Email apps are a popular App Store category for one simple reason - almost all of us need to access email on our iPhones and iPads. While Apple has its own Mail app built into iOS devices, some people want a more feature rich experience.
Luckily there are plenty of developers out there who are trying to create the perfect iOS inbox, but it's hard to sort through the dozens of email apps available. We dove into the App Store in our latest YouTube video and rounded up a handful of the best email apps we found.
Best Email Apps for iPhone
Spike
Spike, a free app, is a conversation-based email app that used to be called Hop. The app's aim is to turn emailing into more of a message like conversation, organizing the inbox into a chat-style window.
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Spike removes email headers, signatures, and more to make the emailing experience chat-like, and it prioritizes emails sent by people while filing newsletters and other automatic emails to other folders. Other features include a unified inbox, email grouping options, quick responses, a unified calendar, and snooze. Spike is unusual and not our first choice, but it's definitely unique and could be what some people are looking for.
Polymail
Polymail, also free, is more of a traditional email app. It has a sleek, clean interface with a useful comment and mention feature that's available on the desktop for teams.
On iOS, Polymail offers useful features like quick tags, read later, and read receipts to let you know what someone has received and read your email. You can also get reminders to follow up on an email that someone has read but not responded to. Other unique features include a calendar invite option in the compose window, one-click unsubscribe, email scheduling, click and attachment tracking, and more.
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Polymail is one of the more useful apps if you want to better track who is viewing your emails, but if you don't need that functionality, there may be better apps for you.
Airmail
Airmail, priced at $4.99, started as a Mac app and then expanded to iOS. Airmail is a straightforward email app with a focus on minimalism. There's a single unified "All Inboxes" view for quick email management, but if you swipe from the left, there's access to folders for to-do lists, snoozed emails, and attachments, which is handy for finding specific content.
Airmail keeps it simple with options to reply, delete, and archive when viewing an email, though there are an expanded set of features in the compose window, including tracking, send later options, reminders, and templates. Airmail is compatible with a wide range of other services and apps so you can better integrate the apps you already use with your email app.
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Airmail's interface isn't going to appeal to everyone, especially on iOS, but it offers a good cross-platform experience.
Spark
Spark, a free app from Readdle, is one of our top email app picks. Spark offers up a Smart Inbox that presents your most important emails first, saving the junk, newsletters, and less important tasks for later.
Emails are automatically categorized into sections that include Personal, Notifications, and Newsletters, but you can use a single firehose inbox option if you want. Spark has a robust search engine, which makes it easy to find any email, something that we liked about the app.
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Spark has tools for discussing and collaborating on emails with your team, and it's one of the few email apps with these kinds of tools. It also offers options for scheduling emails and snoozing emails, plus there are smart notifications so you only get pinged when there's something important to see.
Other Spark features include followup reminders, integrations with other services, and customizable swipe gestures.
Edison Mail
Edison Mail, another free app, is super popular on the App Store for a reason. It has a clean, modern look, customizable swipe settings, and all of the tools that you need for managing your email.
Edison Mail's design is reminiscent of the design of the Mail app, so it fits well on the iPhone, but it offers a richer feature set than the Mail app. There's an included personal assistant that organizes your inbox, sorting out subscriptions, travel emails, bills, receipts, and package emails.
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It lets you track packages and sends an alert when something is out for delivery, and it can do other things like send notifications for upcoming flights. Traditional tools are included too, like snooze options, send undo, and one-tap unsubscribe. It also integrates with Face ID, providing another layer of protection for your inbox.
Conclusion
Of all the email apps listed above, which are some excellent options for email management, we liked Spark and Edison the best, with Edison ranking as our top favorite. If you're looking for a new email app to try out, it's worth taking a look at everything on the list.
Did we miss your favorite email app? Let us know which one you prefer in the comments.
Top Rated Comments
I did this with Airmail shortly, and they screwed up and forced 4 password resets with iCloud in 48 hours. Once I knew they were a proxy, it was immediately back to the iOS app. It's not just a better UI; it's a server you have to trust. I don't anymore after being burned.
Just be sure you are comfortable with all of your emails going through the servers of the app you use.
(Edit: remember, if something is free, you're the product...)
From their privacy policy: "Any data we do collect is used for only three purposes: 1) to provide you with the best service possible, 2) to perform research on new features for our users, and 3) to create aggregate ecommerce trends.
Edison talks a good security game earlier in their statement and then in less than straight-forward language, they let you know what they are really about. Sound familiar? Think Google and Facebook.
Edited to add: If MR is going to suggest apps like these, the least they should do is alert the readers to the difference in security policies and use when using iOS or Mac, so that people will be better informed. No mention of the difference between PUSH or FETCH and how the email clients handle each.