7 Reasons to Have More Than One Email Account in 2019

January 21, 2019, 3:29 am

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Why have multiple email accounts you might ask? When setting up an email account, your first instinct might be to create one email address for all of your email needs. This way you’ll only need to sign into one location to access your emails, and your logins across the web will all use the same address. For simplicity’s sake, this might seem like a good idea. In reality, the opposite is true. Considering the number of emails people receive on a daily basis, keeping all your emails in one account will actually make email management more complicated, not less. You’ll have a harder time getting to the most important emails as your inbox becomes overloaded with spam and promotional emails. If you’re emailing for personal and professional out of the same account, you run the risk of sending a personal email to a professional contact. Yikes!

We all have different means for email management.

Instead, you should have multiple email addresses for different purposes. And if signing into multiple accounts seems troublesome, there’s a simple solution. Using something like the Unified Inbox feature with Mailbird allows you to keep multiple accounts organized in one location. Problem solved! If you’re still not convinced that having multiple email addresses is a good practice, here are 7 reasons you should have more than one email address.

1. To separate business from personal.

First and foremost, it’s never a good idea to mix your business and personal inboxes, especially if your personal email address is something goofy from the early days of email. At the very least, you should have a business- and a personal email. You may even want to consider a custom domain for your business account, particularly if you are starting your own business. For example, all of Mailbird’s email addresses are lastname@mailbird.com. A custom domain sounds more professional than Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo, which are typically associated with personal accounts.

Nearly 1 in 4 people use a work email address as a login for a personal account.

2. To filter spam.

How often do you give out your email address? Once a day? A few times a week? From using your email to register an online account, to entering your email before downloading an article or white paper, to giving your email when making a purchase, you may find yourself using your email more often than you’d like. Before you know it, your inbox in inundated with marketing, promotion, and/or newsletter emails daily. (I sometimes get 50 a day!) A simple way to avoid this would be to use a separate email address in these situations. Sending spam and promotional emails to a disposable account will keep your main inbox fresh, and you won’t have to worry about missing any key emails because they got lost in the sea of spam.

3. To manage public use of your email.

Sometimes, you may want to post a public email address for people to contact you or your company. But to use your main email account would cause a similar issue as the above point—soon enough, you may find your inbox bogged down by spam and marketing emails, making it difficult to stay organized. Instead, you might try a generic “info@domain.com” or “contact@domain.com” for public use, like on your website.

4. To maintain your online identity.

Similar to the above point, you should use a different email for blogging, social networking sites, or other online conversations, such as through Quora or Yahoo Answers. When writing reviews, commenting on articles, or answering questions, you may want a less identifiable email address than “lastname.firstname” or a professional domain that easily ties back to you. If you can imagine situations where you might want to maintain your anonymity, consider an alias email address.

Different email inboxes keep you organized.

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5. To organize different jobs, projects, or teams.

Just as you might want different accounts for work, personal, and spam, the same could be said for separating workflows into different email accounts. For example, if you are a freelancer working with multiple clients, you may find the best way to organize emails between different clients is by giving each client a dedicated email. If you’re worried about managing multiple accounts, the Unified Inbox feature from Mailbird will keep you organized.

6. To conduct your own marketing campaigns.

Like having a dedicated email account for receiving promotional emails, you may want a dedicated email for sending marketing emails as well. If you plan to run your own email marketing campaigns, sending from a dedicated email address, such as marketing@domain.com, keeps your regular inbox from getting cluttered with responses and auto-replies or bounces. Use this email as the “from” address when sending marketing emails.

7. As a backup to your main email account.

In addition to your main accounts, you should consider creating a backup email address for password recovery and managing unauthorized account access. Many email providers will ask you to provide a backup email for account recovery when this happens. Note that your backup email address should have a significantly different password than your other accounts. (Pro tip: All of your accounts should have meaningfully different passwords!)

Conclusion

Having multiple email addresses helps you stay organized and manage an ever-growing number of daily emails. From separating business and personal communications to filtering spam into a disposable account to helping you stay anonymous on the web, there are huge benefits to using more than one email address. Once you’ve set up your different email addresses, be sure to evaluate an email client, such as Mailbird for Windows or Airmail for Mac, to help you stay on top of your email and organize your different accounts.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2017 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post 7 Reasons to Have More Than One Email Account in 2019 appeared first on Mailbird.

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Why is Mailbird the best Alternative to Windows 10 Mail App in 2019

January 21, 2019, 5:40 am

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Windows 10 Mail App Not Working?

Windows 10 is out and without a doubt it is the best Windows version so far. With its wonderful new features like Cortana and Spartan web browser among others, it also shipped with a default Windows 10 Mail app. Since Windows 10 launch we were anxious to see what freshness it would bring to its Mail app but after trying it out and reading other people’s reviews, it is clear that the Mail app has a lot of ground to cover to become the most usable email client on Windows due to bugs and the lack of certain critical key features. Since Mailbird launched its enhanced Mailbird for Windows 10, we decided to explore the native Windows 10 Mail app vs. Mailbird to see how they stack up against each other.

Modern UI

Both Windows 10 Mail and Mailbird are developed using the same metro style theme. While Mail uses more strictly text based, Mailbird uses UX intuitive elements giving it that beautifully clean look and feel. That’s important when you want to keep your communication and productivity apps housed under one roof. 3 column vs. 4 column layout – Both Mailbird and Windows 10 Mail have the default 3 column layout but with Mailbird apps activated you unlock a 4 column layout which allows you to manage emails in parallel with those critical apps that are baked right into Mailbird. It’s all thanks to that 4th column.

Windows 10 Mail app – 3 column view

Mailbird 4 column view with WhatsApp

Unified Inbox Plus with color indicators

This is the most critical feature missing in Mail app which makes it tougher for users to handle multiple email accounts. Unified Inbox Plus accumulates your emails from different email accounts and displays them in a single inbox. The colored indicators help you to easily distinguish the email accounts even if they are in the same inbox. This reduces the necessity to switch between accounts to manage them separately, especially if you have three or more email accounts. A small downgrade in user experience in the Mail app for Windows 10 is that you need 2 clicks to switch between email accounts. In Windows 8.1 you needed a single click to toggle.

Mailbird’s Unified Inbox with Color Indicators

Conversation View

Conversation view helps keep a conversation and it’s replies threaded in one email thereby making your inbox cleaner. If they are not threaded you’ll get a separate email for every reply. Even though conversation view is helpful, many users still don’t like to use it and for them Mail app comes with bad news. Conversation view is set by default in the native Windows 10 Mail app and can’t be switched off. However, if you’re a Mailbird user, you can switch conversation view on/off from the Options menu. Easy.

Are you not happy with Windows 10 Mail? Give Mailbird a try now.

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Apps

Most of us use multiple communication apps every day which makes it more than essential for an email client to have these apps integrated for easy access and efficiency. Mail for Windows 10 removed the integration with Facebook and Twitter from People apps (their version of a contacts manager) so now users are left with no option for communication via social channels. Mailbird continues to maintain strong integrations with multiple communication apps like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Asana, Appear.in and more. This way you don’t have to switch between browser tabs or pick up your mobile phone as everything is one one place in Mailbird. Now that’s freaking cool.

Twitter app in Mailbird sidebar

Productivity Features

Windows 10 Mail is a basic email client with standard features like any other legacy email client and it might be because the Microsoft team wants people to focus more on Microsoft Outlook, rather than on the latest Windows 10 Mail. There are no extra ordinary features in the latest Windows 10 Mail app, that prioritize making users more productive or help people be much more efficient in their communication. An email client without a purpose. Mailbird however has a mission at hand which also drives the decision making when it comes to product development. Mailbird wants to help you be productive with your inbox, simplifying your life by bringing it all into one place where you manage your conversations. Mailbird goes above and beyond the standard features of an email client, introducing innovative processes that help you combat email overload. With this vision in mind Mailbird has introduced unique productivity features like the email speed reader, snooze, quick attachment preview and third party apps. To top it off, most of these features are available in the free version – so why wouldn’t you opt for Mailbird over Windows 10 Mail?

Mailbird’s Email Speed Reader in action

Contacts & Calendar

Mail for Windows 10 has an improved Contacts Manager and Calendar. Contacts Manager has a better navigation on the left and you can scroll down easily unlike the horizontal navigation in Windows 8.1 version. The Calendar now supports CalDAV standard which is used by Google and iCloud. Mailbird has Google Calendar and Sunrise app integrated which can be used to manage your appointments without needing to learn a new interface. Mailbird also has a native contacts manager which allows you to import contacts using vCard format and also keep contacts of people who have emailed you. You can also create groups to send emails to multiple people at once.

Mailbird’s clean Contacts Manager with unique Contacts Linking option

Mail’s Contact Manager

Bugs & Problems

Since the launch of Windows 10, the native Windows 10 Mail app has been under the heat for having critical bugs which affects the core product experience and it ranges from people not being able to add their account, sync issues to notifications not working properly. Looking at the app store page of Mail more people have rated it as 1 (poor), rather than a 5 (excellent).

Poor app store rating of Mail

If that’s not enough, Arstechnica writer said that Windows 10 Mail is beautiful but bug ridden. And here is Christian Taylor comparing Mail vs. Mailbird.

Looking at the pattern from the past, Microsoft has not been very forthcoming in releasing quick fixes for issues in Mail and if that continues a lot more people will end up disappointed. In the meantime Mailbird has launched its latest and most amazing version for Windows 10, and if direct user feedback holds any weight here, this is what people say about Mailbird everyday.

What users are saying about Mailbird for Windows 10

Change is good, even for your email.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post Why is Mailbird the best Alternative to Windows 10 Mail App in 2019 appeared first on Mailbird.

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Social Media Content Guide: How To Write Effective Content in 2019

January 21, 2019, 10:06 pm

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There’s no point in writing social media content that no one will read. Writing effective social media content is quite easy once we grasp a couple of tips. Approximately 40% of the world’s population has internet access, attracting even a small percentage of that with your content will be invaluable to you.

Here’s a list of steps that will guide you write compelling content:

1. Have a Niche

What topics will your content be based on? Before you can shift your focus to writing social media articles, its best to identify which fields you’re knowledgeable in and can comfortably write content on. Importantly, identify a niche and stick to it. Whenever we publish articles on topics that we are not conversant in, chances are that we will have too much irrelevant content, not forgetting misguiding information that may cost us our audience. You don’t have to be a ‘jack of all trades,’ chose your niche and let that be your identity.

2. Know Your Audience

Do you know your audience? Can you define the persona of your prospective reader? These are among the many important questions regarding your audience that will dictate the nature of your content. Content for an older audience will, of course, be entirely different from that for young adults or kids. This distinction will be crucial in writing effective social media content. Knowing your audience will guide you to write content that’s tailored specifically to them. Otherwise, writing content without a target audience in mind will make you write content that will ‘miss the target’ rendering your article ineffective.

3. What Platform Are You Using

There are many social media platforms available for you to publish your content on, each with its own requirements. Over the years, the number of these sites has been growing, and your audience probably has a preference which you must know. The channel you use will dictate a lot of aspects that relate to the content, for example, the length, level of formality and so on.

A common feature on most websites – the share function

The other factor to consider is making your content shareable across a number of social media platforms. This increases the level of effectiveness of the social media content since you’ll get to reach a bigger audience that way.

4. Do Extensive Research

Legitimacy online is a crucial aspect that cannot be ignored. There are hundreds of thousands of content pieces being posted online every single minute each day. The question is, how does your content stand out from the rest? The answer is simple, establish legitimacy.

Working on the quality of your content to ensure that no information you post will be misleading to your audience in any way is the way to go. Competition for audience is stiff online, therefore, ensure that before writing your content, you’ve gone the extra mile and done extensive and sufficient research such that your content is irreproachable. Should any queries arise, be in a position to justify or defend your posts with credible proof. Your audience values truth and honesty, ensure that you give them exactly that.

5. Work On the Content

Content that’s guaranteed to interest readers

The quality of your social media content is the primary determinant of whether it will be useful or not. Once you have attained all the four steps highlighted above, your next action will be to draft the content. Every aspect from the title to the conclusion is critical to your success. Therefore, as you work on the material, there’re a couple of things that you’ll need to look at in detail to guarantee effectiveness.

About the Author:

Kevin is a professional educator and a private tutor with over 8 years of experience. He is also a content writer for various blogs about higher education, entertainment, social media & blogging. Check out his website During his off time, Kevin enjoys traveling and cooking. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter, Linkedin & Google+.

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Best College Apps To Help Students With Studies in 2019

January 22, 2019, 1:15 am

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Most of the students cannot imagine their lives without their smartphones and 2019 will be no different. They use them for communication and entertainment mostly – however, that’s not the only ways smartphones can be used. These days there are plenty of college apps designed to make our lives easier – and any student can indeed improve their lives a lot by installing some of these apps. Of course, it could be hard to pick the right ones as there are so many. That’s why in this article I want to offer you a list of apps that can make students’ lives more productive.

1. Spotify.

If you enjoy listening to music, you should definitely install this app. Many students know Spotify as the place where popular music and latest hits can be found – but it’s not the only reasons why it’s great.

Spotify has so many playlists you can listen to while studying. They are created by other students and help you focus on your assignments well enough. Of course, you might need some time to find the right playlists for you – but it’s still much easier than trying to create one by yourself.

2. Google Drive.

Google Drive is one of the best cloud services that allow you to save the data you definitely wouldn’t want to lose. Sure, there are plenty of other good apps as well (Dropbox, for example) – but Google Drive offers probably the biggest amount of disk space available: 15GB for free accounts.

This means that you are able to store not only documents there: projects, various files, and other important data can be saved there as well.

3. Feedly.

Students spend plenty of time online, either researching something useful like cause and effect essay topics or simply relaxing while reading Reddit and their favorite blogs. Not all of them, however, are able to keep up with the current news and the recent updates as much as they want to – students’ lives are busy, after all.

Feedly can ease the process for you. It’s an RSS app, where you can add your favorite websites as blogs to view it as one feed. You can also turn on the notifications to ensure you won’t miss important updates.

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4. iHomework.

Would it be great to keep track of your college assignments and remember about the upcoming tests? This app can help you with that. Basically, it’s a homework organizer, where you can store all the studies-related data you want. You are also able to set notifications that will remind you about the deadlines and assignments that need to be finished.

5. Strava.

Many students do want to remain fit during college years. Some, however, struggle in the process a lot. Combining physical activities with a college education can be hard, especially when you do it on your own. This way you’ll always need to motivate yourself, to find time for sports, and so on.

However, this doesn’t have to be so hard. Strava app is designed especially for those who want to be fit but feel like they need some company and extra motivation in the process. Basically, it’s a social network for people, who run, cycle, jog or walk. It allows to set goals and to share your progress with the other, making the process more enjoyable.

6. Mint.

Managing personal finances is a constant struggle for many students. However, Mint app can ease the process greatly. It allows you to keep track of the expenses, set budget goals, and simply understand where your money goes.

Moreover, it’s very simple to understand. So while it doesn’t require many efforts to use, it could strengthen your financial planning skills quickly and effectively.

7. SelfControl.

These days even the best students can get distracted a lot. After all, we have messengers, apps, and notifications that pop up all the time and can turn our attention away from the work that has to be done. Sure, you can discipline yourself and try to ignore these distractions as much as you can. But if you want to solve the problem quickly and effectively, you should try the SelfControl app.

It has a laptop version and works very simply. You set the list of apps and websites you want to block – and you choose the period of time during which they need to remain blocked. After you’re done setting all this, you can focus on work without worrying that a Facebook message will distract you. What’s even more amazing is that you won’t be able to turn off the block even if you try deleting the app or restarting your device.

BONUS Mailbird.

Last but definitely not least you will need a strong app to keep on top of emails. Mailbird is a perfect Windows based app as it also integrates a lot of other popular apps including apps like Google Drive, Evernote and Dropbox. Once you have Mailbird installed on your desktop you can manage all of your online communication just from that one app, without even leaving Mailbird. This is great for efficient and focus work through your emails and tasks. And the best of all. Mailbird will also soon have a mobile App in the Playstore.

Mailbird helps you stay on top of your mails and projects.

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As you see, not all of these apps are related to homework and studies. That’s because this list is designed not only to make you a more productive student but to improve the quality of your college life in general. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

About the Author:

Kevin is a professional educator and a private tutor with over 8 years of experience. He is also a content writer for various blogs about higher education, entertainment, social media & blogging. During his off time, Kevin enjoys traveling and cooking. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter, Linkedin & Google+.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2017 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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Best Alternative to Newton Mail for Windows and Mac in 2019

January 23, 2019, 1:12 am

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Newton Mail is a formidable piece of software. It’s long been considered one of the benchmark standards for email server platforms, packed as it is with a wide range of cool features and sporting an interface that’s simple to navigate and easy to hit the ground running with. Unfortunately, it’s not much longer for this world. Newton has been discontinued on September 18, 2018, meaning that anyone who was using the app or eyeing it for purchase will need to seek out an alternative. But you don’t have to worry about being left out in the cold if you’re looking for an alternative to Newton Mail Mac or Windows. There are a number of sophisticated pieces of software that replicate the main features of Newton Mail while also carving out their own identity in the market. Here are a few of the best.

Alternative to Newton Mail for Windows

1. Mailbird

Perhaps the best alternative to Newton Mail Windows is Mailbird. Ranked the Best Email Client by Windows Report for 2017, this platform finds the perfect balance between intuitive design and customization. This is the type of software that’s ready to give back as much as you’re willing to put in. In addition to its sleek mouse-and-touch enabled interface, Mailbird comes standard with both its own keyboard shortcuts and compatibility with traditional Gmail shortcuts. Particularly impressive is how expandable the interface is. A number of different features and integrations allow you to turn your email inbox into a hub for all of your note taking, contacts management, and blog feeds. Mailbird’s utility lies in its ability to nimbly handle a number of different accounts. You can sync up as many emails as you want under a single account and access them individually or through a unified inbox that is equipped with color indicators. Best of all, Mailbird is generously priced, and a free version is even available for more casual users. Alternative to Newton Mail

Key Features of Mailbird:

A wide selection of customizable layouts and designs.
Native integration with some of the most popular third party apps (including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, DropBox, and Google Calendar).
Snooze function to hide non-priority emails and scheduled and delayed sending functions.
Speed reading to help you read through your backlog of emails more quickly.
Powerful search functionality for attachments.
Unified Inbox with color Indicators.
Popular tagging feature to increase email management speed.

Need a strong alternative to Newton Mail for Windows? Give Mailbird a try now.

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2. Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft is the dignified old gentleman of the software industry, and the modern Outlook client has a heritage spanning back to before the days of Windows. But the company has done an admirable job of keeping up with modern times through their ability to evolve and adapt their Outlook platform. Outlook works across a number of platforms, making it easy to access your messages and activities through both your Windows platform and your mobile device, but where Outlook sets itself apart from the competition is through its presence as part of the Microsoft Office 360 ecosystem. The software is fully integrated with Outlook Calendar and Outlook Contacts, but the way it easily syncs up with other Microsoft platforms like Word and OneDrive means that it’s just one tool neatly integrated into a larger kit. But Outlook is one of the more expensive email clients on the market, so if your demands are less stringent or you haven’t bought into the Office marketplace, you may find less value here than elsewhere.

credit: Techradar

Key Features of Microsoft Outlook:

Professional and dynamic signature creation options.
Advanced calendar sync options including bill pay and suggested event locations.
Tracking and forwarding for event RSVPs.
Support for multiple time zones in day and week calendar.

3. Gmail

When Google launched their proprietary email client in 2004, it was a revelation. It proved that a cloud based email client could work as a replacement to a traditional software platform rather than just a complement to it, and it put in place some of the fundamental features users today demand from their clients. It’s still one of the most popular cloud email platforms around. The spam identification is notably smart, and Gmail’s filtering system automatically sorts your mail using labels rather than traditional folders, serving as something of a digital filing system for your messages. If you’re willing to dig into the filtering rules, you can make impressively complex parameters for how your email gets filed away. Rather than rely on the traditional email structure, Google’s platform threads your conversation to create a more natural and orderly flow to your conversations. It’s not for everyone, and sometimes necessary messages can get lost in the weeds, but it’s generally a smart and effective method for catching up on your important messages. But it’s hard to ignore the fact that features that were once revolutionary are now standard across many clients, and the tantalizingly free price tag might not be enough of an incentive for people searching for more advanced alternatives. Alternative to Newton Mail

Key Features of Gmail:

Meticulous virus and malware protection.
Integration with all of Google’s cloud-based applications.
Over 10 gigabytes of free storage space.
Rich text options including hyperlinks, emoticons, and direct image pasting.

4. eM Client

If Microsoft Outlook and Mailbird are the two respected prizefighters in the world of email clients, eM Client is the scrappy underdog. While its design sensibilities leave a bit to be desired, anyone who’s willing to look past its ugly duckling reputation will find a strong contender for best alternative to Newton Mail Windows. The fact that it’s completely free to use is certainly a mark in its favor. Like many clients on the market, eM Client seeks to serve as more than just a standard email client, instead working as something of a virtual assistant able to coordinate all of your messages and activities. Multiple accounts can be synced up through eM Client, but keep in mind that the free version offers support for only two email addresses. A proprietary calendar and task list are further complemented by direct integration with Google, Facebook, and Jabber messaging systems. If you’re looking to see everything eM Client has to offer, there’s not a lot to lose. The standard version is free, and all new users get access to a 30 day trial of the Pro version.

credit: eM Client

Key Features of eM Client:

Migration tool that works with Thunderbird, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, and Windows Mail.
Translation functionality through the Bing chat tool.
Communication archives that can be sorted by each contact on your list.
Support for AirSync protocol, allowing faster access when syncing Microsoft email accounts.

Alternative to Newton Mail for Mac

1. Apple Mail

A list of the best alternative to Newton Mail Mac wouldn’t be complete without Apple’s standard mail client. The fact that it comes standard on all Mac models and is free to use is a powerful incentive in its favor, and the fact that it’s built off the company’s patented design principles means that Mac users will feel right at home with the interface. Multiple accounts can be synced easily through the Apple Mail interface, and tight integration with Spotlight (the operating system’s default search system) means that finding that needle in a haystack is always a simple affair. It also works well with the Notification Center, and all in all, it’s the most seamless client for a standard Mac setup. Apple Mail is also remarkably rich in features, to a degree that may even be overwhelming to some. Figuring out how all these underlying functions work can take some digging, but if you’re comfortable spending some time learning, you can create a client that’s tailored pretty perfectly to your individual needs.

credit: AlternativeTo

Key Features of Apple Mail:

Smart mailbox allows filtering of mail into folders using a diverse range of different criteria.
Toolbar customization options using a simple drag and drop interface.
Dynamic message themes in the form of Apple Mail stationary.
Integrated note taking and task list functions.

2. Airmail

Airmail prides itself on its speed, and it certainly delivers in that regard. If you’re looking for a responsive email client that manages to look consistently good, this is the client to be beat. But a sleek design and nimble performance aren’t the only strengths of this client. Compatibility with markdown language and HTML allow you to create highly complicated emails without having to rely on the more limited toolbars you’ll typically find in other email clients, a huge boon if you’re a professional looking to put together outreach or marketing messages. A split screen approach lets you see the results of your code in real time as you type it. One of the platforms more creative flourishes is a task based system that lets you organize your messages according to priority and more neatly structure your schedule instead of relying on more conventional flags and junk mail folders. Drag and drop and customizable swipe options tie together the package, making for a client that’s impressively responsive and able to be customized to your individual demands.

credit: MacWorld

Key Features of Airmail:

Support for third party productivity apps like Wunderlist, Fantastical, and BusyCal.
Compatible with Gmail keyboard shortcuts.
Quick reply functionality that resembles more traditional chat platforms.
Snooze and delay functions for incoming and outgoing messages.

3. Spark

Airmail may impress with its staggering level of customization and features, but Spark takes the cake for ease of use on Mac and iOS devices. Spark recognizes that sorting through emails is sometimes a chore that you just want to get through, and their design philosophy is built to facilitate that. In addition to a unified inbox that allows you a big picture view of your messages from all your email addresses, it also offers a smart inbox that automatically sorts out low priority emails and messages already read and puts the highest importance on new mail and those that have been pinned by the user. This prioritized approach to your inbox is tied together with a notification system that lets you know when important mail comes in but doesn’t bother you with every message that comes down the pike. The result is an email platform that’s refreshingly utilitarian and perfect for users who are looking for a dedicated email client rather than a more robust virtual assistant.

credit: MacWorld

Key Features of Spark:

Private comments and draft sharing options for teams.
Email scheduling and reminder followups.
Professional signature templates.
Personalization for every multiple components of the interface.

4. Postbox

Users with an affection for the now defunct Mozilla Thunderbird platform will find plenty to love with Postbox. This is an email client built for the power user, and there’s a lot of functionality if you’re willing to learn the platform’s ins and outs. Professional users who need to manage multiple accounts and send out messages in bulk will find this the perfect playground, as its powerful systems are tailor made for the demands of marketers, sales people, and project managers. Supplementing these capabilities are robust search functionality. Postbox is compatible with any IMAP or POP email account, and there’s no limit to how many different email addresses you can track within the client. Alternative to Newton Mail

Key Features of Postbox:

Account groups designed to compartmentalize multiple work and personal email accounts.
Placeholders and response templates for sending out a slew of messages en masse while still providing personalized content.
Fully integrated Code View HTML editor.
Quick post messages through a number of third party apps including Evernote, Todoist, and Slack.

Conclusion

While Newton Mail is an impressive piece of software, it’s far from the only game in town. Any of the clients on this list can serve as a respectable alternative, and they each come with their own strengths. With this many options, you should be able to find a client that suits your specific needs.

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Windows Alternatives To The Best Mac Email Client in 2019

January 24, 2019, 9:04 am

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The power of email is undeniable. Whether we are sending the latest viral Youtube video to our friends, setting up an interview for our future job, or communicating with potential clients. Last year, the Radicati group estimated an over 4.3 billion increase in email accounts worldwide. Pew Research told us that over 92% of adults use email regularly. It’s vital to our lives even in this technologically modern world that offers so many alternatives to email. Reality is, email is far from dead (it’s true – there’s even a site called emailisnotdead.com!). If you are anything like the rest of the world’s email users, you have probably found an amazing email client that can handle anything you throw at it. And once you found your perfect email partner in crime making the move to a new email client can be very difficult and is avoided by many users. Sometimes you may be forced to look for a new client due to different circumstances. It may be that your current client is not being updated by its developers anymore, or it is not compatible with the OS of your new Notebook or Computer.

Moving from Mac to Windows

Many Mac users are facing with this exact situation. They have to (for whatever reason) switch from Mac to Windows or Linux. You may be able to install the Windows compatible version of your current email client on to your new OS. Some clients are Mac specific though and you will need to find the best Windows alternative of your Mac email client. We decided to put together a list of our favorite Windows alternatives to OS X email clients. All the email clients below support IMAP and POP3, and we didn’t factor in pricing when considering these apps because picking the best email client is all about features, not price. Please also remember that most of the Windows alternatives on our list are available on Mac. For the listings below we are assuming though that you have not used them yet. First up, let’s dive into a few of the best options available for Mac devices to see what Windows apps are up against.

Best Mac Email Clients

1. Apple Mail

credit: http://images.macworld.com/

Apple Mail is the default email client available on all Mac computers, and it’s a favorite of many die-hard Apple loyalists. The Mail app offers basic features like the ability to intuitively manage multiple email accounts and organize your inbox as you please. Along with the added bonus of integrating seamlessly with other Apple products and apps (the main draw to using Mail) the interface is clean and intuitive. It does remind a little bit of a modern version of Outlook, just less cluttered. Why It’s Popular: Clean Design, Intuitive Integration With Apple Products

2. Airmail 3

credit: http://assets.ilounge.com/

Airmail 3 is another, very popular OS X email client. The main reason is its combination of a beautiful, streamlined interface and a completely customizable experience. For Apple lovers who preferred the Mail app’s intuitive design but want more functionality and productivity, Airmail 3 is the winner. It offers just what you need out of an email client while adding a touch of advancement (like integrations with Asana and Trello) that has kept it a consistent crowd pleaser for the past few years. To integrate Airmail with Asana, open Airmail then go to Preferences > Services > Asana > Link. Asana is a great app to improve team collaborations and help teams track their work. To enable Trello integration, in Airmail, simply go to Preferences > Services > Trello > Link Trello. Why It’s Popular: Productivity Powerhouse, Customization

3. Spark

credit: http://media.idownloadblog.com/

Just like the other Mac contenders on this list, Spark has an easy setup and streamlined interface. The main reason it is one of the most downloaded OS X email clients is its ability to integrate with nearly any other productivity tool you may want to use (Evernote, OneNote, Dropbox, Google Drive, Pocket, and more). There are dozens of add-on widgets you can choose from to personalize your experience along with Spark’s standout feature, a smart inbox, that categorizes your emails intelligently. Why It’s Popular: Complete Customization, Comprehensive Third-Party Integrations Now, let’s get into the best Windows alternatives for these loved OS X email clients.

Best Windows alternatives

1. Microsoft Outlook

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We can’t write a proper review of the best email clients for Windows without mentioning Microsoft Outlook. This email client has been around for ages and has consistently ruled the game in terms of a functional email program. You can download Outlook as a desktop client (if it’s not already on your computer), but you also have the option to use the virtual suite on its own. Outlook integrates with the rest of the Microsoft Office Suite smoothly, providing an incredibly productive option for those who like having the whole package. For multiple account management and contact integration, Outlook is strong because of its connection to the Microsoft Office Suite. Setup for Outlook on its own, and the entire suite is simple enough but isn’t as intuitive and clear-cut as it could be. Also, the calendar app has been neglected for a few years, making it weaker than other email clients. Organization and customization are decent in Outlook but are not at the forefront of worthwhile features. MS Outlook can be overwhelming especially for previous Mac users, that are used to clean and intuitive UX and UIs from their Apps. Why It Compares: More Comprehensive Alternative To Apple’s Mail App

2. Mailbird

Mailbird is inspired by a Mac email client called Sparrow. Our Founders loved the email client that was acquired for $25 Mio by Google in 2012. They decided to build a Sparrow-like App for the very much underserved Windows market. Mailbird was born. Many of our users, that came from Mac love Mailbird for its customization options, visual clarity, and a better overall experience that will allow you to become a superior email ninja. Our developers put a lot of effort and focus on a super clean and intuitive UX and UI to give people a unique alternative to Outlook. Multiple email account management is ridiculously easy in Mailbird, storage management is also a breeze, with the ability to coordinate with Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, Asana, and more. Just yesterday we have launched the Alpha of our brand new Contacts Manager, that allows you to import and export contacts from your current email provider and keep your entire network organized. It will sync with Outlook and Gmail and combines unique and known features to unify all of your online contacts with ease.

Mailbird is like a Mac App on Windows.

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You are also able to sort and search correspondence via profile photo or customizable folders and labels, ensuring an efficient system. If customization is what you care about, you will love Mailbird. You can customize pretty much everything starting from the ability to customize account icons, font formats, and color schemes, along with shortcuts, languages, email notification sounds and dark theme options i.e. While Mailbird doesn’t have its own calendar app, Google Calendar integrates to allow you to merge your emails and appointments in one convenient place. The Setup is intuitive. The design and interface of the app are made for those who like beautiful productivity, with new features constantly being added to improve the overall experience. We have added advanced touch support for all your devices, third party apps for your social networks, and a speed reader to allow you to cut your email reading time in half. Why It Compares: Host Of Third-Party Integrations, Customization, And Overall Experience

3. eM Client

Customization is better in eM client than Microsoft Outlook, nevertheless, it is very similar to Outlook. Contacts and calendar integrate well. The setup is easy and overall the app supports incredible customization and add-on features, meaning that just like Airmail 3 and Spark available for OS X or Mailbird for Windows, you’ll be able to adapt your client to your changing needs. The interface is stylish, clean, and incredibly natural to use, making the experience pleasant and mostly hassle-free. One could argue, that the app isn’t quite as modern as other email clients out there, but if you love the base design of Microsoft Outlook coupled with the customization available in Mac apps like Airmail 3 and Spark, you’ll love eM client. Why It Compares: Customizable Like Airmail 3 and Spark

4. Thunderbird

Similar to MS Outlook, Thunderbird has been around for quite some time already. And even though Mozilla has suspended its development, it is still a very popular choice for people that are looking for a reliable and free email client. As with Mailbird and eM Client, multiple account management is a complete breeze. Import and export of contacts is fairly simple. While Thunderbird doesn’t come with an intuitive calendar integration, you can download the Lightning add-on to create a calendar you can use in conjunction with the main app. The setup process for Thunderbird is easy. The overall interface is a bit more “rough around the edges” than Apple’s Mail app i.e.. This may matter for some users making the big switch. But Thunderbird offers endless customization, allowing users to create an email experience that is just right for them – something that even the best Mac apps haven’t completely mastered (yet). Why It Compares: For Use On Both OS X and Windows, Individualized Experience

So, Which Windows Client Is Best For Your Switch?

At the end of the day, choosing the ideal email client will come down to two things: (1) Your daily use and (2) the features that are critical for your productivity. Finding an app that works with you, not against you is key. Hopefully, the list above helps you find the best email client to support you making the move from Mac to Windows.

What do you think? What is your favorite Windows email client?

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2017 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post Windows Alternatives To The Best Mac Email Client in 2019 appeared first on Mailbird.

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Best Gmail App For Windows 10: Top 5 Tools Reviewed (2019)

February 9, 2019, 5:12 pm

≫ Next: 5 Apps That Easily Integrate With Mailbird

≪ Previous: Windows Alternatives To The Best Mac Email Client in 2019

Looking for a Gmail App for Windows 10, or for other Windows versions? Would you prefer checking your emails from a Gmail Desktop App – rather than log onto a browser like Chrome? Enter desktop email clients for Windows 10 and other versions of Windows. Email clients like Mailbird, Foxmail, Opera Mail, etc. sync with your mail account and allow you to access your Gmail (and other email accounts) straight from your desktop. Forget about logging onto a web browser to open gmail every time. Or typing www.gmail.com Just open the Windows start menu, click on the app and access your mail! Simple, right?

Gmail Desktop Apps Covered in this Article

There’s more than just one Gmail Windows app for you to try. In this post, I’ll cover these top 5 Gmail apps:

Mailbird
Foxmail
Opera Mail
Inky
Claws Mail

I’ll also cover these aspects for each email client:

Key Features of each tool
Advantages
Limitations
Integration with other tools
Customer Reviews on G2Crowd and Capterra
Pricing

So which of them is the “Gmail client to rule them all?”

Gmail Apps for Windows 10: Top 5 Tools

Let’s check out the top 5 desktop email clients for your Gmail account in 2019. Ready? Let’s get rolling.

1. Mailbird

Mailbird isn’t just another ordinary Gmail desktop app!

We’re more than just another good mail client. We also unify all your communication channels. You’ll be able to breeze through your gmail inbox and do much more. Here are a few ways how:

All Your Email Accounts in One Place

Mailbird lets you connect all your email accounts (Gmail, yahoo mail, your microsoft account email and other webmail clients – anything really) all into one integrated email client. How does that help? You have access to all your mail in one unified space. Say goodbye to juggling different apps – each with their web app password. You can also manage accounts by color coding each of them separately. You‘ll never make the mistake of mixing up different accounts. (Note: you may have to disable two-factor authentication when you’re connecting more than one Google account here)

Snooze Emails for Later

What’s your worst thing you could see when you open Gmail? Tons and tons of unread emails in the general tab of your gmail inbox. Mailbird lets you snooze your emails for specific periods. They’ll be placed in a designated snooze folder until the specified date arrives. (This is the easiest way to keep your general tab clean and clutter free!)

And don’t worry. You’ll never forget that snoozed mail. You’ll receive notifications and reminders at a specified date so that you can respond to them with ease.

Replies Are A Piece of Cake

An average employee receives over 100 emails at work a day. Replying to every person can be a headache. But what can get really messy is replying to emails with a series of questions and different statements. You could easily overlook a question. You could avoid this disaster with our in-line reply feature. This gives you the ability to respond to questions or statements in incoming mail directly underneath them. Check the image below. Notice how this feature will save you time?

Supercharge Attachments

With Mailbird, you can do so much more when it comes to attachments.

Find Attachments Easily

No need to spend an entire hour searching for that attachment you received weeks or even years ago. With Mailbird’s attachment search feature, simply type in the file name. And voila – it’s there for you!

Open Attachments Safely

We’ve all received suspicious work email messages from time to time. Sometimes though, it could be an important document. So what do you do – ignore it or risk your PC’s security? With Mailbird, users don’t have to choose. The attachment preview feature lets you take a look at what the document contains without having to open it at all.

Contact Management Is A Breeze

Without your contacts, there would be no emails. So it’s understandable that your contacts need to stay at the forefront of your email process. Here are a few ways Mailbird makes sure of that:

Syncing Contacts

Mailbird makes it ridiculously easy to select and import contacts from your Outlook and Gmail accounts. Adjust your gmail settings and permissions and there you have it – all your contacts in your new gmail client – in a matter of 20 seconds!

Merge Duplicate Contacts

Mailbird makes it easy to automatically merge duplicate contacts so that you’re not sifting through people twice when drafting a new email. If two contacts aren’t listed down as 100% similar – you have the freedom to choose the default email and contact details manually.

Copying Contacts

Mailbird makes copying contacts from different email accounts and placing them into groups a piece of cake. Simply drag and drop a contact from your email account into where you want them in Mailbird to create a new set.

That’s it. It’s that easy.

Speed Reader

We’re super proud of this feature. Did you know that people spend around 2.5 hours on average daily reading emails? That’s an unbelievably long time! To help reduce that, we’ve tried to create a speed reader that displays one core word at a time so that you can stay focused and zip through your email messages. Users can speed up the process by 3x as a result! We’re the only free email client app in Windows to offer this feature. Check out some more info on our tech in this TechCrunch article.

Onboarding Is A Breeze

Setting up most other mail for Windows is complicated, confusing, time-consuming and buggy!

That’s why we have made Mailbird so easy to set up! Here’s how simple it is to get started with Mailbird:

Step 1 – Download

Download the Mailbird application from our website and proceed to install it on your desktop. (You can also try out our Offline Installer in case you’re having difficulties trying to configure it.)

Step 2 – Add Details

When you open Mailbird for the first time, you’ll have to adjust the account settings. This is a lot like adjusting your gmail settings for the first time. You’ll first be met with an “Add Account” dialog box. Put in your name, default email address and password and Mailbird will do the rest.

Step 3 – Add More Email Accounts (Optional)

To add additional personal email accounts, right-click on the Menu tab at the top left of the screen, and it’ll open up a drop-down menu.

Next, select the Settings icon and click on “Add” to input each email address from your multiple email accounts. (You can delete the account you added later.)

Step 4 – Automatic Detection

You’ll now be prompted with a Network Settings icon. Just add your email and password there, and the system will automatically detect the server settings – it’ll know if it’s a POP3 account or if it’s IMAP email service. (In case you’re using a custom domain email account, you’ll have to manually input the outgoing server smtp or email program into Mailbird)

Optional Steps (Just for Fun!)

Step 5

Now you can customize the email app settings to suit your preferences. You can add a profile photo by connecting to Facebook. Or you can skip this step entirely.

Step 6

You can now customize the design options regarding layout and theme. You could choose a light theme, dark theme – or customize one entirely! You could use the typical on-screen gmail keyboard or use a custom keyboard too. Same goes for your layout – Mailbird will adjust it all to your preferences. Don’t worry about making the wrong choice – you can always change this later. You’ll then be asked to select which integrations you’d like to add from a drop-down menu such as Slack, Calendar apps, etc. Just add your web app password and details for each of these apps and click Continue. And that’s it!

Integrations Galore

Mailbird can integrate with numerous different apps – be it calendar apps like Google Calendar, productivity apps like Asana, grammar apps like Grammarly, file uploads apps like Dropbox – you name it. Here are just a few and what they can do for you:

Followup.cc

Keeping track of all the mails you have to reply to isn’t easy. To help you, Mailbird can integrate with Followup.cc – a service for follow-up notifications. You can use the Followup.cc addon to schedule follow-up reminders and notifications right from within the app itself. Just click on the icon in the mail, and it’ll give you a drop-down menu where you can select when you want to be notified. This way, you can send out replies with ease.

Dropbox

To help send large attachments, Mailbird can integrate with Dropbox. Just link your Dropbox account, and you’ll see the icon at the bottom of the compose window. Just click on the button to add attachments from Dropbox to send them.

Attachment uploads were never this easy!

Appear.in, Slack and Whatsapp

Sometimes, you need more than emails to get the message across. Do you sometimes prefer a Whatsapp text, a Slack message or a Skype video call? Why not let your gmail client operate as a task manager too? To help your team collaborate better, we’ve teamed up with the popular video conferencing app Appear.in. You can create ‘rooms’ for your team and hop on a group call with them instantly.You can also browse through your mail and attachments mid-call. Mailbird also integrates with Slack and Whatsapp so you can have instant conversations!

The best part? You can do all this without downloading any additional software.

Mobile Version

We’re working on a mobile app for Mailbird too. Soon you’ll be able to find Mailbird on your mobile device – be it an android, iphone or ipad or even among the Windows Store apps!

Advantages

Feature-rich free version
Sleek and easy-to-use interface
Supports both IMAP and POP3 accounts
Highly customizable – can change background themes and layout
Plenty of keyboard shortcut options
Multiple integrations to make onboarding easier and boost productivity
Great customer support

Limitations

Is not available as a mobile app yet or on an App store like the Windows Store or PlayStore. You’ll have to download it directly from the Mailbird website.

Pricing

Mailbird offers you a Lite version that’s completely free. With it, you get support for POP and IMAP accounts, a Contact Manager and a whole list of integrations. You’ll also get access to a free 30 day trial of our Pro variant once you sign up. You can get the Pro version for an annual fee of $12/year. Alternatively, you could opt for a lifetime subscription for a one-time fee of $33.75. Both paid options come with a 14-day money back guarantee in the unlikely event that you’re not satisfied with our service (which we hope not!)

Customer Ratings

G2Crowd – 4.1/5 (27 reviews) Capterra – 4/5 (48 reviews)

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2. Foxmail

Foxmail is akin to its namesake from the animal kingdom. Just like the sly fox, Foxmail is a speedy email client for Windows with a few tricks up its sleeve. The latest reiteration of the Foxmail desktop app closely resembles Outlook – although far smoother and less cluttered. Anyone familiar with an Outlook tab should be able to transition to this desktop application quite painlessly. Want to know what the app offers? Foxmail provides you with a helpful notepad button feature in the tab that allows you to record notes while working. You won’t have to use reminders or another app to note down and compose valuable information that you find in gmail messages. They’ve also tried to make it user-friendly by giving you a reply, delete and forward shortcut button at the top of the compose window screen. It makes moving through gmail messages in the desktop application super easy. The major drawback when it comes to this gmail desktop app is that the default installer isn’t in English. Additionally, users have to restart the application every time any change is made to the sync settings. However, their website does state that they will be able to support Outlook mobile and have a mobile app for your iphone and ipad and android device soon.

Advantages

Can support most POP3 accounts
Quick and user-friendly web interface
Good spam filtering abilities

Limitations

Installer isn’t in English – onboarding can be hard
Doesn’t support IMAP accounts
Re-wrapping text in gmail messages with their editor is difficult

Pricing

Foxmail is completely free of charge

Customer Ratings

G2Crowd – n/a Capterra – n/a

3. Opera Mail

If you’re looking for a desktop email app aimed at mail for Windows – Opera Mail could be a good addition to your Windows start menu. Opera Mail originally debuted as one of the web apps alongside the Opera web browser. At the time, it was one of the best Windows email clients. However, while it’s still a solid offering to manage accounts, it’s in dire need of an overhaul. Not what you would expect in a Gmail app for windows 10. There are a lot of things that Opera Mail does right though. For one, you can add more than one mail account to it. Secondly, it supports POP and IMAP , along with Atom, and RSS feeds. Lastly, Opera stores all your data on an indexed database. As the data is readily available, reading, labelling and filtering all your mails is easy. You also have the option to add custom tags to certain people or mails. This way, you can highlight and demarcate any priority targets with ease. A big issue with Opera though, is its mailbox sync settings. The sync settings doesn’t allow you to import data from other modern email clients easily. This was the case even back when people used Windows Live Mail. Trying to configure Opera Mail has always been a difficult task. As a result, trying to sync all your contact details into Opera Mail isn’t always possible.

Advantages

Free to use
Supports POP and IMAP accounts
Incoming mail server has an indexed database to retrieve and filter mails easily
Can add multiple email accounts to easily switch between them

Limitations

Outdated web interface that leaves a lot to be desired
Cannot import data from other Windows email clients
Not being actively developed and supported

Pricing

Opera Mail is free.

Customer Ratings

G2Crowd – n/a Capterra – n/a

4. Inky

Inky is a good option when it comes to Windows mail apps. The first thing that hits you about it is how much the app offers you in terms of security. They go above and beyond when it comes to ensuring the safety of your information. Inky automatically incorporates end-to-end encryption and digital signatures on the outbound and incoming mail server. As a result, your mail account, app password and email address will never get into the wrong hands. Good luck hackers, you’re not getting in here. Apart from their security features, Inky in itself is a great email client. Their mail app for Windows works with all POP accounts like Gmail, Yahoo and AOL. It’s also compatible with IMAP and Microsoft Exchange. So you can manage accounts easily. The only issue with Inky is a lot of their additional features are limited to their pro and enterprise versions. While their free version supports Gmail, Windows Live/Outlook and Mac clients like iCloud, you get access to Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Google Apps and other IMAP accounts only with the pro version. The Enterprise email program gives you customised solutions, volume discounts, phone support and MDM/EMM solutions. Another issue with Inky, is it’s reputation for being glitchy. You may have to open up Task Manager to manually close and restart it on occasion. In many ways, Inky is a lot like EM Client – another desktop email client with good features but limited by their free offerings. So while Inky is a great Windows mail app, for you to truly enjoy it, you’ll need to get the paid version.

Advantages

Very good security features to ensure the safety of your information at all times
Compatibility with POP and IMAP accounts
Easy to setup and operate

Limitations

Free version isn’t as feature rich
Reputation for being glitchy at times
No way to set new filters for email messages

Pricing

Inky’s pricing details aren’t mentioned on the site – however they do mention that pricing is based on per mailbox per month. They also offer you volume discounts and special pricing for educational and nonprofit customers.

Customer Ratings

G2Crowd – n/a Capterra – 4.5/5 (3 reviews)

5. Claws Mail

Claws Mail is another good gmail app for Windows 10. One of the coolest things about this email service is that it’s an entirely open-source project. What that translates into is an ever increasing set of tools, tabs and add-ons for it’s email program. Insiders get access to new features before it is rolled out to the general populace. Additionally, it doesn’t have a limit on the number of email accounts you link. Another thing that this client for Windows does really well is their filtering. You can flag mails by sender, age, phase and more – making gmail inbox organization that much easier. It’s definitely a step in the right direction for anyone focused on getting a zero inbox on your device! But it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. Claws Mail has its shortcomings. The user interface is a lot like a web browser – not a sleek one like Chrome, but rather a really dated one. On this feature, Claws lags behind Mailbird, Thunderbird or Easymail. Secondly, when it comes to server settings, there’s no automatic setup for POP accounts like Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook mobile. Therefore, onboarding here for inexperienced users can be quite a task.

Advantages

Open-source so it’s customizable with multiple email plugins
Advanced filtering capabilities
No limit on the number of linked accounts

Limitations

Really dated web interface that isn’t user-friendly
No automatic setup for POP3 accounts
Trying to configure server settings can be quite daunting for a beginner

Pricing

Claws Mail is free.

Customer Ratings

G2Crowd – n/a Capterra – n/a

Final Thoughts

There you have it. These are the best options for Gmail app for Windows 10 in 2019. Of course, there are other Windows 10 mail clients as well, such as EM Client ,Kiwi for Gmail and Easymail. But we have covered the key ones. Have you decided which is app to access your mail for Windows? Why not try Mailbird first before you give a final verdict? You don’t need a credit card to sign up and installation takes just a few seconds. To switch to Mailbird to start supercharging your email download the free version!

Still looking for the Best Gmail App for Windows? Search no more.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in February 2017 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post Best Gmail App For Windows 10: Top 5 Tools Reviewed (2019) appeared first on Mailbird.

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5 Apps That Easily Integrate With Mailbird

March 1, 2019, 2:55 pm

≫ Next: What Happened to MailboxApp.com?

≪ Previous: Best Gmail App For Windows 10: Top 5 Tools Reviewed (2019)

If you’re interested in some of the numerous features that could be yet another reason to choose Mailbird as your business email client for Windows, the simple integration of some of the most popular business apps should make the top of your list. This infographic will explain five beneficial apps that easily integrate with Mailbird.

The post 5 Apps That Easily Integrate With Mailbird appeared first on Mailbird.

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What Happened to MailboxApp.com?

January 29, 2019, 9:54 am

≫ Next: What SPF Resources Are Available Now That OpenSPF.org Is Gone?

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Mailbox was an email app for iPhone, introduced in 2013 by a startup going by the name Orchestra. Prior to its inception, more than one million prospective users had signed up to try it. Judging by the hype, the service stood high chances of becoming tremendously popular, yet the tide turned one short month after Mailbox had been launched. Namely, the app was bought by Dropbox, for a reported $100 million in cash and stock. Back then, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston didn’t hide his excitement. “Many have promised to help us with our overflowing inboxes, but the Mailbox team actually delivered”, Houston was quoted as saying. For a while, the Dropbox-acquired app appeared to be a success. Mailbox for Android and a public beta version for macOS were released in 2014, but then Mailbox’s development was slowed down and, eventually, abandoned altogether, with Mailbox desktop app for Mac never making it out of the beta phase. New features failed to deliver much-needed breakthroughs and were soon given up on. In July 2015, Mailbox was discontinued. The outcome might have seemed surprising to the users, but was not wholly unexpected for the investors, some of which had tried and failed to warn Dropbox decision makers beforehand. Back then, as well as now, it was common knowledge that most users are content with default mail apps. Although businesses admittedly tend to buy software for the employees, people rarely buy it for private purposes. Not to mention, Mailbox was limited to Gmail and iCloud accounts exclusively. We may never learn the additional reasons for the shutdown. Dropbox didn’t expand much, stating simply that they had decided to “increase our focus on collaboration”. We realized there’s only so much an email app can do to fundamentally improve email,” an official announcement read – whatever that may mean. Relying on the insights from the failed app, Dropbox went on to launch Dropbox Paper, a free service described as a “workspace that brings creation and coordination together in one place.” Mailbox has never been heard of again since. And that would have been the end of the story, if not for the fact that Google made a similar attempt and failed no less spectacularly (see below).

Mailbox Features

Mailbox app boasted elegant simplicity and made the lives of Gmail users considerably easier. Namely, the app allowed for adding multiple Gmail accounts, browsed through by simple swiping. With a quick performance and fast connectivity, Mailbox was a serious alternative to other similar apps. For business users (or mostly them), Mailbox offered the ability to postpone reading new messages (“Snooze”), using timed periods. Simply put, the messages in question would be temporarily removed, then appear again at a pre-set time. The most popular feature was Auto-Swipe, which worked similarly to Gmail’s own filters. Depending on the user’s behavior, the feature would automatically archive certain messages.

Alternative Email Apps

The doom of Mailbox proved to be an inconvenience for the users, but the sentiment was short-lived. After all, it’s not that there is a shortage of alternatives. Free email apps are numerous and competitive, which, as a rule, results in improved features and new services. We will hereby name some of the best loved ones, based on their popularity.

Outlook

Microsoft’s Outlook is one of the most popular choices, and for a good reason. It is simple to use, offers a fair number of features and steps up the process of checking and sending emails. It features smart filters and cleans the inbox with a swipe. The app is used widely and is continually gaining popularity.

Gmail

Gmail is one of the most commonly used email services. The continual improvements contribute to its popularity. Google also tried integrating a Mailbox-like service called Inbox, but the latter is due to be discontinued in late March 2019. Inbox sorts incoming messages into both pre-set and user-created labels (Promos, Social, etc.). The reasons for the decision are not widely known, but judging by the popularity of the email client, it is evident that Google does not need invite-only apps to boost Gmail usage.

Spark

A relative newcomer, Spark offers some interesting features benefiting both private- and business users. To begin with, it integrates with Google Drive, Dropbox and Pocket, and sorts emails into personal, newsletter and notification boxes. As regards to businesses, Spark allows for creating, discussing and sharing email with colleagues. It also features a real-time editor for composing professional emails. The app boasts email templates that make sending similar messages as easy as it gets. Finally, the app allows for assigning emails to team members and the ability to set deadlines, track progress and get notified when the task gets done.

Airmail

Airmail is an email client for iOS and macOS. It helps users keep track of multiple email accounts in one place and features a quick and easy-to-use interface. The app creators boast to have “taken usability and function to the next level,” by which they imply beautiful design and support for all major email services.

Boxer

Boxer is an email service available for iOS and Android. It is very similar to Mailbox, mainly in the domain of swipes, which allow for seamless message archiving, deleting and labeling. Similarly to Spark, Boxer offers quick-reply email templates and brings together the email service, contacts and calendar.

The Future of Email

With email marketing campaigns being the cheapest and most effective marketing tool, it is only to expect that email services and apps will get more sophisticated in the future. Adding to the mix the rising trend of outsourcing, remote workplaces and the markets going global, we can safely expect new messaging breakthroughs, and soon at that. Speculating about the types of those is fruitless, but some guesses are safer than others. Keeping the insights and stats in mind, currently trending are remote workplace apps that make communication fast and reliable and come coupled with a variety of feats, such as tagging, notifications and integration. Slack is a perfect example: it’s fast, easy to use, features a fair number of functionalities, and allows for both private and group messaging. Therefore, we’d argue it’s safe to predict that emailing of the future will shift towards fast messaging, connectivity, real-time communication, and multi-functionality. There’s an app that provides a glimpse into that future: Spike. Spike is a multi-platform email client featuring personal messaging in the shape of a chat, freed of the standard elements as to allow for speed and increased deliverability. In short, it turns emails into instant messages, but the possibilities don’t end there. Scilicet, Spike also allows for creating group chats (similar to Slack), making voice and video calls, and adding multiple email accounts (any email provider). Says Spike CEO Dvir Ben-Aroya: “Something fundamental has changed with the way people are communicating. It’s much more human and based on conversation. So we took all the benefits of email plus all the benefits of conversation and instant messaging and merged them to create one unified platform.” Upon that conclusion we agree. The future of email is likely to be a mash-up of messaging, chatting, conferencing and calendar integration. If the near future manages to unearth one multi-purpose messaging app to rule them all, Mailbox will not have been sacrificed for naught.

The post What Happened to MailboxApp.com? appeared first on Mailbird.

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What SPF Resources Are Available Now That OpenSPF.org Is Gone?

March 31, 2019, 8:33 pm

≫ Next: Claws Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

≪ Previous: What Happened to MailboxApp.com?

Out of all emails sent out in December 2018, 57 percent of them were spam. This shows just how big of a challenge spam is and why finding a solution is essential. From 2003, the OpenSPF.org website had become the popular starting point for developers and mail server administrators that were implementing SPF rules. SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework, and it’s a widely used tool to fight spam. The site also served as a resource for those interested in getting involved in the community of SPF developers and maintainers. OpenSPF.org disappeared from the internet in February 2019. We took some time to try and understand what happened to the website. We also attempt to identify some resources which are still available to fill the void left by the demise of the website.

Origins of OpenSPF.org

OpenSPF.org provided information about SPF and its benefits for users. It also provided users with news, tools for configuring SPF, forums and FAQs. SPF is a method of informing servers whether a specific mail server is authorized to send an email for a particular domain. Hence, it can detect whether an email address is authentic or fake, before allowing it to pass into an inbox. An SPF record increases the likelihood that emails sent by valid addresses are delivered. Without it, your email could be categorized as spam. It also protects against malicious emails sent through your domain by spammers. Meng Weng Wong is widely credited as the author of SPF. However, his inspiration came from various sources. Paul Vixie’s paper entitled Repudiating Mail-From led to two proposals: Reverse MX by Hadmut Danisch and Designated Mailer Protocol by Gordon Feyck. Wong combined these proposals to create SPF in 2003.The several volunteer groups involved in the SPF project included the SPF council, a support team, webmasters and mailing list moderators.

What Happened to OpenSPF.org?

OpenSPF.org simply disappeared from the Internet. There was never an official announcement of its closure, and the last archive of the site is from February 2019. In April 2019, users of online platform Reddit were trying to find out what happened to the site. Some users attributed the demise of the site to a lack of funds. While OpenSPF.org may no longer be available, several websites and tools are still available for people writing and testing SPF rules for their mail servers.

Tools

These sites provide tools similar to those that were provided by OpenSPF.org.

Kitterman Technical Services

This website offers tools for setting up an SPF record. Kitterman’s tools are unique and employ Python software known as pyspf. One of the available tests assesses whether your SPF record is valid. Another test checks the performance of your SPF record based on which IP addresses from which the emails come.

Appmaildev.com

Appmaildev.com is another site which allows users to test their SPF records. You are given a test email address to which you can send an email. After that, an SPF report is generated. Appmaildev.com also has tutorials available for adding signatures and stopping spam emails. For less advanced users, SPF-related topics can be tricky, making this a handy tool.

MX Toolbox

MX Toolbox allows users to look up their SPF records. With this website, users can publish a list of domains that are authorized to send an email on their behalf. This list ensures that malicious mail senders have nowhere to hide, thereby reducing spam in the process. You can also check if your email server has been blacklisted through blacklist check.

Bevhost.com

Beveridge Hosting DNS Lookup is a tool made available by the web hosting company bevhost.com. It provides you with a form where you can simply enter a hostname or IP address and submit the form. The site will then verify if the hostname or IP address is authentic.

SPF-Related News

If you’re looking for news on SPF, several websites can provide helpful information.

Proofpoint

This blog has useful news on SPF. While it is not exclusively focused on SPF, it has several articles on the topic. It contains articles on security awareness, something helpful for someone who seeks to protect their domain from spam. Recent articles on the blog look at whom cybercriminals are targeting and tips for fraud defense.

Active Campaign

This site shows users how to set up an SPF record, as well as how to verify that the SPF record has been set up correctly. It also looks at using Google Postmaster to check on your domain’s credibility. This verification process is vital because you remain vulnerable to threats if you have not set up your SPF right.

Community

The following websites provide FAQ sections which answer important questions on SPF.

Salesforce

The American software company, Salesforce’s website, has an FAQ section dedicated to SPF. The section provides information on what SPF record looks like, why it’s important and provides details on how to create it.

Cisco

Cisco is a company that makes and sells telecommunications technology. The company’s FAQ section answers important questions for SPF users. Beyond helping users get their record, it also provides answers on how to enable SPF check for spam.

Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft is an email marketing and sales platform. The platform explains how SPF works and how to set up a record. People sending mail through Infusionsoft don’t need an SPF record, because the firm handles this on their behalf. The site also provides a guide for configuring your SPF records.

Emails and Domains Can Still Be Verified

OpenSPF.org was an important starting point for people looking for information related to SPF. While it no longer exists, there are many websites available which can provide similar services. All the sources provided have the same goals: helping you reduce spam, ensuring that authentic emails are not blocked and giving a chance for people who deal with SPF-related issues to find answers to any challenges they encounter.

The post What SPF Resources Are Available Now That OpenSPF.org Is Gone? appeared first on Mailbird.

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Claws Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

May 24, 2019, 4:35 am

≫ Next: Opera Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

≪ Previous: What SPF Resources Are Available Now That OpenSPF.org Is Gone?

Thinking about downloading Claws Mail? In this article, we’ll give you a review of Claws Mail to help you decide if its the right solution for you. We’ll also give you three great Claws Mail alternatives to ensure that you find one that suits your needs perfectly! Here’s what to expect. You can click on the links below to jump to a particular section. A Claws Mail Review covering:

Three Great Claws Mail Alternatives (including pros, cons and G2Crowd and Capterra ratings)

Let’s get started.

What Is Claws Mail?

Claws Mail is a free and open-source desktop email client. It was first released back in 2001 – over 18 years ago! However, unlike some other email clients, it undergoes regular updates to keep up with modern needs. As it’s one of the few open-source based email clients out there, it gives users a lot of flexibility when it comes to adding custom integrations and tweaking with the software. In addition to supporting Windows, Claws Mail can also run on Unix-like systems such as Linux distros and Solaris.

What Does Claws Mail Do?

Claws Mail gives you a unified space to access all your emails from all your accounts. With it, you’ll be able to send and receive emails from multiple accounts without having to log onto each one separately! Additionally, as its desktop-based, you can access all these emails without having to log onto a web browser!

The Key Features Of Claws Mail

Claws Mail has tons of useful features that make it one of the best email clients in the market today. Let’s go over some of them –

1. Open Source Based

Before going into detail as to why this is a great feature, let’s clarify what open-source means. An open source software is one that allows its source code – what it’s essentially built on – to be readily accessible to anyone who wants it. As a result, anyone with the source code can modify the software to fit their own needs and preferences! With Claws Mail, you can add as many custom integrations and settings as you want – These can range from incorporating Linux package codes like command sudo, starttls or even running it on any Linux distros that you like! This way, you’ll be able to create your own compatibility and functionality for your app!

2. Filtering Capabilities

When you receive tons of emails on a daily basis, it’s important to be able to organize them effectively. With Claws Mail, you’ll be able to do that easily. You can add as many custom filters to your inbox as you like. These can range from sorting mails according to sender or even content! This way, you’re not limited to the traditional Spam, Draft and Trash folders! Also, as you’re able to organize your emails effectively, you won’t have to worry about emails getting jumbled up and dealing with a messy inbox!

3. Reliability & Updates

Another important benefit of Claws Mail is reliability. As the software is constantly updated, any lingering issues are usually dealt with swiftly and you’ll be back to business in no time. Additionally, due to these constant service updates – Claws Mail is a very fast email client when it comes to loading and handling emails!

4. Plugins

In addition to allowing you to add any custom package you like, Claws Mail has a standard set of useful plugins such as –

RSS news reader plugin to deal with RSS feeds in the email client
MBox handler plugin to manage message files stored in that format
SpamAssassin plugin to ensure that you can tackle any spam mail sent

With these, you’ll be able to add a ton of functionality to Claws Mail from the moment you download it!

5. Completely Free

Another Claws Mail calling card is that it’s completely free. There’s no paid variant of the software that will give you any additional functionality – you get everything it can offer you for free.

Drawbacks of Claws Mail

While Claws Mail is a good email package with abundant features, it isn’t perfect. Here are a few drawbacks you’ll have to face if you’re shifting to Claws Mail.

1. Difficult To Use

While being open source is one of the best things about Claws Mail, it can also be a bit of a problem. That’s because open-sourced software tends to be difficult to set up and use – especially if you’re not an experienced user when it comes to programming. As a result, getting to grips with the settings and features in Claws Mail can be a difficult process for new users.

2. Complicated Setup

Another issue with Claws Mail is that, unlike some other email clients, it doesn’t offer you automatic POP or IMAP server detection. As a result, it can’t detect the incoming/outgoing smtp server of your preferred email account. You’ll have to manually input the details of your email accounts to connect them with Claws Mail. Additionally, importing data from your Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook accounts into Claws Mail can be difficult as a result of the manual setup.

3. Dated UI

Another drawback of Claws Mail is its user interface. It’s not user-friendly and resembles an old school Windows XP web interface – not something you’d expect from an email client in 2019. Unfortunately, Claws Mail doesn’t give you too much flexibility when it comes to tweaking with the UI’s customization either. As a result, you’re pretty much stuck with how it looks.

Three Great Claws Mail Alternatives –

Here are three great Claws Mail alternatives that try to overcome some of Claws Mail’s drawbacks –

1. Mailbird

Mailbird is one of the best alternatives to Claws Mail in the market right now. Why? It’s been the recipient of numerous awards in the past such as the Editors Pick Award by Windows Report in 2019. It’s a tool that’s constantly looking to go above and beyond what’s expected of an email client. Let’s take a look at some of the features that make Mailbird a great email client for you –

1. Unified Inbox

The unified inbox is one of Mailbird’s core features. With it, you can say goodbye to having to log onto multiple accounts to access emails sent there. You can connect all your accounts with Mailbird and it’ll allow you to access all these emails from one unified space! You won’t have to remember tons of passwords ever again! Additionally, you’ll be able to do all this from your desktop – so you won’t have to juggle multiple web browser tabs either! Color Codes With Mailbird, you won’t have to worry about losing track of which emails came from where in your unified inbox.

You can assign colors to each email account, which makes identifying where a mail came from a piece of cake!

2. Tagging Feature

Ever wish that adding recipients to your emails was as easy as tagging someone on Instagram? With Mailbird’s tagging feature, it is! All you have to do is type in “@” followed by the name of the recipient in your message and Mailbird will pull up the contact from your address book and add them to the recipient’s list.

You then have the choice of either keeping them as a primary recipient or just adding them as a cc. And that’s it! You’ve now added a person to your email in the time it would’ve taken you to tag them on an Instagram post!

3. Snooze Emails

One of Mailbird’s coolest features is its Snooze email feature. With this, you’ll be able to snooze unimportant emails to ensure that your inbox only contains priority emails for the time being. Mailbird tucks these unimportant snoozed emails away for a time period specified by you – which could range from a day to even weeks!

In the meantime, as these unimportant emails are temporarily gone from your inbox, you’ll be able to address emails that are important to you with ease! Don’t worry about losing these snoozed emails forever though – they’re not discarded as trash mail! They’ll pop back into your inbox once the time period you specified is up! The Snooze Folder Want to access some of these unimportant emails before the snooze period is up? Just go the Snooze mail folder in Mailbird where they’re all stored. You can now access them even before the snooze period is up!

4. In-Line Replies

Mailbird’s in-line reply feature allows you to respond to questions in an email right below them instead of in a follow-up email.

As you’re responding to questions immediately underneath them, you won’t have to worry about forgetting to reply to a specific question! It’s also far easier for the recipient to read your replies as they’re not all bundled together in a follow-up email! Additionally, with Mailbird, you can color code and add your name to your responses to add another layer of personalization to your responses.

5. Attachment Reminders

Mailbird’s attachment reminder feature makes sure that you never send an email without an attachment again. How does it work? Mailbird can determine whether a mail requires an attachment based on what you’ve written in the email. Say you mentioned the word “attach” in your mail and sent it out without adding an attachment to it. Mailbird will immediately notify you with a pop-up.

You can now add the attachment that needed to be sent and save yourself the embarrassment of having to send a follow-up email with the attachment!

Why Mailbird Is Better Than Claws Mail

Want to know why Mailbird is an improvement on Claws Mail? Here a few reasons –

1. Easy Setup

One of Mailbird’s best features is that it has one of the easiest setups you can find today. With it, you’ll be up and running in no time! Why? Mailbird supports most POP and IMAP accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook. As a result, smtp server compatibility won’t be an issue here. Additionally, it can automatically detect your mail server to spare you the trouble of manually entering it as you would in Claws Mail. This makes it super easy to import your contacts and data into Mailbird and you can start using the software almost immediately! For more information on Mailbird’s setup, click here.

2. Customization Options

One of Claws Mail’s issues is its limited customizability with regard to how it looks. With Mailbird though, won’t have any such problems. You can select a light or dark theme for Mailbird or even choose a custom theme as a background image!

Additionally, Mailbird supports 17 different languages to make sure that you’re comfortable using it in the language you prefer! If that wasn’t all, you also have the option of choosing the layout in Mailbird – you can choose between small screen, preview and a three-column layout to suit your preferences!

Pros –

Can support most POP and IMAP accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Outlook.
Automatic POP and IMAP server detection for easy configuration.
Tons of helpful integrations such as Google Calendar, Slack and Whatsapp for additional functionality.
Easy mailing list management with the ability to import contacts in the pst file format.
Can create custom folders for emails so that you’re not limited to traditional ones like Spam, Trash and Draft folders.
Tons of helpful features like In-Line Replies, Speed Reader and Attachment Reminders.
Regular feature and service updates.
Tons of customization options.

Cons –

The current version is only running on Windows OS – cannot operate on Linux or Mac operating systems.

Customer Ratings –

G2Crowd – 4/5 (33 reviews) Capterra – 4/5 (50 reviews)

2. eM Client

If you’re looking at Claws Mail alternatives, then eM Client is definitely one you should check out. Here’s why.

1. Simple Contact Management

One of the best things about eM Client is its contact management. You have loads of customizability when it comes to arranging them as well as deciding how they look in your mailing list. When it comes to organizing them, you can categorize your contacts into a variety of different fields such as family members or even hobbies! But that isn’t all – you get to customize the look of your mailing list too! You can either stick with the generic business card format or opt for a custom view that will allow you to customize what you see and how your contacts are arranged in your address book!

2. Easy Setup

Another good eM Client feature is its easy setup. As it supports most IMAP and POP accounts, you won’t have an issue with compatibility when it comes to adding your email accounts here. Additionally, it supports automatic mail server detection to spare you the trouble of manually inputting these details.

3. Spell Checker

Another cool eM Client feature is that is has a default editor with a spell checker. With it, you won’t be making any spelling mistakes when drafting your emails again! (You don’t have the option of switching this default editor off though.)

4. Integrations

eM Client has some good integrations to add some additional functionality to the email client. For example, it can integrate with Facebook and Jabber to give yourself the ability to utilize social media and instant messaging within the eM Client app itself!

The Drawbacks of eM Client –

There are a few niggling issues that hold the eM Client package back from being a truly great email client. Let’s look at a few of them.

A) Limited Customizability

This is an issue that both eM Client and Claws Mail share. There isn’t too much room for customizing the UI to suit your needs. While eM Client is more up-to-date that Claws Mail, it still doesn’t offer much when it comes to tweaking it. While you now have the ability to add a dark theme, it isn’t nearly as customizable as a tool like Mailbird.

B) Syncing Issues

Unfortunately, eM Client does tend to suffer from some syncing issues occasionally. A common issue is emails being deleted from backups for no apparent reason. While eM Client does release service updates to fix most of these bugs regularly, some of these seem to be recurring issues that could cause some problems for you in the long run.

Pros –

Automatic POP and IMAP server detection for easy configuration.
Good address book management capabilities.
Easy to import calendars and contacts from multiple accounts in the vcalendar and pst format respectively.
Current version is running on Windows and Mac platforms.

Cons –

Limited customization options when it comes to the user interface.
Tends to suffer from some recurring bugs.
Not lightweight – software can be RAM heavy and taxing on your device’s memory.
Current version cannot support Linux.

Customer Ratings –

G2Crowd – 4.4/5 (7 reviews) Capterra – 4/5 (33 reviews)

3. Inky Mail

Inky Mail is another great lightweight Claws Mail alternative for you. Here are some of the features that make it a viable option.

1. Security

One of the things that really sets Inky Mail apart from its competitors is its security features. It incorporates end-to-end encryption on all emails to ensure that only you and the recipient will be able to access the emails you’ve sent each other. This can be very useful if you are in industries such as defense or investment banking which have stringent security regulations. Inky Mail also has spam filtering to detect phishing attacks and warn you of any suspicious emails that come your way!

2. Easy Setup

Inky Mail can support most IMAP and POP accounts like Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook. As a result, adding your email accounts to it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. They also offer you automatic mail server detection to smoothen the whole process and reduce the need for any human intervention in the process!

3. Spell-Checker

Inky Mail has an in-built editor with a spell-checker to ensure that you’re not making any spelling errors. Unlike many other email clients, you have the option of switching this default option off if you want to.

4. Notes

Another cool Inky Mail feature is its ability to handle notes as emails. With it, you simply compose a message and send it to yourself where it’ll be stored in a separate Notes folder. This way, you’ll have a dedicated mail folder for all personal emails that you’ve sent yourself – which acts as a personal notebook of sorts! This can be useful for people who live in their inboxes and prefer not to use separate notes applications.

The Drawbacks of Inky Mail –

While Inky Mail can offer you some great features, it isn’t perfect. Here are a few drawbacks –

A) No Message Filtering

One of the main drawbacks of Inky is that it doesn’t offer you custom message filtering. This can result in a messy inbox as there’s no way to categorize your emails into custom fields for easy access.

B) Limited Features

Inky’s main calling card is its spam filtering capabilities. However, apart from that, there aren’t a lot of additional features that could help you with managing your emails. As a result, Inky Mail can appear a bit light when it comes to features which could be an issue for some users.

C) Limited Integrations

Unlike Mailbird (which has tons of integrations) or Claws Mail (that offers you custom integrations), Inky Mail doesn’t offer you a list of integrations to compensate for its lack of in-built features.

Pros –

Spam filtering feature to guard against phishing.
Supports IMAP and POP accounts.
Automatic smtp server detection for easy configuration.
Handy mail folder for personal notes.
Lightweight email client that is easy on your computer’s resources.

Cons –

No message filtering to categorize emails.
No additional features or integrations to add some functionality.
Can be unresponsive at times.

Customer Ratings –

G2Crowd – n/a Capterra – n/a

Conclusion

Claws Mail is definitely one of the better email clients out there – especially when compared to other Linux based tools like Sylpheed. However, it isn’t perfect. Mailbird, eM Client and Inky are all great alternatives to Claws Mail – each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. It’s now up to you to decide which one suits you best! In the meantime, why not sign up for a free trial of Mailbird and experience it yourself?

The post Claws Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019) appeared first on Mailbird.

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Opera Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

May 28, 2019, 5:23 am

≫ Next: Inky Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

≪ Previous: Claws Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

Is Opera Mail the right email client for you? We’ll try and help you answer that question in this article. You’ll get an in-depth review of Opera Mail. Additionally, we will also share three great alternatives that you could explore instead. Here’s what’s in store. You can click on the links below to jump to a particular section. An Opera Mail Review Covering:

Three Great Opera Mail Alternatives (including pros, cons and G2Crowd and Capterra ratings)

Let’s get rolling.

What Is Opera Mail?

Opera Mail is a free email client developed by the team behind the well-known Opera web browser. It’s similar to what Thunderbird is to Mozilla Firefox. In fact, Opera Mail was initially offered as an integrated component of the Opera browser until 2013. From 2013 onwards, it’s no longer integrated with the web browser and functions as a stand-alone Opera software tool.

What Does Opera Mail Do?

Opera Mail has come a long way since it was associated with the Opera Internet browser. Like many other email clients, Opera Mail tries to give you a common space for all your email accounts. You’ll be able to access emails from multiple email accounts and mailing lists in a single inbox- without having to log into each account individually. This can save you a lot of time and effort when you’re dealing with a lot of emails on a daily basis!

The Key Features Of Opera Mail

Opera Mail boasts some helpful features that help elevate it over some other standard email clients. Here are a few of them –

1. Easy Organization

One of Opera Mail’s calling cards is that it’s very easy to organize your emails and files. While you have the standard set of folders such as ‘All Mail’, ’Spam’,’Drafts’ and so on, you can also create a custom folder structure. You’ll thus find it easy to categorize your emails based on your preferences. Want to categorize emails that cover a particular project such as ‘sales’ or ‘support’? No problem! Just create a folder structure dedicated to it in Opera Mail and you’re done! Opera Mail can also categorize all your attachments into a separate folder structure to make it easier to access them. For example, there’s a video folder to the left of your screen that can store any video-related attachments you’ve received so far. This way, you won’t have to waste time searching for it next time.

2. Email Tabs

Opera Mail allows you to open up emails in different tabs. Whenever you click the open button on a new email message, it opens up in another tab instead of popping up in the same window! Therefore, you’ll be able to have multiple emails open in different tabs at the same time. This can be useful when you’re trying to juggle emailing multiple people at the same time!

3. Quick Loading

One of the things Opera Mail does well is loading email messages. Even though it’s a free email client, it manages to load your mailing lists and emails fairly quickly – even if they’re packed with attachments. You won’t be wasting a lot of time waiting for your email client to load your emails if you’re using Opera!

4. Low Bandwidth Mode

Another cool Opera Mail feature is its low bandwidth mode. Say you’re out and you don’t have access to a high-speed internet connection. Or maybe, you’re just trying to save some data as your data plan may be expiring. Either way, Opera Mail offers you a low bandwidth mode to cut down how much data it uses. This way, you can access an email message without having to worry about running out of data to watch that cute kitten video on Facebook!

5. It’s Completely Free

One of the chief reasons why people turn to Opera Mail is that it’s completely free of cost. There’s no sign-up fee, trial period or pro version on offer. What you get on the free version is what Opera Mail can offer you – there are no paid additional features!

The Drawbacks of Opera Mail

While Opera Mail is a good email client, it still has its flaws. Here are a few reasons why you may want to explore other email clients too. –

1. No Longer Supported

Opera Mail is no longer actively developed or supported. Therefore, any issues you may face can’t be dealt with by the developer team. Additionally, there’s no customer support to help you with any issues you may face. So if you come across a bug, you’re on your own.

2. Dated UI

This stems from the fact that the client is no longer being developed. As there have been no major updates for a while, the Opera Mail interface isn’t user-friendly and could use a rehaul. It’s reminiscent of an old-school browser that you’d find on Windows XP – not something you’d look for in a tool for 2019.

3. Difficult Setup

Setting up a new account in Opera Mail is difficult because of its inability to import data from most modern webmail clients when you set it up for the first time. As a result, trying to import email contacts and folders from an email service provider like Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook/ Exchange server may be a tedious process when setting up Opera Mail.

4. Lack of Features

As Opera Mail is entirely free, you don’t get too many additional features with this email client. You’re limited to opening and accessing your emails – that’s it. You don’t have some helpful features like –

Attachment Reminders – to ensure you never forget to add an attachment to an email.
In-Line Replies – to help you reply to questions in an email in a clean organized format.
Integrations – with chat accounts like Slack, Whatsapp and Veeting Rooms to make your email client a communication hub

Customer Ratings

Capterra – N/A G2 Crowd – N/A

Three Great Alternatives To Opera Mail

Here are three great alternatives to Opera Mail to help you find the right email client for your needs-

1) Mailbird

Mailbird is one of the best email clients available today. It’s been the recipient of numerous awards in the past such as the Editor’s Choice Award by Windows Report in 2019. It’s got everything you need from an email client in 2019 and is continually building on its current lineup of features. Here are a few features that elevate Mailbird over most other email clients when it comes to supercharging your email productivity.

1. Unified Inbox

One of Mailbird’s key features is its Unified Inbox. With it, you’ll be able to access all your emails – from all your accounts – in one unified space! Don’t worry about compatibility issues. Mailbird can support most POP and IMAP accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook. You’ll have no issues when it comes to the synchronization process in Mailbird. Additionally, as Mailbird is a desktop email client, you’ll be able to do all this without having to log on to a web browser! You can access all your emails from the comfort of your own desktop. Color Coding Worried about losing track of which emails came from where in your unified inbox? Don’t be! Mailbird allows you to assign colors to each of your email accounts to make it easy to identify which emails came from which account.

You will never have to worry about mixing up where emails came from!

2. Snooze Emails

Here’s a problem everyone has faced at some point in time. You have a bunch of important unread emails to address, but also have tons of unimportant unread emails in the way. Annoying right? With Mailbird, you won’t have to worry about this ever again. Mailbird can tuck away these unimportant emails from your inbox for the time being – allowing you to only see and tackle the priority emails. You can choose how long these emails are snoozed for – it could be an hour, a day or even a week.

Once the time’s up (and you’ve addressed your priority emails), these snoozed emails pop back into your inbox where you can address them easily. Want to access one of these snoozed emails before that specified time period is up? No problem! Snoozed emails are stored in a designated Snooze folder that you can access at any time!

3. In-Line Replies

Another great Mailbird feature is the in-line replies option. Here’s a situation where it comes in handy. You’ve received a mail from a coworker where they’ve asked you a bunch of questions. You go through them and draft a reply email, only to find out that you’ve overlooked an important question by accident. Not great right? To make sure this doesn’t happen, Mailbird gives you the ability to respond to a question in a mail right below it.

As this format is clearly organized, you won’t forget to respond to a question. Additionally, the recipient is going to find it far easier to see your responses as they’re not all bundled together in a follow-up email. Mailbird also offers you the ability to add your name and color code your in-line replies to further personalize the process!

4. Undo Send

Mailbird has an in-built Unsend email feature that will allow you to recall an email you’ve just sent out. The best part about this is that Mailbird can unsend an email sent from an email account that originally might not support this feature! So in case you’re using Yahoo Mail or Microsoft Outlook (which don’t have in-built unsend features), you’ll still be able to unsend emails easily! Mailbird can give you a leeway period of up to 30 seconds to unsend any email! This is usually more than enough time for you to decide if something was wrong with your email and recall it.

Once you recall the mail, it’ll pop up in a separate composer window where you can make the changes immediately if you want. Alternatively, you can access it from your Drafts folder too.

5. Attachment Reminders

With Mailbird’s attachment reminder feature, you won’t forget to add an attachment to an email again. How does this work? Mailbird can detect whether or not an email needs to have a file sent to it based on what you’ve mentioned in the email. For example, if you mention the word “attach” in your email but clicked send without attaching anything, here’s what’ll show up.

You can now attach the file that you forgot! Handy right?

Why Mailbird Is Better Than Opera Mail

What makes Mailbird an upgrade on Opera Mail? Here are a few reasons –

1. Constant Updates

Mailbird’s developer team is hard at work adding any new features that you’ve requested and ironing out any sneaky bugs that may have crept in. It’s constantly being developed so you can rest assured that any query or concern you have will be addressed quickly.

2. Tons of Features

As you’ve seen, Mailbird has tons of unique, helpful features that can help you in more ways than one. As a result, with Mailbird, you’re getting far more than an email client – you’re getting a fully-fledged email productivity tool. Not to mention, you get a near-endless list of integrations with chat accounts like Whatsapp or calendar apps like Google Calendar to make Mailbird a core part of your daily activities. For a list of all the integrations, click here.

3. Easy Setup

Mailbird has one of the easiest setups in the market today and you won’t have any difficulty importing details from your other email accounts. As it’s fully compatible with most POP and IMAP accounts, Mailbird does most of the configuring automatically to make the whole process a breeze! In fact, after you download Mailbird, you’ll be up and running after a quick click of a button or two! If you want to know more about how easy it is to set up Mailbird, click here.

Pros –

Can add almost any POP and IMAP account instantly such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook/ the Microsoft Exchange server.
Automatic incoming server setting detection for easy setup that takes a few button clicks only.
Highly customizable user interface with the ability to change themes and layouts.
Large selection of third-party integrations with chat accounts like Whatsapp and calendar apps like Google Calendar for added functionality.
Can handle pst file format and mail mbox format for data imports to ensure that you won’t need to use a file converter tool.
Helpful features like Snooze Emails, Attachment Reminders, In-Line Replies and Tagging.
Has the ability to sync, merge and link contacts from different email providers easily.

Cons –

Can only support Windows OS – although there is work underway on a portable app for mobile devices.

Customer Ratings –

G2Crowd – 4/5 (33 reviews) Capterra – 4/5 (50 reviews)

2. eM Client

eM Client is another good desktop email client to try out. Let’s take a look at why it’s a good Opera Mail alternative.

1. Contact Management

eM Client makes contact management a piece of cake. You have complete freedom in organizing your contacts and mailing lists. You can categorize them by a variety of fields – ranging from hobbies to family members! You can also select how you want to view all your contacts in your address book. You have a standard business card view or can opt for a custom view. With the custom view option, you can select how you view each of your contacts in the address book – from how their details look to what’s included! You could choose to keep the picture at the forefront of their contact or their name and address – the choice is up to you. This way, your contacts are always ready for you – in the way you want them to be.

2. Easy Setup

Another good eM Client feature is its easy setup due to its ability to analyze your incoming server settings in no time. Like Mailbird, it can support most POP and IMAP accounts which makes onboarding a breeze. It’ll automatically detect your mail server settings and connect with all your email accounts without you having to do much. It can also import all the data you need quickly to ensure that you’re up and running in no time after you download it!

3. Spell Checker

eM Client offers you an in-built spell checker to ensure that you’re not making any spelling mistakes when crafting your emails.

4. Integrations

The eM Client program has a useful set of integrations such as Facebook Chat and Jabber to make it more than just a typical email client. You’ll be able to handle a lot of daily communications from within the email client itself!

The Drawbacks of eM Client

Like many email clients, eM Client is good, but not perfect. Here are a few issues you may face if you choose eM Client as your go-to email client –

A) UI Needs Some Work

eM Client’s standard user interface isn’t bad by any measure but is very limited when it comes to customizability. You get a standard three-pane interface that gets the job done, but you’re pretty much stuck with it – whether you like it or not. eM Client has recently introduced a dark theme and some email header templates which are great, but it still has work to do when it comes to being truly customizable like Mailbird. If you want to find out more about Mailbird’s ample customization options, click here.

B) Syncing Issues

The eM Client program tends to suffer from occasional syncing issues. l One of the common issues people face is emails being deleted from backups automatically. While eM Client tries to stay on top of most of these issues, these could post a potential problem for you.

Pros –

Smooth synchronization process with support for most POP and IMAP accounts like Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.
Simple setup with automatic mail server smtp identification.
Good file management with both pst file format and mail mbox support so that you don’t need a converter tool.
Can support Windows OS and Mac OS – so you’ll be able to use Mac Mail here too.

Cons –

User interface lacks customizability.
Can be buggy at times.
Software tends to be RAM-heavy.
Viewing emails in plain text format (no links) can cause problems.

Customer Ratings –

G2Crowd – 4.4/5 (7 reviews) Capterra – 4/5 (33 reviews)

3. Claws Mail

Claws Mail is another good Opera Mail alternative for you. It has a couple of neat features that really make it a good application. Let’s take a closer look at them –

1. Open-Source Nature

One of the coolest features of the Claws Mail program is that it’s entirely based on an open-sourced framework. In fact, it has the distinction of being one of the select few email clients that are based on such a framework. The main benefit of an open-sourced software is that you have the ability to add custom integrations to it such as an RSS feed reader. As a result, when it comes to the features list, you can customize as per your needs!

2. Filtering Capabilities

Claws Mail also does well when it comes to filering your emails. Categorizing your emails is super easy as you have the ability to add custom filters to categorize your mail based on fields like content and sender. By allowing you to categorize your emails extensively, it’s easy to sort your emails and maintain a tidy inbox.

3. Reliability

One of the best things about Claws Mail is its speed and reliability. As it’s open-sourced and constantly developed, any nagging issues are dealt with swiftly to ensure that it’s running to the best of its abilities. As a result, Claws Mail tends to be a very reliable email client with very few bugs.

4. Completely Free

Another cool thing about Claws Mail is that, just like Opera Mail, it’s completely free. There’s no premium version with additional features – you get all the functionality you need with its free variant!

The Drawbacks of Claws Mail

A) Complicated Setup

One of the drawbacks of having an open-sourced based software is that it can be challenging to work with – especially if you’re not well-versed in programming. As a result, configuring Claws Mail can be a challenge for beginners as there’s no automatic detection of POP and IMAP email servers when you download the application. You’ll have to manually adjust these mail server settings and will have some trouble importing data from Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook/ Exchange server as a result.

B) Dated UI

Another issue with Claws Mail is that its interface can look a bit dated. It’s not the most user-friendly layout as accessing settings and features can take a bit of work. There are also minimal customization options available for changing how it looks, so you’re pretty much stuck with what you get.

Pros –

Open-source platform allows you to add as many add-ons as you want.
Can support RSS Feeds and import via the mail mbox and pst file format to spare you the need of a converter tool.
Known to be very reliable and fast.
Good filtering capabilities.
Frequent Updates.

Cons –

Application interface isn’t very customizable.
Configuring settings during initial setup is difficult with synchronization process issues.
No automatic incoming server detection for POP and IMAP accounts.
The application is only available on Windows OS and Linux – not platforms like Apple Mac OS X.

Customer Ratings –

G2crowd – N/A Capterra – N/A

Conclusion

There you have it – that’s our Opera Mail review and a few alternative email clients. While Opera mail has some good features, there are better, more modern email clients for you to choose from. You could get the all-around functionality of Mailbird, the sorting capabilities of eM Client or the open-sourced nature of Claws Mail. The choice is yours! Why not sign up for a free Mailbird trial in the meantime to see how it can help supercharge your email productivity?

The post Opera Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019) appeared first on Mailbird.

↧

Inky Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

May 28, 2019, 5:32 am

≫ Next: How To Supercharge Microsoft Exchange [2019 Guide]

≪ Previous: Opera Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

Is Inky Mail the right email client for you? In this article, we’ll give you a detailed review of it to help you determine whether it suits your needs or not. We’ll also give you three great Inky Mail alternatives to try out in case Inky Mail isn’t the perfect fit for your needs. Here’s what this article covers. You can click on the links below to jump to a particular section. An Inky Mail review covering:

Three Great Inky Mail Alternatives (including pros, cons and G2Crowd and Capterra ratings)

What Is Inky Mail?

Inky Mail is a desktop email app for Windows and Mac. Inky’s main calling card is its state-of-the-art security features to handle your emails. It’s got in-built encryption and anti-spam filters to make it one of the safest desktop email clients out there.

What Does Inky Mail Do?

Inky Mail allows you to access emails from multiple email accounts in one unified space. With Inky, you won’t be juggling between Gmail Yahoo Mail and Outlook anymore! You can integrate all your email accounts into Inky and access every account in a unified inbox. Also, as Inky works as a desktop email client, you’ll be able to access these emails from your desktop itself. You won’t be juggling multiple email tabs on web applications like Chrome either!

The Key Features Of Inky Mail

Inky Mail is one of the best desktop email clients on the market right now. Let’s look at some of the features that make it a great option for you.

1. Security

Inky Mail’s mail protection against attackers is what sets it apart from most other email clients. You’ll be able to safeguard yourself against phishing attacks and avoid suspicious emails easily. It also offers you end-to-end encryption on every email you share. This feature ensures that only you and your recipient will be able to view the contents of your encrypted email conversations. This is a great safeguard against anyone hacking into your email conversations, especially when they contain sensitive data. Most of us don’t need end-to-end encryption, but it’s very valuable to employees in industries such as Investment Banking and Aerospace and Defence. Additionally, Inky Mail has an intuitive spam filter that functions as a guard against phishing attacks. The Inky phish fence can analyze where your emails are coming from and notify you if the sender has a reputation for spoofing or sending phishing emails. This way, you’ll be able to avoid any phishing emails easily and keep your PC secure.

2. Easy Setup

Inky Mail supports almost all POP and IMAP accounts. Therefore, you won’t be facing any compatibility issues when it comes to adding your Gmail Yahoo Mail or Outlook account. Additionally, it supports automatic server identification. This spares you the trouble of having to add your email account’s server details manually. Inky does it automatically!

3. Customizability

Inky Mail offers you loads of customizability to make sure that you’re comfortable using it. Unlike other desktop email clients that have a very rigid UI, Inky offers you loads of different interface views to suit your needs. Additionally, there’s a helpful guide available that will show you what each button in the app does – making it super easy to understand and use.

4. Unique Sorting Capabilities

One of the best Inky Mail features is its unique sorting capabilities. The app will organize your inbox’s emails according to how relevant they are to you. Inky uses uses machine learning to determine relevance on a scale of 1-10. It can analyze which emails you tend to open and which you tend to leave unread to come up with a prediction of which emails matter most.

5. Notes Feature

Another cool Inky Mail feature is its Notes. With it, you’ll be able to share notes to yourself in the form of emails. All you have to do is compose an email and share it with yourself. All these self-sent emails will be put into a separate Notes folder so that they’re easily accessible. This gives you a small space dedicated to emails you’ve sent to yourself that can function as a handy notebook within your email client!

The Drawbacks of Inky Mail

Inky Mail is a great email client, but it isn’t flawless. Here are a few drawbacks.

1. No Email Filtering

While Inky offers you great sorting capabilities, it doesn’t give you much customizability when it comes to custom email filters and folders. As a result, you won’t be able to create your own folders to sort out emails and organize your inbox. You’re stuck with the standard “Spam”, “Drafts” and “Trash” folders.

2. Limited Features

Another issue with Inky Mail is that it isn’t very feature-rich. Inky’s efforts center around email security and mail protection – there isn’t much else in store. As a result, you won’t have any additional productivity features like in-line replies or an attachment reminder. While this isn’t a deal-breaker, most people like to have some additional functionality in their email clients.

3. Limited Integrations

Inky’s limited features wouldn’t be too big an issue if they had a bunch of helpful integrations instead. A lot of other email clients that aren’t feature-rich rely on multiple integrations to add that feature-punch to their client. While they may not have many in-built features, their integrations such as Facebook and Whatsapp make up for it. Unfortunately, Inky doesn’t offer you loads of integrations either – so you’re pretty much stuck with what they have to offer you.

Three Great Inky Mail Alternatives –

Since Inky Mail isn’t perfect, here are three great alternatives for you to try to find the perfect fit for your needs –

1. Mailbird

Mailbird is a must-try if you’re looking for Inky Mail alternatives. It’s got loads of customizability and features that elevate it over most other desktop email clients. Additionally, the Mailbird team is hard at work rolling out new features and updates regularly to keep up with their customer’s needs! In fact, it was named the “Editors Choice” by Windows Report in 2019! Here are some of those features that make Mailbird special –

1. Unified Inbox

Mailbird’s unified inbox is one of its key features. It allows you to access emails from multiple email accounts in one unified space on your desktop. You won’t have to worry about logging on to multiple web applications like Gmail and Yahoo to access emails anymore. As all your accounts are integrated with Mailbird, all those emails – regardless of where they were sent, can be accessed in Mailbird! Mailbird can support almost any IMAP or POP account, so compatibility with an email provider won’t be an issue here. Gmail Yahoo Mail, Outlook, a custom email provider – it doesn’t matter! Also, with Mailbird’s automatic server detection, you won’t have to worry about manually adding your account’s server details – Mailbird will take care of that for you. Color Coding Another cool feature about Mailbird’s unified inbox is that you can color code each of your accounts.

This makes it super easy to identify which account an email belongs to. As each account has its own color, you won’t have to worry about mixing up your email accounts!

2. In-Line Replies

Ever receive an email from someone who had tons of questions? You try to address each one, but you end up missing out one or two. With Mailbird’s in-line replies feature, you won’t have to worry about that again. It allows you to respond to questions right under them – within the mail itself!

In-line replies also make it far easier for your recipient to see your answers. They’re right under each question – not bunched up in a big follow-up paragraph. If that wasn’t enough, Mailbird allows you to color-code and add your name to each of your replies for an extra layer of personalization!

3. Attachment Reminders

Mailbird’s attachment reminder feature is another very useful tool to have. With it, you won’t have to worry about forgetting to add an attachment to an email ever again! Here’s how it works. Mailbird can determine whether your email needs an attachment or not depending on what you’ve written in your mail. So, if you mentioned the word “attach” in your email but didn’t attach anything before clicking send, this is what you’ll see –

Pretty handy right? You can now add the file that needed to be sent!

4. Snooze Emails

With Mailbird’s Snooze feature, you can snooze unimportant emails for the time being to ensure that your inbox only has priority emails. You can select how long these unimportant emails are snoozed for – it could be an hour, a day or a week!

Once you select the time period, Mailbird will tuck these emails away so that they’re no longer part of your primary inbox at the moment. What this does is allow you to address your priority emails far faster as you don’t have tons of unimportant emails in the way anymore! After the time period you selected is up, all these snoozed emails pop back in your inbox where you can now address them with ease. The Snooze Folder Another cool thing about Mailbird’s Snooze feature is that you can still access these snoozed emails – even if their snooze period isn’t up. Just go to the Snooze folder in Mailbird, and they’ll all be waiting for you!

5. Tagging Feature

Mailbird’s tagging feature makes it incredibly easy to add a recipient’s email address to your email. Instead of manually going through your contact list to add recipients, just type in “@” followed by their name and Mailbird will go through your contact list to add the email address to your email!

You can even select whether you want the email address to be added as a primary recipient or as a “cc”. This makes the process of adding people to your emails as easy as tagging someone on social media!

Why Mailbird Is Better Than Inky Mail

Here are a few reasons why Mailbird is a better solution for your email needs than Inky Mail –

A) Loads of Features

While Inky Mail has great email security features to guard against phishing emails and other suspicious emails, it doesn’t offer you too many features. Unlike Inky Mail, Mailbird gives you tons of useful features to make it much more than just another email client. You have productivity features such as the tagging feature to make it easier to add people to your emails and safeguards in place such as the attachment reminder to ensure that you won’t forget to add attachments to your emails! All this makes Mailbird a huge improvement on any regular email client as you’re able to do so much more than just access all your emails in one place!

B) Integrations Galore

One of Inky Mail’s drawbacks was its lack of integrations. Mailbird however, has tons of them! Here are just a few integrations –

Calendar apps like Google Calendar
Video calling apps like Veeting Rooms
Social Media apps like Facebook
Messaging apps like Whatsapp
Storage apps like Dropbox

With these integrations, you’ll have all the functionality you need to make Mailbird an integral component of your daily email management process. Additionally, you’re not just limited to adding an app for Windows for the Window Store – the Mailbird add-on library is much larger! For an entire list of Mailbird’s integrations, click here.

Pros –

Support for almost any IMAP or POP account.
Automatic server identification for easy setup.
Loads of helpful features for additional functionality.
Easy contact list management with the ability to merge and link contacts
Tons of integrations.
Lots of customizability regarding theme, layout and shortcuts.
Regular service and feature updates.

Cons –

Only supports Windows OS.
No Android or iOS mobile app.

Customer Ratings –

G2Crowd – 4/5 (33 reviews) Capterra – 4/5 (50 reviews)

2. Claws Mail

Claws Mail is another great free email alternative to Inky Mail. Here are a few of its features that make it a great option for you.

1. Open Source Nature

The coolest thing about the Claws Mail desktop app is that it’s built on an open source framework. What this means is that anyone can obtain the source code of the software and edit it to suit their own needs. Therefore, you can add as many custom integrations and plugins as you want to! These can be things such as an RSS feed reader or even Spam checker plugins!

2. Reliability

Another great thing about the Claws Mail platform is that its very reliable. Claws Mail undergoes regular updates to keep up with any glitches that have crept in to ensure that you have an error-free experience for the most part. Claws Mail also tends to be extremely quick when it comes to email management as its constantly optimized with these service updates!

3. Filtering Capabilities

One thing that Claws Mail does very well is filter your emails. You have complete freedom when it comes to creating your own custom folders to categorize and filter all your emails. These filters can range from categorizing emails according to the sender or even content! As a result, organizing your inbox in Claws Mail is a breeze!

4. Completely Free

A lot of people turn to the Claws Mail platform because it’s completely free – there’s no paid variant with any additional features.You get all the functionality it offers for no charge whatsoever!

The Drawbacks of Claws Mail

Like most other desktop email clients, Claws Mail isn’t perfect. Here are a few drawbacks you may face while using it.

A) Rigid UI

A big drawback of the Claws Mail platform is its limited customizability when it comes to tweaking with its interface. There are no options to change the theme or layout of Claws Mail which can be an issue for a lot of users who value customization. Additionally, the current Claws Mail UI resembles some dated web applications and could use an upgrade.

B) Difficult Setup

The Claws Mail desktop app does not support automatic detection of POP and IMAP incoming servers. Therefore, you’ll have to manually enter the server settings in order to add your accounts. This can be a troublesome process – especially for beginners. Additionally, because of the absence of an automatic setup, transferring your files and contact lists from Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft Outlook can be a difficult process.

Pros –

Open source based for loads of custom integrations and plugins.
Powerful filtering capabilities.
Very reliable and quick.
Regularly updated.
Can support Windows and Linux.

Cons –

No automatic server identification which makes it hard to add multiple email accounts.
Complicated setup with email provider syncing issues.
Dated UI.
No real customizability with regard to the theme and smart views.
No Android or iOS mobile app

Customer Ratings –

G2crowd – N/A Capterra – N/A

3. eM Client

eM Client is another great email app for Windows that deserves a look. Let’s look at some of the features that make it a great email app.

1. Powerful Contact Management

Contact management is one of the things that eM Client does extremely well. The email app gives you ample customizability when it comes to choosing how your contacts are arranged in your contact list. You have the option to categorize them across a variety of fields – ranging from occupation to relatives! eM Client also gives you the ability to choose how these contacts look in your contact list. You can opt for a standard business card format or choose a custom format that allows you to customize how big each contact looks, what information is displayed, what pictures are included and much more! Your contacts can now have their photos highlighted, family details included or locations present in your mailing list – it’s all up to you!

2. Smooth Setup

Another great thing about the eM Client desktop app is the fact that it supports most POP and IMAP accounts. Therefore, compatibility won’t be an issue. Additionally, eM Client supports automatic server identification to make the whole setup super smooth! Just add your account and the email app will do the rest!

3. Encrypted Emails

While eM Client can’t offer you any safeguard against suspicious emails and phishing attacks, it does offer you encryption for some email security and mail protection. Whenever emails are sent through eM Client, a “key pair” – a kind of digitally signed code – is exchanged between you and the recipient to secure your sensitive data. This ensures that only the two of you have access to your email conversations!

4. Spell Checker

Another cool eM Client feature is its in-built spell checker. eM Client’s spell checker is fairly accurate – unlike most others – and can spare you the embarrassment of any spelling errors in your outgoing emails.

The Drawbacks of eM Client

Here are a few of eM Client’s drawbacks which you should know about –

A) Poor UI Customizability

While eM Client offers you loads of customizability when it comes to contacts, you don’t get much when it comes to its user interface. There’s no way of changing the layout of eM Client or adding any custom themes to it. eM Client recently introduced a dark theme though, which is a sign that they’re working on a solution to this issue.

B) Syncing Issues

One of the niggling problems with eM Client is that it suffers from a few recurring bugs. The most common of these bugs is an issue with emails being deleted from backups with no real reason. While eM Client tries to resolve these bugs quickly, they do tend to reappear which means they’re still working on a permanent solution.

Pros –

Can support almost any IMAP or POP account
Automatic server identification for easy setup.
Encrypted emails to secure sensitive data.
Great contact management capabilities.
Supports Windows and Apple MacOS.

Cons –

Limited customization options.
Recurring bugs.
Software tends to be RAM heavy.
Has difficulty dealing with HTML emails.
No Android or iOS mobile app.

Customer Ratings –

G2Crowd – 4.4/5 (7 reviews) Capterra – 4/5 (33 reviews)

Conclusion

Inky Mail is a great email client for email security and phishing protection. Whether you’re a personal user, a startup or a large corporation – everyone could benefit from some email security. Unfortunately, that’s all that Inky Mail offers you. Mailbird, Claws Mail and eM Client can offer you far more when it comes to email productivity. Be it Mailbird’s all-around package, Claws Mail’s open source nature or eM Client’s contact management – they all deserve a look. In the meantime, why not signup for a free trial of Mailbird and experience it yourself?

The post Inky Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019) appeared first on Mailbird.

↧

How To Supercharge Microsoft Exchange [2019 Guide]

May 28, 2019, 6:14 am

≫ Next: The Top 6 ways to Increase Productivity in your Business

≪ Previous: Inky Mail Review and 3 Great Alternatives (2019)

Are you a Microsoft Exchange user? Or thinking of using it? Smart choice! Microsoft Exchange is a core component of Office 365 that’s constantly improving. With features like OWA and Exchange Activesync for your Android and iOS mobile device, Exchange 2019 is a great email service. But what if there was a way to make it even more powerful? By connecting your Exchange account with Mailbird, you can supercharge your email productivity! You get valuable features like:

Unsend Emails.
Integration with multiple tools like Skype, Dropbox, Google Docs, Slack, Whatsapp and more.
Snooze Emails and declutter your inbox.
View emails from Gmail, Yahoo and any other email account of your choice in the same unified inbox as your MS Exchange emails.

And much more!

In this article, we’ll show you why you should add your Exchange account to Mailbird. We’ll also show you how convenient the Exchange setup is in Mailbird! Here’s what we’ll cover. Click on the links below to jump to each section. What Is Mailbird? Why You Should Connect Microsoft Exchange With Mailbird

Desktop Access
Unified Space For All Your Accounts
Loads of Features
Multiple Integrations
Tons of Customizability

How To Set Up Microsoft Exchange In Mailbird Let’s get started.

What Is Mailbird?

Mailbird is a desktop email client. It allows you to access emails from multiple email accounts on your desktop. As Mailbird can support all POP3 and IMAP accounts, you won’t have any trouble adding a Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange email account (Mailbird supports all versions from Exchange 2010 onwards.) That’s not all. Mailbird has tons of productivity features and integrations that make it much more than just another email client! It’s one of the reasons it was selected as the ‘Editors Choice’ by Windows Report in 2019!

Why You Should Connect Microsoft Exchange With Mailbird

Using Exchange with Office 365 gives you tons of benefits such as Exchange Activesync, the Active Directory and the Exchange admin center service desk. However, Mailbird can offer you far more than that. Here are a few reasons why you should use Exchange with Mailbird.

1) Desktop Access

Why waste time logging onto a webmail client through a browser when you access e-mail messages directly from your desktop? With Mailbird, you can access your Exchange email account without logging onto a browser like Chrome or Firefox. Turn your PC on, open the Mailbird app and that’s it! You can now send and receive email right from your desktop!

2) One Inbox For All Your Email Accounts

Do you use more than one email account? For work or personal purposes? With Mailbird’s unified inbox, you can connect multiple email accounts into one common space. As Mailbird can support a POP3 or IMAP mail server, you can access your Exchange, Gmail and custom email hosting accounts easily! No need to remember each account’s password or juggle between browser tabs anymore! Log into Mailbird and you can send and receive email from each account with ease. Color Codes Worried you’ll mix up where an email came from since all your accounts are together? Don’t be! Mailbird can color code each of your accounts so that you always know which e-mail account a particular message belongs to.

3) Loads Of Features

By connecting your Exchange email account with Mailbird, you can access tons of useful features that Microsoft Exchange can’t offer you. Here are a few.

A) Unsend Email

Realized you’ve made a mistake after clicking on ‘Send’? Maybe you:

Forgot to cc someone?
Forgot to answer a question?
Made a typo?

If you’ve sent an email riddled with mistakes, there’s no way of recalling it in Exchange or Outlook. Unfortunately, it’s not a feature available on Exchange or the Exchange Online email service. You’ll have to send an embarrassing follow-up email instead! Being able to recall an email that you’ve just sent that needs correction can be a lifesaver. With Mailbird, you’ll be able to unsend emails regardless of the e-mail service you’re using! Here’s how you use this feature.

Go to the settings menu in Mailbird.
Click on the “Composing” tab.
Scroll down to the “Sending” section.

Now adjust the slider to choose how much time you have to recall an email. You have a choice of up to 30 seconds.

Once you’ve done this, you’re good to go! The next time you send an email, you’ll see this message pop up on your screen.

If you want to recall that email, click the undo button and the email won’t go out! You’ll be redirected to a new composer window where you can make any corrections to the email before sending it out again.

B) Snooze Emails

With the ‘Snooze’ feature, you can temporarily remove certain emails from your mailbox. This makes your inbox far less cluttered and help you focus on important emails. The best way to use this is by snoozing any unimportant emails to make responding to priority emails easier. Don’t worry about losing these snoozed emails – you can select how long they’re snoozed for – this could be an hour, a day or even a week. Once this time period is up, these emails pop back into your mailbox!

The Snooze Folder All these snoozed emails are stored in a designated Snooze folder – away from your main mailbox. You can always access this folder to see your snoozed emails before their snooze period is up!

C) Attachment Reminders

With Mailbird’s attachment reminder feature, you won’t make the mistake of sending an email without an attachment! Mailbird automatically detects whether an email needs an attachment based on what you’ve written. For example, if you mention the word ‘attach’ in your email but click ‘send’ before adding anything, this is what you’ll see –

Forgetting to add files is now a thing of the past!

D) In-Line Replies

Mailbird’s In-Line Replies feature lets you respond to questions and points in an email in a clear and organized manner.

How does this help? By responding to questions immediately below there’s a zero chance of you forgetting to respond to a particular question. It’s also going to be far easier for your recipient to read your answers. They’re neatly placed under each question and not bundled together in one paragraph! The Mailbird app also allows you to color code and add your name to your responses. This adds an additional layer of personalization to your emails.

E) Tagging

Another great Mailbird feature is its ability to tag contacts in your emails. This makes adding contacts to your recipients’ list super easy! Type in ‘@’ followed by the name of the person and Mailbird will automatically go through your contacts and add their email address.

You can choose whether this email address is added as a primary recipient or as a ‘cc’ to your email! It’s that simple!

4) Multiple Integrations

Another great thing about the Mailbird app is that it has tons of integrations to make it more than just another email client. Here are some of Mailbird’s most popular integrations –

Email Calendar tools like Google Calendar and Kin Calendar.
Messaging tools like Slack and Whatsapp.
File Storage tools like Dropbox and Google Docs.
Social Media tools like Facebook.
Video Calling tools like Veeting Rooms and Skype for Business.
Project Collaboration tools like Asana

With these integrations, Mailbird can become an integral part of your daily work processes. It’s no longer just a platform to send and receive email! For a complete list of Mailbird’s integrations, click here.

5. Tons of Customizability

Mailbird offers you tons of customizability to make sure you’re comfortable using it. From the theme to the layout – everything’s customizable. You can choose a light or dark theme or create a custom theme for a background!

When it comes to layouts, you can choose a small screen, preview or 3 column layout to suit your needs. This way, Mailbird adapts to you – not the other way around.

How To Setup Microsoft Exchange In Mailbird

The biggest problem with most desktop mail clients is that they’re hard to configure and setup. Fortunately, Mailbird isn’t a ‘regular’ desktop mail client! Adding your Exchange or Exchange Online mail server is super simple and you’ll be up and running in no time! Mailbird can automatically sync and import all your contacts and data onto your device to make the process a breeze! Add your Exchange email and password and you’re good to go! This way, you won’t have to worry about losing your pst files, backup or Exchange mailbox data – Mailbird will import it all! Here’s how to configure the Exchange setup on Mailbird.

Step 1

After you have downloaded and installed Mailbird, Click on the ‘Menu’ button at the top left of your screen. Then, navigate to the e-mail account section and click on ‘Add.’

Step 2

Add your name and e-mail account details before clicking on ‘Continue.’

Step 3

You’ll now see a link titled – ‘edit mail server settings’ under your email address. Click on it.

Step 4

Change the email service server type from IMAP to the Exchange server using the drop-down provided.

Step 5

If you’ve setup auto discover in your Exchange online server, leave the ‘server URL’ box blank. Do this even if you’re unsure of whether you setup auto discover for your Exchange server. However, if you’ve disabled auto-discover and know your Microsoft Exchange server URL, type the Exchange servers id into the ‘server URL’ box. Then, enter your password and click ‘Continue.’

That’s all there is! You’ve now managed to configure and add your Exchange email account settings in just quick five steps. The best part is that this Exchange setup works with hosted Exchange servers as well!

Conclusion

While Microsoft Exchange is a fantastic email client, adding it to Mailbird makes it even better. You get the benefit of accessing your emails from your desktop alongside tons of helpful features and integrations! If you’re still on the fence about switching to Mailbird, why not sign up for our free trial and experience it for yourself?

The post How To Supercharge Microsoft Exchange [2019 Guide] appeared first on Mailbird.

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The Top 6 ways to Increase Productivity in your Business

April 9, 2019, 1:19 pm

≫ Next: Email Validation: Why It Matters and How to Pick the Right Service

≪ Previous: How To Supercharge Microsoft Exchange [2019 Guide]

When you talk to people all over the world about how they stay productive, the number 1 culprit of productivity issues is with their email. That is why Mailbird is building the most productive email client ever! I have had the pleasure of meeting many inspiring entrepreneurs who are so kind to willingly share their productivity hacks. A good friend of ours Tobias Schelle, Founder of 24slides shares a post about his toolbox for optimal productivity, read the post on Medium. Elaine Heney, CEO of Chocolate Lab Apps is another power house on productivity. She is also the best kind of work-a-holic you’ll ever meet. Below, Elaine shares with us her take on email and productivity.

I’ve spent the last month in Bali, co-working with an inspiring group of 25 successful entrepreneurs at Project Getaway. Our businesses are diverse – from cloud hosting solutions, to industrial manufacturing and mobile apps.

Regardless of the business type, working in Bali focused our collective minds on one major challenge – how to become more productive while having more free time to enjoy this beautiful island. Here are the top 6 ways I’ve increased my productivity as CEO of my mobile games company.

Rescue time

Install StayFocusd on your web browser and block the top three non-work related websites you spend the most time. My biggest time waster was facebook. While I was on some work related groups there, it was just eating into my time. Installing the StayFocusd plugin on my PC means that Facebook automatically closes after I spend max 5 minutes on it per day. Absolute genius. If you want to go one step further, delete the facebook app from your phone as well. Checking your facebook account for a few seconds on your phone while you have downtime is a total waste of valuable reflection time, especially when you think of how many times you check facebook ‘for a few seconds’ every day.

Build a team

There is just no way you can grow and company and enjoy your free time if you are doing all of the work yourself. Putting together a team, consisting of people with better skills than you (in my case app developers and graphic artists) is a great way to get more work done and to raise the quality of your products and services.

Get a virtual assistant

My VA has saved my life on numerous occasions. A virtual assistant can free up so much of your time, by taking over the repetitive, mundane, copy & paste tasks you find yourself doing every day. These tasks are often important for your business to keep growing. But that does not mean that you need to spend your time doing them if you can train someone else to do them. This has freed up at least 3 to 4 hours of my time every single day.

A VA is also a super resource to work on some small test or trial projects you have in your mind, but you don’t have the time to work on yourself. This can range from web research, to SEO to watching online courses for you that you don’t have time to view yourself, and then writing a short one page report on actionable items that can be implemented in your own business. Hiring a VA is something I recommend for every business regardless of the size or industry.

Outsource and automate your email

Email is wonderful – but email can eat up your time. You can definitely mange your email to cut down on the time you spend on it. To begin, analyse what types of emails you are getting. Some may be customer support emails – without too much effort you can create templates with the most common questions, and either hire a VA to reply to these or put them up as a FAQ section on your website to reduce your emails.

Secondly, you can get a lot of personal emails looking for help, or from people trying to sell you their new products that you may not be that interested in. What I found really useful is on my contact page, I now advise people that my email address is only for product support. If they want to contact me directly, then they need to leave a comment on my blog and I promise to read all of these. This also cut down my email, while increasing my blog comments which was a great result.

Batch your email

I get tons of email a day. One really useful way I have with dealing with it is to batch it into two times per day. I check all email early in the morning and clear my inbox to zero. Then I close it, and reopen my email at about 4pm in the afternoon and catch up with everything again. This batching of work means I get through my email a lot faster, and I get quiet time to work on important projects for the rest of the day.

Hire a project manager

When you are the cog in the chain, you might be getting work done, but you can’t scale and you will find you end up working about 23 hours in every day. Hiring a project manager who can deal with your team, chase late deliveries and keep everything moving while sending you daily updates of the progress and of any issues, is a really effective way for you to use your time more efficiently.

I’m happy to report that in two weeks I’ve cut my working hours by half and am now well on my way to becoming the next Irish professional surfer after some great lessons here in Indonesia.

Life is for living, not for working 24 hours a day.

Elaine Heney is CEO of Chocolate Lab Apps, and #1 bestselling author of the ‘App Escape Plan’ and ‘App Marketing’. She has over 180 apps published and 3 million downloads. She is a 5 star Online App Development coach for app entrepreneurs. Sign up to the Express, a unique, totally free program for increasing your app downloads and sales at http://www.thechocolatelabapps.com

A big thank you to Elaine for sharing her business productivity tips with us, with a special focus on how she manages email in the most efficient way for business. We encourage Windows users around the world to try the best email client solution for business. A cool business feature coming down the pipeline to make you an email-client-inbox-zero-badass in the modern work force, is the Mailbird Wingman. A dashboard that provides your unique email usage data so you can process and improve your work flow. Key additions in the Mailbird Wingman include an email follow-up reminder and email scheduler. You’ll never forget a follow up to that important person or to send that important deal breaker email. You and your team’s effort to get more things done becomes much more strategic and planned. These features will be available for Pro and Business customers only. Take advantage of the 25% off pre-order discount today and be the first to build superstar productivity powers for your team right within the Mailbird nest.

What are your business productivity hacks? What tools do you use today for team to get the most done? Looking forward to your comments below.

This post was originally published in 2013. It has been updated.

The post The Top 6 ways to Increase Productivity in your Business appeared first on Mailbird.

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Email Validation: Why It Matters and How to Pick the Right Service

July 11, 2019, 11:44 pm

≫ Next: How Freelancers’ Use of Technology Disrupts The Workplace

≪ Previous: The Top 6 ways to Increase Productivity in your Business

Are you on the market for an email validation service? Great! Taking care of your email list is the best thing you can do to help your email marketing thrive. But, with so many fish in the pond, making the right choice can be challenging. What’s an email validation system supposed to do? You have to know what you need before you even consider taking out your credit card. Read on to learn what makes a great email validator and how to spot one when you see it.

Why email validation matters

According to HubSpot, email marketing generates a return on investment (ROI) of $38 for every $1 spent. Not all businesses get to tap into that potential, and their (lack of) data quality has a lot to do with it. Email validation helps you prevent this loss and, also, get more out of your email marketing. By removing bad signups and obsolete email addresses, an email validator improves your sender reputation and gives your delivery rates a boost. As a result, you’ll be able to:

reach all of the people on your list: isn’t that where email marketing begins?
get more accurate metrics: once you remove invalid and dormant addresses, you’ll have a clear idea of how your emails perform.
create better content for your audience and adjust it based on your open and click-through rates.
increase your conversions without having to resort to any tricks.

Chanteuse Marie, experienced launch copywriter and funnel strategist, explains for Mailbird: “It’s crucial that I’m privy to the health of my client’s list when I’m working on an email copy project. If poor list hygiene goes unchecked or unresolved, no amount of great copywriting can save an email campaign from going bust. It’s essentially a waste of dollars and hours.”

How to pick the right email validation service

In the past five years, email marketing has seen a fantastic boom. It’s no surprise that so many email validation services appeared on the market.

Before you make your choice, here are some of the features you should look for:

Accuracy. For starters, if an email validator doesn’t guarantee you palpable results, keep searching. A reliable service will list its accuracy on its website – look for at least 97%. Furthermore, ask if there’s a money-back guarantee.
Methodology. Not all email validation tools use advanced methods to detect bounces and other unhealthy data. In fact, some of them run a superficial analysis that’s not going to improve your email hygiene much. A good email validator will remove misspelled and other dead-end email addresses, spam traps, abuse, temporary and catch-all emails.
Security: respectable businesses take GDPR protocols seriously, and so should your email validation service. Before you commit to a plan, talk to a respresentative to make sure your customers’ data is going to be safe. A trustworthy company will never store that data.
Documentation and support. Especially if you’re cleaning your list for the first time, you may need some information. Also, if any spontaneous issues occur, you want to have someone to talk to and get help right away. Some email cleaning services offer 24/7 customer support.
A clear breakdown of your results. Once the system isolates all bad data from your email list, you should be able to find out why is was bad. How many abuse emails did you have? What about spam traps and catch-alls? The results give you good feedback on your email marketing best practices and allows you to improve.
An email validation API. Once you create an account with an email cleaning service, you can validate your list in bulk, by uploading it on the platform. But a great email validator will also have an API available. This is a piece of code you install on your registration and signup forms to verify emails in real time. The API prevents poor-quality contacts from joining your list in the first place, thus keeping it accurate for a longer time.

How often should you use an email validation tool?

Your email data decays – no matter how good it is when you acquire it. Several sources, including Accudata, show that an average of 1% – 2% of your database becomes obsolete within just one month. So, when deciding how often you should clean that data, keep this in mind. On the other hand, validating your list is essential:

before sending out a campaign after a long break
when your bounce rate exceeds the 2% industry standard
if you notice your metrics don’t make sense. For example, if your emails seem to reach the inboxes of your subscribers, but your open rates are low, that could be because you have too many abandoned accounts in your list. Or, your reputation is suffering for another reason, and many of your emails are going to people’s Spam folder.

“Any business deals with a certain level of uncertainty. The market fluctuates, technology forces you to upgrade your systems, or a new law imposes unwanted measures. These are all things you can’t control. One thing you can control is how you manage your best business assets, and your email list is if one of them. Review it regularly, send outstanding content, and your email marketing will work,” says ZeroBounce CEO Liviu Tanase.

Easy access to email validation, on Mailbird

If you’re ready to give email validation a try, you’re in the perfect place –recently, Mailbird integrated ZeroBounce into its platform. That means you can access the list cleaning service directly from your Mailbird account. Here’s how it works: From now on, whenever you use your favorite email client, you can boogie on over the ZeroBounce website. Creating an account takes less than 60 seconds and it comes with 100 free email validation credits per month. Per month, every month? Yes, for ever. — A former journalist, Corina Leslie is the PR & Marketing Manager for email validation company ZeroBounce. You can find her on the ZeroBounce blog, where she shares her best tips on digital marketing, copywriting, PR and everything in between. You can connect with Corina on her LinkedIn profile.

The post Email Validation: Why It Matters and How to Pick the Right Service appeared first on Mailbird.

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How Freelancers’ Use of Technology Disrupts The Workplace

July 20, 2019, 1:56 am

≫ Next: 7 Reasons to Have More Than One Email Account in 2019

≪ Previous: Email Validation: Why It Matters and How to Pick the Right Service

Millennials are embracing freelancing and remote work more than any other generation. Whether it’s because of the lack of steady jobs available or the perks of setting your own working hours, it’s attracting Millennials in droves.

Now that we make up the majority of the workforce, the way we want to work is changing the workplace for everyone else.

From technology to employee benefits and even company structures, Millennials have unabashedly ushered in the future of work.

Millennials Are More Likely to Have Flexible Location Benefits and Freelance Roles

According to the 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey, 64% of Millennials around the world have flexible location benefits – up by 21% from 2016. And in a 2017 survey conducted by Upwork, almost half of working Millennials freelance (47%), more than any other generation.

But without technology, Millennials would still be chained to a desk in a brick and mortar office like everyone else.

There is hardly a millennial today who does not have their own personal website or blog on platforms like WordPress. Thanks to apps like Slack, communication with remote team workers is seamless. With millennials and freelancers relying more on email than ever before, inbox management systems like Mailbird are crucial to staying productive. Google Docs allows for seamless collaboration, and you can find clients and build a business with just a social media account.

Mailbird is the best email client for freelancers.

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The Gig Economy and Technology

Gone are the days of asking “Where do you work”. Today, it’s all about “What are you working on?”. UpWork estimates that there are 53 million freelancers in the US, who make up 34% of the workforce.

But the problem with the gig economy is that it’s not a stable source of income. Most freelancers hop from job to job and rely heavily on technology to be able to earn a salary every month. In fact, 71% of freelancers in 2017 found their next gig online.

Whether it’s creating a lead magnet website, scouring UpWork for potential gigs or using apps to stay productive, without technology the booming gig economy we have today wouldn’t exist.

Remote workers also tend to work longer hours. When you don’t have a stable income each month, working 9 to 5 doesn’t exist. It means you have to hustle until the wee hours of the morning or waking up early for a Skype call with a client halfway around the world.

Freelancers Need To Be Adaptable and Wear Many Hats

When you’re a freelancer who works remotely, being adaptable is crucial to success. Whether you’re a front-end developer, web designer or social media manager, you quickly realise that you need to do more than just your job title to stay afloat. Most freelancers run a one-person show, and that means they have to get in the sales, market themselves and stay on top of their bookkeeping for tax season.

If you can’t afford to expand your team, the only person you can delegate things to is yourself.

With so much more to do, many freelancers are turning to technology to solve their productivity crisis.

This has led to the increase in integrations. Millennials want to manage their bookkeeping with a chrome extension and organise their projects without hopping between applications. They don’t want a silo solution. They want one that fits in with their busy lives seamlessly and requires the least amount of admin.

Where We Work Is No Longer a Fixed Location

With more millennials becoming freelancers and pushing for remote work policies, it’s changing our perception of where work happens.

Co-working spaces are popping up all over the world. In fact, it’s estimated that there are more than 20,000 offices worldwide and counting.

Work from home policies are becoming the norm. With the roads in our cities becoming more congested, and both parents wanting careers, companies are under pressure to cater to this growing trend and to help rapidly expanding cities. Some organisations like Buffer, Mailbird and Automattic are already 100% remote with their teams scattered across the globe.

Digital nomad retreats have seen a spike in popularity over the last few years. Remote workers get to spend a month living in a different country while networking with like-minded individuals and scaling their business. It’s the epitome of the Millennial dream. And it’s all thanks to technology that we can choose to live our lives on these terms.

Fast, reliable Wifi is available in almost every country. You can have a Skype call on the beach in the Bahamas and answer an email while wandering the streets of London.

Digital Nomads working location independent in a Co-working Space

Millennials Are All About The Side Hustle

Millennials are a generation of entrepreneurs.

We have managed to figure out how to make an income from almost any new piece of tech. YouTube has turned kids into millionaires. Bloggers are raking in six figures. Influencers are the new celebrity. Homeowners are generating a passive income from Airbnb, and online experts are selling their knowledge on sites like Udemy and Skillshare. As more and more jobs become automated with machines, the ability to figure out new ways to make money from technology is crucial.

In a 2017 study by Upwork, 65% of full-time freelancers are updating their skills to evolve compared to only 45% of full-time employers. With the number of jobs shrinking, staying upskilled is the only way of staying relevant in the workforce. 45% of freelancers have already indicated that their workload has been affected by AI compared to only 18% of non-freelancers.

This shows that freelancers are more aware of job transformation and have the entrepreneurial spirit to adapt and survive disruptions in the workforce.

Remote Work and Technology Go Hand in Hand

Despite the longer working hours and lack of job security, Millennials are still confident about this new way of working.

69% agree that perceptions of freelancing as a career are more positive and is also respected with leading professionals jumping on board with remote, distributed, freelance work setups.

As we enter what some are calling the Fourth Industrialization, we need millennials to carry on working with technology to create a sustainable and independent work economy.

The post How Freelancers’ Use of Technology Disrupts The Workplace appeared first on Mailbird.

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7 Reasons to Have More Than One Email Account in 2019

August 18, 2019, 4:29 am

≫ Next: What Resources Are Available Now That Qmail.org Is Gone?

≪ Previous: How Freelancers’ Use of Technology Disrupts The Workplace

We all have different means for email management.

1. To separate business from personal.

Nearly 1 in 4 people use a work email address as a login for a personal account.

2. To filter spam.

3. To manage public use of your email.

4. To maintain your online identity.

Different email inboxes keep you organized.

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5. To organize different jobs, projects, or teams.

6. To conduct your own marketing campaigns.

7. As a backup to your main email account.

Conclusion

Mailbird brings control back to your inbox.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2017 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post 7 Reasons to Have More Than One Email Account in 2019 appeared first on Mailbird.

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What Resources Are Available Now That Qmail.org Is Gone?

August 4, 2019, 2:15 pm

≫ Next: 10 Quick Tips on Leading a Remote Team

≪ Previous: 7 Reasons to Have More Than One Email Account in 2019

For many people, sending an email involves a few simple steps. In most cases, all you need is to have your email address, the email address of the person to whom you’re sending the message, a subject and the message itself. As long as you know how to click the send button, your email is as good as sent. However, in the background, the action is a little more complicated. This is where a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) plays an integral part in ensuring that a message successfully moves from a sender to the receiver. Qmail is one of the popular MTAs that have dominated the internet over the last two or so decades. One of the most popular reference sites for Qmail users was Qmail.org. However, try to access the site today, and you’ll discover that it is gone. We took some time to research what happened to Qmail.org. Then, we identify resources that people who relied on Qmail.org can resort to now that it is no longer available.

What Is Qmail?

Dale Sill, the writer of the Qmail Handbook entitled Introducing Qmail, describes Qmail as “an Internet MTA for Unix and Unix-like operating systems.” Sill goes on to explain that the function of an MTA is twofold. The first is to accept new messages coming from a user’s computer and deliver them to the network of the recipient. The second is to accept emails coming from other systems, which are usually directed at local users. Many people who send emails would neither know nor care what MTAs do because they do not directly interact with these systems (Source).

The History of Qmail

Daniel J. Bernstein, the developer of the Qmail software package, works as a professor at the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He began coding Qmail at the end of 1995. He reports that he got serious when he became “sick of the security holes in Eric Allman’s Sendmail software” (Source). At that time, Sendmail was the leading MTA on the internet. Bernstein is not the only one who notes the challenges which faced Sendmail in the 1990s. Sill also did; noting that even though “Sendmail developers have worked hard over the years to enhance its security and performance… there’s only so much that can be done without a fundamental redesign” (Source). According to Sill, the main challenges faced by Sendmail were linked to the fact that it was developed before the explosion of the Internet in the early years of the 1990s. It had been created for a time when the internet was small, and the people online knew each other. He notes that at that point, “Security was not a major concern” because “there were few potential ‘bad guys’ from which to be protected” (Source). As the Internet expanded and many businesses started to conduct their affairs online, the need for an MTA which could respond to the escalating security challenges became increasingly obvious. This was the background against which Bernstein developed and implemented an MTA that could face the threats presented by the modern internet.

Bernstein v. Department of Justice

Bernstein was famous for more than just Qmail. In 1999, he took the government of the United States to court after the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) attempted to prevent him from publishing the source code freely. The EAR is the agency regulating whether something can be exported from the United States. In court, Bernstein argued that the actions of the EAR were an infringement on his First Amendment Rights. In its verdict, the court agreed with Bernstein. It stated that even though not all software is an expression, programming can be taken as speech which is protected by the First Amendment (Source).

The Guarantee

Bernstein was so confident of Qmail’s security that in 1997, he took the bold step of publicly offering a reward of $500 to the first individual who could publish a verifiable security hole in the latest version of Qmail. When no one claimed the $500, he raised his offer to $1000. There is currently no information on anyone claiming this prize.

Distinguishing Between Qmail and Qmail.org

The discussion so far has focused mainly on Qmail, the Mail Transfer Agent. The Qmail software is still widely available (and widely used). Qmail.org was a website designed as a reference site for Qmail users, and it provided several resources, including a list of “mirrors” of Qmail.org. As of 22 August 2019, Qmail.org was down, and there is very little information about what happened to the reference site. Qmail.org appeared on the internet for the first time around December 1996. At this time, visitors to the site could get information related to other software that works with Qmail. Users could also access some general tips for solving problems associated with Qmail.

The Man Behind Qmail.org

Russ Nelson created Qmail.org. Even though Nelson gained his fame as an American computer programmer and briefly served as the president of the Open Source Initiative, he attracted controversy in 2005 when he posted an article entitled “Blacks Are Lazy” on his blog. Reports indicate that the fallout from Nelson’s controversial article forced him to step down from his position at the Open Source Initiative. However, he has challenged the accusation of racism and said, “I think that my chief mistake was to say, “Blacks are lazy,” rather than asking, “Are blacks lazy?” He apologized to anyone who thought the post was racist (Source).

Qmail.org Mirrors

Qmail.org was mirrored in several places. Mirroring refers to the creation of an identical website or web page under a different URL. Usually, mirror sites are located in different continents to relieve pressure on the original site. Below is a list of the Qmail mirrors in different continents.

USA	Asia/Oceania	Europe	World
Califonia-Geto	Australia-Glasswings	Belgium-Hebergeur	Argentina-Localhost.net.ar
Florida-Orlando	Australiallisys	Bosnia and Herzegovina-BLIC	Brazil-USP
Kansa-Pandakc	Australia Sydney	Bulgaria-Online	Canada-qmail.ca
Michigan-Auchnet	Hong Kong-Ibase	Bulgaria-CBox	Canada – compevo communications
New York-qmail.org	Iran-Morva	Czech Republic-Cuni	Israel-Abramov
Pennsylvania Pair	Japan-Teraren	France-OVH	Israel
	Korea Singapore	Latvia (Russian team)	Philippines RISE
		Luxembourg	South Africa
		Germany-Kendzorra

		Germany GNSW
		Greece-NTUA
		Greece
		UK, Bangor, Northern Ireland – DNSBeans
		Italy-Hypergrid
		Poland-LU-MEDIA
		Switzerland
		Turkey
		London, UK
		UK, London, IPv4, IPv6

Alternatives to Qmail.org

Now that Qmail.org is no longer available, what resources could those who relied on the site to solve Qmail problems resort to? We identified a few.

Everything About Qmail

It might be a long time since the site LifeWithQmail.org was last updated, but it still provides excellent resources for anyone looking for comprehensive information about the MTA. From LifeWithQmail.org, you can download the Life with Qmail PDF handbook. The handbook introduces readers to Qmail, its history, features, and reasons why they should use the MTA, among other topics. It provides details on installation, configuration and usage.

Qmail Tips

In its early days, Qmail.org offered articles written by information technology experts like John Mitchell and Tim Godwin, offering Qmail user tips on how to solve Qmail problems. It also provided information about where users could find commercial support for Qmail. One site that still provides similar services is Qmailrocks.org. It provides a platform where you can access a how-to guide on installing Qmail and other tips.

Qmail User Forums

EmailQuestions.com provides a forum where Qmail users can ask any question about the MTA. From this site, you will find discussions on topics like:

Qmail News

Qmail.omnis.ch delivers news on all things to do with Qmail from as early as 1999. This is an excellent resource for someone who wants to follow the history of the MTA. Below are a few examples of the topics covered on this site.

Mark Steele wrote up some notes on Setting up a Qmail front-end for M$ Exchange server
Chris Hardie has written a program to migrate from IMail Server to qmail/vpopmail.
Cristiano Venturini has developed Qmailsuite to manage accounts of QMail Ldap Server written in Python (command line) and Php5 (web application).

You can read all the stories here.

Conclusion

We cannot conclusively say what happened to Qmail.org. However, we can confidently say that Qmail users still have several resources they can turn to, to find tips, news, select mirrors and ask questions.

The post What Resources Are Available Now That Qmail.org Is Gone? appeared first on Mailbird.

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10 Quick Tips on Leading a Remote Team

August 25, 2019, 1:49 am

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Merely interacting with your group of remote employees isn’t enough! It’s very important to make sure you build a working relationship with them. These 10 awesome tips lay the groundwork for properly leading a remote team.

1. Use the right tools

Video meetings, IMing, and emailing are all effective ways to keep in contact. Decide which ones work best, and how often you’d like to see these communications. Maintaining a group calendar is extremely helpful, so nobody is left out of group-wide announcements. Do some research to find the best tools, based on your team’s needs.

Here is a list of tools that we would and already have recommended in our blog post series “The Challenges of Remote Working”:

Task Management
- Asana
- Wunderlist
- Moo.do
- Todoist
Notes and Documents
- Evernote
- Google Drive
Time Management
- Time Doctor
- Rescue Time
Email Management
- Mailbird (Windows)
- Unibox (Mac)
- Unroll.Me
- FollowUpCC
Video Meetings
- Skype
- Hangouts
- Veeting Rooms
- AppearIn
Time Zone Scheduling
Calendars
- Google Calendar
- Kin Calendar
Human Resource Management
- People HR
- Podio
Messaging/Chat
- Slack
- Skype
- HipChat
- WhatsApp
File Storage
- Degoo
- Dropbox

For any other tools you might need

Product Hunt

2. Get the team on board with those tools

Find the right tools for your team, and stick with them. Once you’ve found the most effective programs, make sure you hold a training session–don’t just assume people will pick them up right away. Keeping an open line of communication during the implementation of these tools is key to their success.

3. Maintain the “water cooler” culture

Part of the draw of an office environment is the face-to-face interactions and casual banter with coworkers. It’s easy to transpose this type of culture onto a remote team. Simply send a message, or make a phone call catching up with the employee, about the employee, not any current projects. Perhaps she recently ran a marathon, or he adopted a chinchilla. Whatever the event, by asking you’re opening up a more relaxed dialogue. Work isn’t fun when you just talk about work!

4. Have meetings over voice calls

It’s important to maintain both voice and text communication. Since the vast majority of the time, we communicate via email or IM, tone can be lost in translation. By checking in through a call on a regular basis, you’ll make sure your entire team is on the same page. Interacting with the team in real-time is essential to maintain the aforementioned “water cooler” culture. It allows everyone to bond as people, more than can be attained solely through a screen.

5. Host annual “hack-a-thons”

A hack-a-thon is a period of time in which your remote teams comes together for a solid month of intense work. This time allows you to regroup, and plan the next projects in-depth for the upcoming year. Everyone has the ability to input ideas, or throw up suggestions. Open dialogue during these events is crucial to their success, as it provides grounds for creative brilliance. Plus, it allows your team to interact face-to-face, forming more concrete bonds.

6. Ensure they have access to great Internet and mobile connection

Without a solid Internet connection, it’s impossible to communicate and work effectively. Make sure that everyone has strong connectivity, and for those with spotty coverage, offer a reliable mobile hotspot. This could be in shape of a membership at the nearby Co-Working Space for example. Taking these steps shows you care about your employees, and it mitigates potential technical issues. This is a mutually beneficial and affordable step for both parties.

Taking these steps shows you care about your employees, and it mitigates potential technical issues. This is a mutually beneficial and affordable step for both parties.

7. Set the expectations and culture for the team

Your actions set the tone for the way in which your team interacts amongst peers and higher-ups. By making yourself available no matter what, while practicing tight, frequent communication you set the standards for your team. Therefore, maintaining productivity, providing motivation, and having fun, gives your team the grounds to follow suit. The way you treat your employees is directly reflected in the way they interact with you. Be the employee you want on your team.

If you would like to learn more about how to manage a remote team, check out this very insightful ebook compiled by Hubstaff.

8. Encourage work/life balance

Working employees to death will only lead to high turnover and perpetual apathy. Instead, encourage your team to prioritize their own health and happiness. Sometimes a mental health day is necessary after that huge push to finish a project on a tight deadline. When your team is in tip-top shape, they’ll be far more productive. Just like a plant, you need to nurture your team. If you only give them the bare essentials, they’ll do well, but if you give them extra support in their personal lives, they’ll flourish.

9. Encourage everyone on the team to lead a meeting…

…or teach the group something new, as a part of a weekly meeting. At Mailbird, we rotate which person on each of our teams will be presenting business updates. You can mold this idea to fit any group or meeting. This brings your remote team together for a number of reasons. It allows them to take meeting responsibilities, even though they’re not in the office. Additionally, it creates an environment conducive to learning. People retain information when they teach it to someone else, so it’s beneficial for all parties.

10. Be respectful and flexible to different cultures and mindsets.

There are often many ways to reach the same solution. Keeping an open mind to learning about each other’s differences builds a strong team bond. This understanding fosters the notion that everyone has the support of all team members.

*Bonus: make work FUN!

They say you’ll never work a day in your life if you love what you do. Why not nurture this ideology within your workplace? The importance of both work and play is true whether you are in the same office, or working remotely anywhere in the world!

Remote Team

Implement these tips and you’ll see your remote team blossom before your very eyes. If you remember anything from these tips, it’s that finding the right kind and amount of communication is vital. Go forth and communicate!

Are you part of a remote team or are you even leading one? Share your stories and experiences with us in the comment section below.

The post 10 Quick Tips on Leading a Remote Team appeared first on Mailbird.

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1. To separate business from personal.

2. To filter spam.

3. To manage public use of your email.

4. To maintain your online identity.

5. To organize different jobs, projects, or teams.

6. To conduct your own marketing campaigns.

7. As a backup to your main email account.

Conclusion

Windows 10 Mail App Not Working?

Modern UI

Unified Inbox Plus with color indicators

Conversation View

Apps

Productivity Features

Contacts & Calendar

Bugs & Problems

1. Have a Niche

2. Know Your Audience

3. What Platform Are You Using

4. Do Extensive Research

5. Work On the Content

About the Author:

About the Author:

Alternative to Newton Mail for Windows

1. Mailbird

2. Microsoft Outlook

3. Gmail

4. eM Client

Alternative to Newton Mail for Mac

1. Apple Mail

2. Airmail

3. Spark

4. Postbox

Conclusion

Moving from Mac to Windows

Best Mac Email Clients

1. Apple Mail

2. Airmail 3

3. Spark

Best Windows alternatives

1. Microsoft Outlook

2. Mailbird

3. eM Client

4. Thunderbird

So, Which Windows Client Is Best For Your Switch?

What do you think? What is your favorite Windows email client?

Gmail Desktop Apps Covered in this Article

Gmail Apps for Windows 10: Top 5 Tools

1. Mailbird

All Your Email Accounts in One Place

Snooze Emails for Later

Replies Are A Piece of Cake

Supercharge Attachments

Find Attachments Easily

Open Attachments Safely

Contact Management Is A Breeze

Syncing Contacts

Merge Duplicate Contacts

Copying Contacts

Speed Reader

Onboarding Is A Breeze

Setting up most other mail for Windows is complicated, confusing, time-consuming and buggy!

Step 1 – Download

Step 2 – Add Details

Step 3 – Add More Email Accounts (Optional)

Step 4 – Automatic Detection

Optional Steps (Just for Fun!)

Step 5

Step 6

Integrations Galore

Followup.cc

Dropbox

Appear.in, Slack and Whatsapp

Mobile Version

Advantages

Limitations

Pricing

Customer Ratings

2. Foxmail

Advantages