Applications

Why I always end up going back to Spark as my mobile email manager

Honestly, until a few years ago I did not give importance to having a good email manager. I had several scattered accounts that were only used to receive authentication links for my web registrations and little else. My working life brought me face to face with a reality in which emails are a fundamental element of my daily routine, leaving me with the urgent need to find a good email manager.

the Spark app, Powered by ReaddleIt has been my greatest blessing over the years. And I can already assure that I have tried a few, but in the end I always end up coming back to this one. And beyond the habit, which is an incentive to end up returning to it, there are a few features of Spark with which

AirMail, Canary Mail and even Gmail failed in my attempts

Mobile Mail Apps

As I said, there are not a few applications that I have tried over the years. I started, like almost everyone, with the apps of gmail and Outlook. However, I soon discarded them. I did the Microsoft one simply and simply because its interface horrified me and, despite its improvements over the years, it still seems quite cumbersome to me. Google’s complied, but it didn’t allow me to group all the trays into one.

Willing to pay for an email app, though Spark offers me absolutely everything without paying a dime.

And it is that one of my premises is that the mail application that I use, whether on the mobile or on the computer, must offer me the possibility to merge trays from different accounts into one. Discarded Gmail, I went to AirMail, which was quite fashionable 4-5 years ago. And I have to say that I liked this application. And a lot, since it had everything I was looking for at that time and added other functions that were ultimately unnecessary for me.

Despite preferring a one-time payment, I have to say that I am not a hater of this type of app that is paid on a regular basis, but AirMail’s trick of becoming a subscription app even for those of us who had paid for it seemed enough to me to search another app. It was then that spark appeared. She already existed, only I had never tried it and I thought it was fantastic. It was an AirMail, but visually prettier (in my opinion) and also free. Hey, I was willing to pay, but I won’t be the one to turn down a good app that’s free (and safe).

SparkAndroid

I interleaved Spark with other apps when using Android, since to all this I have forgotten to say that my main mobile was from that one an iPhone. Those other apps were pure temporary mail managers, since none of them satisfied me and I always ended up resorting to the Mac to return to Spark, until finally, just 2 years ago, this app arrived on Google Play. That said, I never needed another manager.

Now, dedicating my professional work to technology media, it was inevitable for me to keep an eye on other new developments that were emerging, both in the App Store and Google Play, although always giving priority to those that are multiplatform because I have not stopped combine the use of an iPhone with an Android. It was in those that he appeared Canary Mail And it put me in serious trouble.

I was wrong in my love for Canary, because not even its careful minimalist interface could make me forget. The spark of love for Spark made me return to her (yes, it’s a bad joke because Spark literally means Spark in Spanish). And I did it because of the custom that she commented on a few lines ago, but also because of her compendium of functions that neither Canary nor the many others that I have tried integrate or not at least in such a complete way.

A clear and clutter-free interface

Spark interface

If someone asked me to design a graphical application right now, I would probably deny the proposal even with a blank check. It is not that area that I have the most developed of my creative facet. however yes I know how to appreciate when an interface is good. Or at least when it is to my liking, for that it is a purely subjective aspect. And Spark fully complies with it.

I admit that Canary Mail or even Gmail, despite their different styles, I don’t dislike. However, Spark seems to me to know how to perfectly integrate a minimalist and functional interface. The organization that it has for folders and email accounts seems to me the best, in addition to offering a unique design on all platforms.

Being cross-platform or allowing quick interactions with just a swipe are features that I really appreciate in this app.

And the latter is not a trivial matter, since I highly value applications that manage to integrate their own interface into operating systems that already come standard with their own style. spark knows adapt without losing its essencethus avoiding having to suffer with any learning curve or having to adapt each time to the system you are using. Everything is in the same place every time, just change the device you are using.

Additionally, Spark offers the ability to configure the gestures on four levels for its mobile version. This allows you to interact with an email without actually entering it, just having to slide a little to the left or right, obtaining two more interactions by sliding completely to one of these sides. Actions such as filing, sending to the spam folder, deleting it, marking it as read, postponing it… All of this within the reach of a single slip.

Spark allows you to configure different gestures with which to quickly interact with received emails.

They also offer other options for customize interface theme which, honestly, I have never used because I prefer the one that comes natively. What is appreciated, and until not long ago it wasn’t there, is that the app is fully compatible with dark mode on both iOS and Android. In addition, it can be configured so that it goes according to what is set in the system.

Spark Options

The only drawback that perhaps in this sense I can attribute to this application is that not yet for windows. In fact they have been months (perhaps even years) with the little sign that it is coming. On a personal level, it doesn’t matter to me, since I only change the operating system on mobile and on desktop, I remain faithful to macOS, but I don’t rule out having to resort (even sporadically) to the Microsoft system in the future. And, if that were the case, I would suffer without having Spark as I suffered in its pre-Android days.

Its key features and that always make me come back

Spark App Email

Without wanting to subtract an iota of importance from what I have already mentioned in reference to the interface, Spark has many other functions that are the ones that I really value. And I have to say that they are not exclusive functions or that they have invented here, but it is the app that best integrates them and, above all, includes them all.

The first one is power. postpone post, a function that I admit it took me a while to make sense of and today it has everything for me. Murphy’s law means that when I’m on my break time I don’t stop receiving work emails, while during my working day I also receive many valuable emails, but only useful in my leisure time. So to be able to have automated various ways of postponing them seem essential to me on a day-to-day basis.

Postpone Email Spark

Schedule emails It is another interesting function, although I admit that the opposite of the previous one is happening to me, since years ago I used it almost continuously and today I limit myself to programming 3 or 4 emails a month. The thing is that those times I have to program them, I almost always do it from my mobile. It is a function that, I insist, is not exclusive to Spark, but it works very well and is very useful when you have something to send or say to a person/company and you find yourself at odd hours or a long time away from when you want them to receive it.

Spark’s smart filter for prioritizing emails is getting better and better.

Although if there is a function that has been marveling me for years, it is its smart tray (or Smart Inbox as it is literally called by its name in English). As I said, I have several accounts to manage from the same application and I prefer it that way because there can always be some information of interest to me in any of them and exchanging manually seems impractical to me. That said, the negative consequence of this merger is that just the opposite effect happens: receiving emails that are not of my interest or at least not enough to be a priority.

The system that Spark has created filters emails by importance very well, highlighting those that are really useful and those that are not. And it’s not that I delete emails or send them to spam, but rather that it positions them so that I can see the ones that interest me the most first. And in my first time with the app it was a disaster, to the point that I had it disabled until not long ago.

However, I have noticed that he knows me more and more or at least that feeling it gives me, because filtering is becoming more efficient. I do not know if they have a machine learning system that learns from our habits or if it is pure artificial intelligence already programmed, but it works.

All of these features combined into one app are what make me give Spark a top priority when choosing and recommending an email app. Even though, not everything is good.

I also miss things, especially from Gmail

Google Apps

I recently discussed several changes in my mobile habits and one of them is that I started using Gmail more than ever, especially on desktop. And although I still prefer Spark for everything I have mentioned before, the truth is that I still use this Google system for contributing everything Spark doesn’t have yet. Or at least not in a simple way.

The first of them is the perfect integration with other apps. Readdle has calendar apps and other utilities that, as interesting as they may be, are still light years away from strong Google ecosystem. Being able to tune in so well with apps like Google Keep, Google Task or Google Calendar makes things easier for me.

also power configure custom filters it is another factor to take into account of Gmail and that Spark lacks. As good as its artificial intelligence is with the intelligent tray, there are things that it does not reach, such as certain emails going directly to the bottom. In Gmail it is possible to configure automations such as an email that begins with a certain phrase going to spam.

Spark’s catchphrase is love your mail again, and I always end up loving Spark.

Now, I must also say that these disadvantages of Spark with respect to Gmail are also very relative, since they are more linked to desktop versions than mobile. Fortunately or unfortunately, most advanced settings of this type cannot be managed from the mobile. Therefore, the negative points of Spark are somewhat less.

In any case, I would like to say that I would love it if in the not too distant future developers would allow a better integration with third-party services such as those of the aforementioned Google apps or Apple’s own. After all, it is a way to better integrate your application in the different ecosystems, although I understand that they also want to add value to their own.

Spark

Spark

  • Developer: readdle
  • Price: Free
  • Download it at: google play
  • Category: Productivity

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