free Go for Gmail app, you can see whether you have new email right from your Mac’s toolbar. In doing so, you don’t have to go into the app to check. Beyond this, it does a great job of bringing the Gmail experience to an app.

Extra features include the ability to run both a Desktop and Mobile mode. When you select the latter, you’ll discover mini versions of Google Calendar, Google Keep, and Google Tasks.

Simplicity is one of the reasons to choose Go for Gmail. Besides being able to change the app’s appearance slightly and customize its notifications, Go for Gmail works exactly like the official web version. It also supports multiple Gmail accounts.

You can download Go for Gmail from the Mac App Store.

Kiwi for Gmail

Like the Go app, Kiwi for Gmail brings the Gmail web experience to the desktop. However, this isn’t the only reason to use the product. With Kiwi for Gmail, you can also use extra features that will enhance your email experience.

These extras include a new Focus Filtered Inbox that has been designed to remove email noise, allowing you to focus on what’s important. In doing so, you can limit your view based on date, importance, unread, attachments, and starred. You can also combine filters to create a short list of your most relevant emails. Other useful features include windowed versions of Google’s web applications including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

It should also be noted that Kiwi for Gmail supports the No. 1 scheduler plugin, Boomerang, which allows you to schedule the time to send an email.

If looking for an all-in-one app solution for Google tools, you can’t go wrong with Kiwi for Gmail, which is available on the Mac App Store.

Mailplane

Because of its price, Mailplane is best described as a premium solution for Gmail on Mac. Available through a 15-day free trial, the app offers some unique and essential features that make it worth considering despite its hefty price tag.

At the top of the list of Mailplane features is the ability to archive a message or write a quick reply directly from a new email notification. The software is also compatible with the new Dark Mode in macOS Mojave, offers an offline mode, the ability to add annotations and shapes to email, and more.

As a long-time Mailplane user, my favorite feature continues to be the use of third-party extensions, which now include Boomerang, Grammarly, SalesForce Inbox, and many others.

You can download your free Mailplane trial from the company’s official site.

One Final Alternative

With Wavebox, you can easily navigate between different web apps — including Gmail. In doing so, you can deal with fewer browser tabs and take advantage of the macOS Notifications system. In total, Wavebox offers integration with over 1,100 web applications.

Unlike browser tabs, Wavebox app allows you to work with a single suite of web apps. By doing so, you can open all of your most essential web apps with just one click. In Gmail’s case, you can also add links to other Google apps (including YouTube), so you can access them all in the same place on your computer. You can also install popular Gmail extensions like Boomerang, Clearbit Connect, and LastPass.

Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, Wavebox Pro is free to use for 14 days. With a Pro account, you can install an unlimited number of web apps. A free version allows you to install up to two Gmail accounts. You can purchase a yearly Pro subscription from the official Wavebox website.

A Lot to See Here

As a heavy Gmail user, I’ve gone back and forth over the years on how best to access my email on my MacBook Pro. Kiwi has been my go-to app for many years because of its ease of use. The other ones are also worth considering, however.

I would strongly suggest that you try out each app before making a choice. Using the official Mail app is also an acceptable solution as is sticking with the web version. Make your decision based on the features you find most important and whether you want to pay.

How do you view Gmail on your Mac? Let us know in the notes below.

Over the last few years, email has become an integral part of our daily lives. It has evolved from a simple way to send and receive text between two parties into a familiar and reliable method of communication that can be used as a place to receive newsletters, updates, and notifications from various services, etc. Several email apps have built additional features and experiences on top of the core email technology, such as shared inboxes, team collaboration, delegation, inline comments, etc.

Finding an email client for your Mac is not a trivial task. There are numerous free email apps for Mac that are released every few months and many simply shut down or disappear just as easily. Thankfully, we’ve made it easy for you by picking some of the best email apps out there and highlighting everything you should know about them. By the end of this article, you’ll emerge fully aware why Readdle’s Spark is by far the best email app for Mac.

Here’s our roundup of all the good email clients available for macOS:

1. Apple Mail app

Pricing: Free

Pros: Good set of basic features, well-integrated with the OS, great for starters.
Cons: Lacks advanced features, no customization options, often ignored by Apple.

It’s nearly impossible to talk about the best email apps for Mac and not include Apple’s own Mail.app in the list. Apple Mail is a reliable & solid email app for Mac that is a great option for someone just starting off with email. It comes bundled with macOS and integrates well with the major email service providers. Mail app works best when used with iCloud and automatically sets up the iCloud email account when you set up your iCloud account on your Mac.

It has a basic set of features that are good enough for novice users to get started with the essential email experience. If you’ve just switched to a Mac from a PC, you’ll find the Apple Mail app experience far better than anything you’ve previously used from Microsoft. But you’ll quickly realize that Apple Mail lacks the essential email features that are must-have in today’s day and age and you’ll find yourself searching for the best Apple Mail alternative on Mac.

2. Microsoft Outlook for Mac

Pricing: Free to download, but requires a Microsoft 365 Subscription starting $70/year

Pros: Comes bundled with other Microsoft apps, Built-in Calendar, Dark Mode
Cons: Expensive in the long run, cluttered User Interface, unfamiliar design language on Mac

Microsoft Outlook for Mac is what Apple Mail would be if you threw in a bunch of features and made it look like every other Microsoft app. Unlike the Outlook Mail app on iOS which is praised by many, Outlook for Mac feels like a cluttered mess designed by a team of programmers 10 years ago. It is, however, packed with several great email features. Outlook has what it calls a Focused Inbox, which automatically sorts your important or personal emails into the Focused tab and separates the rest of the junk like newsletters and marketing emails into a separate tab.

Outlook comes bundled with a Microsoft 365 subscription that gives you access to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, and OneDrive, so if you use any of these apps on your Mac, you can easily start using Outlook for Mac over Apple Mail and take advantage of all its good features. It works with email services like Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and pretty much anything that supports POP3 or IMAP protocols (I’m looking at you HEY Email). However, if you want a Mac email client that has both a beautiful design & a feature-rich approach, you have to look no further than Spark.

3. Spark

Pricing: Free for Individuals & Small Teams, with optional Premium plans for teams that require more features

Pros: Beautiful & polished design, elegant aesthetics, feature-packed, multi-platform, several team-focused features, great for collaboration.
Cons: Lacks a Windows app (currently in development)

Spark is a beautifully designed and feature-rich email client from the house of Readdle, known for their suite of productivity apps for iOS and Mac. Spark offers a distraction-free email experience through a delightful interface and a very powerful set of features. It works with all major email services like Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, Hotmail, Aol, GMX, Exchange, as well as any IMAP account.

Spark features a Smart Inbox that automatically sorts incoming email in collections of Personal email, Notifications, and Newsletters. This lets you focus on all the important emails first, while the rest of the clutter takes a back seat. This, coupled with the Smart Notifications feature that only alerts you about the important emails is a great way to take control of your inbox and get productive.

Spark comes with a smart & robust email search feature using which you can locate any email buried deep down in an instant. Simply search for what you’re looking for using Natural Language Search terms and Spark will find it for you. Type “Attachments from Nick” to search for all emails from Nick that have attachments in them, and “PDF attachments from David sent last week on Monday” to bring up all those emails from last Monday from David that have PDF files in them. You can even save your frequent searches, so locating those emails is just a click away.

If you don’t feel like attending to an email right away (such as bill reminders or upcoming renewal notifications), you can set the email aside temporarily using the Snooze feature and reduce the clutter in your inbox. You can schedule emails to be sent later, get reminded to follow-up if you don’t get a response by a stipulated deadline, integrate with a bunch of different apps & services, and so much more. Spark has all the features you need to work with email.

One area where Spark really shines is Spark for Teams. Invite your team members to Spark to collectively work on email together. Spark for Teams lets you Delegate emails — complete with a due date, Share & Discuss email with teammates with inline comments, collaborate on email with a real-time editor on Shared Drafts and share your emails with teammates without manually forwarding them and cluttering up their inboxes.

Overall, Spark is a remarkable bundle of all the features you need to work with email. It’s a fantastic email app for Individuals, and even better for teams. You don’t have to deal with two different versions — the same Spark app is the best Mac email client for personal use and adapts itself with built-in features to become the best email app for teams as well.

Best of all, Spark is absolutely free, so you really have no reason to miss out on the wonderful experience that Spark has in store for you.

4. Airmail

Pricing: Free, but requires a Recurring Subscription of $2.99/mo for Pro features

Pros: Loaded with features, fast, and has a Unified Inbox.
Cons: Messy UI that feels like it was hastily put together, requires Pro subscription for most features.

Airmail is a popular email client available for macOS that boasts of several features in its satchel. It supports all the popular email service providers including Exchange, as well as accounts with IMAP or POP3 access. Just like in Spark, there’s an Unified Inbox feature that lets you view emails from all your accounts in one place.

If you have a Mac notebook with a Touch Bar, Airmail puts your frequently used actions on it so that they’re just a tap away. You can, of course, customize these actions with your favorite set. There’s a lovely Dark Mode to help you with the night sessions, Quick Replies for short responses, a Today Widget to get a quick overview of your inbox, and a handy Share Extension so you can instantly email anything using Airmail.

Overall, Airmail is a really good email app for macOS, and would do really well if it wasn’t for its messy UI and it’s requirement of a recurring subscription of $2.99/mo for Pro features that hasn’t gone down well with its users.

5. Mailplane

Pricing: $30

Pros: Brings the familiar Gmail experience with a native interface
Cons: Only works with Gmail, often breaks due to changes by Google

If you have multiple Gmail accounts that you use simultaneously, Mailplane is the app you need to have on your Mac. Simply put, Mailplane is a native Mac app that wraps around the familiar web interface of Google’s products. With Mailplane, you get Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts — all in the same application. You can use multiple accounts in the app, and you can mix and match the accounts & services. For example, you can have Tab 1 for your personal Gmail account, Tab 2 for your G Suite for Work account, and Tab 3 for your Work Calendar account.

Mailplane has a handy notifier that not only alerts you about new emails, but also shows unread messages count in the menu bar. It has a ‘Search Everywhere’ feature that lets you simultaneously search for emails across different mailboxes. It also seamlessly integrates with a bunch of different macOS apps. My favorite Mailplane feature is that since it is essentially a browser for Google’s web UIs, it supports most of the popular third-party extensions to enhance your experience. You can enable Grammarly to improve your language, Simplify/Gmail to clean up the Gmail UI, Boomerang for Gmail to power-up features, Clearbit to add context to email addresses, and so on.

Unfortunately, your experience is still plagued with issues as Mailplane has to depend on Gmail’s web UI for it to work correctly and oftentimes it just fails to load Gmail, asking you to load an basic HTML version instead. You’ll also often be annoyed by Gmail asking you to enter your account credentials to verify yourself if you use too many accounts in Mailplane. To avoid these hassles, you can set up multiple Gmail accounts in Spark for Mac. This way, you get a premium native email experience and you also have access to your Google Calendar and contacts at your disposal.

6. Canary Mail

Pricing: $20

Pros: Good design, with heavy focus on Security & Privacy
Cons: Lacks Team features

Canary Mail is another email app for macOS that puts a heavy focus on privacy and security. It features end-to-end encryption, full PGP support, and an open source mail sync engine, making it a good choice for users who rely on PGP for all their email communication.

Canary has a beautiful design that looks like any other native Mac app built by Apple. There are familiar icons and buttons in the Mac app, and the UI is built to be simple yet powerful. It’s almost like the default Mail app on steroids.

While Canary is a pretty good email app for personal use, it lacks team collaboration features that are the need of the hour today. If you need to discuss emails with your team, need to draft emails together, and want to share emails without manually forwarding them, then Spark Mail app is what you really need.

7. Newton Mail

Pricing: Recurring Subscription of $49.99/yr

Pros: Multi-platform, Minimal & elegant design
Cons: Expensive subscription with an unclear future

Newton mail is an immensely popular email app that has spent quite some time in the news cycle lately. The app has an extensive set of features that make it an attractive choice for normal and pro users both. Newton features a very minimalistic user interface that takes the clutter out and lets you focus on the core email experience. Unfortunately, the UI is a little too minimal for many who are bothered by the empty spaces in the app.

In recent times, Newton has managed to alienate its loyal users after it announced that it is shutting down, two times in a row. The first time, the original owners of Cloudmagic announced that they were shutting down Newton, only to be bought over by Andy Rubin’s phone company Essential. Then for round #2, when Essential was shutting down, they announced that Newton would meet its end as well, only to be brought back by two independent fans of the service who didn’t want to see it die. As of now, there’s no clear future for Newton, especially considering that the service is priced at a hefty $50 per year.

When pitted against all the popular email apps for Mac available in the market, Spark Mail app emerges as the best email app for Mac by a long margin. It has the absolute perfect combination of a friendly & elegant user interface along with an extensive & robust set of features. Coupled with its impeccable polish, seamless integrations, phenomenal team features, and highly impressive price of being available for free, there’s really nothing that comes close to being a viable contender. Spark is truly the best email client for Mac.