Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2018/09/26/astro-acquired-by-slack-apps-to-shut-down-october-10th/
The enterprise messaging service Slack has acquired email app maker Astro Technology. Unfortunately, the Astro apps will stop working soon, forcing users to switch quickly.
Iāve been trying Spark for email for a while now, and while I really like the feature set and the UI, it has serious performance problems. On the iPhone, for instance, I can open it and see new messages, but it takes so long to load their contents that Iām forced to switch to the Gmail app so I can actually read the messages.
Itās far from fast on the Mac too, but at least there itās running in the background enough that it can keep bringing message content in all the time, so itās usually there when I want to read a message.
Has anyone else tried Spark? Or Airmail? Canary Mail? Anything else?
Has anyone else tried Spark? Or Airmail? Canary Mail? Anything else?
Iām one of the Apple users trying periodically all the alternatives to Apple Mail.app both on iOS and macOS.
My main mail server is Office 365, so my experience may be different from yours.
On macOS I always go back to Apple Mail.app; mostly the alternatives are buggy enough or sometime slow.
On iOS I landed on Spark since one year and Iām very happy. I use it together with SaneBox.com, and I do not see any problem. I love the UI and the its workflow. Spark for macOS is still missing may important elements that Mail.app on macOS has.
BTW, on iOS I love the two other Readdle products, namely Documents (my iOS filesystem) and PDF Expert.
cheers
āe.
I had problems with Apple Mail for quite a while and switched to Airmail. Nowā¦I am not a āpower userā but it meets my needs. Whether it will work with your mail server (my college uses Google) I donāt know.
Here are some reviews:
https://thesweetsetup.com/apps/favorite-email-client-os-x/
https://www.softwarehow.com/best-mac-email-client/
https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-software/best-mac-email-clients-3644433/
https://lifehacker.com/5811204/the-best-email-client-for-mac-os-x
Hope that helps
Bob
At the beginning of last year I switched from Apple Mail to MailMate and havenāt looked back. Itās got a very fast search, is highly customisable and I love being able to move emails from one mailbox to the other at the use of a shortcut on my keyboard.
I guess you have to like tinkering a little bit, to get the most out of it.
Best
ph
1 Like
Iāve been using MailMate āforeverā. I love it. Yes you can tinker, and Benny, the developer is extremely accommodating to questions, issue and customization. But Tinkering is not required. I find that it does everything I need right out of the box.
Iām a beta tester for Spark. I use it only on my phone (6s) as I need a scriptable mail client on my Macs.
I have noticed exactly that problem. The beta also has difficulties syncing with Exchange accounts (my Exchange account at work, anyway).
Theyāre responsive when I file reports.
Jeremy
Yeah, the Spark people are very good about replying. Iām just surprised that they havenāt fixed the performance issues given how painful they make using the app at times.
That said, whatever the latest version is, it seemed to load much faster on my iPhone this morning.
Have you tried MailMate? After using Eudora for longer than I can remember, i tried numerous client and ended up with MailMate almost 2 years ago. It took me a while to switch my workflow but I have never regretted switching. It handles my 100k+ emails per year with aplomb.
Mailmate on OSX. Spark on iOS.
But am actively looking for an app which is speedier to replace Spark. Notifications arrive but the email doesnāt, itās quite frustrating. You refresh and refresh until it does come in and even then the email appears empty. Quite frequently I end up quitting and re-downloading Mail and looking there. Enough.