Test 1 Productivity
Integration with your workflow
Gmail features some of the tools that Google
has added to its email tool, such as quick–reply
options, the separation of important messages
from the rest, and the ability to schedule
messages. However, there’s no quick way
to create a task from messages.
Spark not only allows you to create tasks, you can share
them with others and delegate to them too. And you can pass
messages to third–party apps like Things, Trello, or Evernote.
Airmail lets you create a task from a message, but only within
the app, while Outlook is limited in this respect, allowing you
only to schedule a time to respond to a message. Edison allows
you to quickly create a PDF of a message and share it using the
iOS share menu, while Spike lets you create groups for group
chats, and also displays your calendars. Spark is the clear
winner here.
Test 3 Action options
What options are available?
Airmail allows you to choose from a long list
of actions, and you can assign left and right
swipes and choose four actions for each to
display when you swipe over a message. You
can tap More for further options, and add
others to the list. Spark only has two options
for each left/right swipe, one for a short swipe and one for
a long one, but these can be customized. Spark also has
“widgets” that can be customized.
Spike can either have three actions for a left swipe, the third
of which is More, and none for right, or two for each. Edison
uses the “long/short” convention, and while you can choose
what each does, the list of options is short. Outlook has only
one action for each swipe, and the list of customizable options
is fairly short. Gmail is the least impressive, with one action and
the fewest options of all.
Test 2 Search speed
How quickly can you find messages?
Gmail puts its search bar at the top of your
inbox, and the minute you start typing, it
makes suggestions. It’s lightning quick, but
only displays messages and all in one group.
Airmail requires you to tap a magnifying glass,
but it’s even quicker than Gmail and allows you
to filter results by Subject, Sender, etc. Spark also requires you
to tap a magnifying glass, and while its quick, it displays results
by email address and needs another tap to check if it’s found
the message you want.
Edison’s search bar is at the top of the inbox, and it groups
email addresses and message previews, but it’s a little sluggish
compared to Gmail and Airmail. Spike requires the tap of
a magnifying glass, is just as quick as Airmail, and has a neat
smart filter tool. Outlook also uses a magnifying glass, but it’s
sluggish and doesn’t filter in any helpful way.
Test 4 Organization
Keeping track of what’s important
Spike groups messages by sender/recipient and
displays them as if you were using a messaging
tool (or you can switch to a more traditional
view). Edison has a neat feature that allows
you to view messages like email newsletters,
travel tickets, delivery notifications, and bills
and receipts as a group. In the case of newsletter subscriptions,
it lists the sender along with a handy unsubscribe button.
Gmail identifies priority senders and displays those first, and
Outlook’s inbox does something very similar with its Focused
inbox. Spark highlights unread messages at the top of the
inbox, allows you to pin messages to the top, and splits
personal messages from bulk emails. Airmail has a number of
one–tap filters that let you see, for instance, only those
messages it has identified as important, or only those that
come with attachments.AIRMAILEDISON MAILGMAILOUTLOOKSPARKSPIKEAIRMAILEDISON MAILGMAILOUTLOOKSPARKSPIKEAIRMAILEDISON MAILGMAILOUTLOOKSPARKSPIKEAIRMAILEDISON MAILGMAILOUTLOOKSPARKSPIKEImage rights (left to right, top to bottom): Readdie, Bloop, Bloop, Hopflow.
App Life
66 AUG 2019 maclife.com