Email is one of those issues that almost everyone struggles with to some degree or another and having a good tool can help you develop better practices to handle your email (though I’m a big believer in your mindset and practices being more important than your tool). With that in mind, we’re going to look at Polymail today, a new email client for iOS and Mac which aims to help you manage your email more effectively.
What is Polymail?
Polymail is a clean looking Apple centric email client that follows a mailbox (poor one out) type approach to email (aka gesture focused and with delayed email). It supports a wide range of email services (with IMAP reportedly coming soon) and has some interesting features to add extra power and productivity such as
- quick unsubscribe from newsletter
- sending later (wait for the right moment)
- email tracking (have they read it yet?)
The Good
First of all let’s start with the look and design. It’s really clean and bright (which some people may not like). This makes it pleasant to use (something which shouldn’t be over stated when it comes to a task many people hate). The logging in process is also simple and syncs across devices. So if you have three different email accounts you need to use, when you set up a new device, you only have to log in with your Polymail account (yes this does mean Polymail is handling your email on their server and this may be a security issue you need to check with your company).
The unsubscribe option also works well on newsletters to provide an easy way to stop the spam. It can run into issues when used on iOS as clicking the button opens up an in-app browser which doesn’t always seem to run the correct scripts to trigger unsubscribing, but it still works well on the desktop.
I also really like the delay later option which includes flexibility to change the exact points when you will be reminded.
Finally, the way they have implemented keyboard shortcuts with the option of either their own shortcuts or using Gmails keybindings is a great way to get gmail users on board.
The Bad
As great as Polymail is, it isn’t perfect yet. There are still some bugs which need to be worked out and there are some aspects people might not like. Firstly email tracking is no doubt to be contentious. Many people like to handle email in a way that allows them to check emails when they come in and then come back to it at a later date if it doesn’t require immediate action. However, there are some people who believe that their sense of “what is urgent” should also dictate your sense of what is urgent (whether it should or shouldn’t). Email tracking can help enable that problem. On the other hand, email tracking also helps your mind rest at easy as to emails getting lost along the way. As I say, it is contentious and bound to divide opinions.
Secondly, delaying emails can also be seen as a similar bad habit. One that enables procrastinating rather than taking action on what needs to be done. The opposing view is that it allows you to clean your inbox but have items reemerge when you actually need to think about them.
Finally, there have been some bugs reported during the initial release. At this point I should say that I have experienced very few issues, but fellow ChurchMag writers have found it frustrating leading to them abandoning the app. There have been updates since then so these issues are hopefully all in the past but keep an eye out just in case.
Wrapping Up
If you are looking for an email client with a few powerful and useful extra features, yet which keeps a clean design and easy of use, then Polymail might just be for you…if you use a Mac and iPhone/iPad.
Design: 5 –
Features: 4.5 –
Performance: 4 –
Value for Money: 5 –
Learn more about Polymail.
Ana Avila says
This looks SO good. I’ll definitely be giving it a try! Thanks!
Chris Wilson says
Definitely worth trying and the price is hard to turn down! There is a pro version now which came out since I wrote this review. I think it features some collaboration features. What have you been using Ana?
Eric Dye says
Reminds me a LOT of Airmail and Mailbird.
Chris Wilson says
It does look quite similar and functions a lot like Airmail but there are some big differences between them when you actually get into the details. Airmail doesn’t automatically do read receipts and Airmail has a few actions (in iOS) which polymail doesn’t. Polymail also has some cool collaboration features I haven’t tried out yet.