CloudMagic — a popular iOS email app — is now available for the Mac.
Saying they wanted the design to be as “simple, beautiful and fast” as it is on the iPhone, CloudMagic created a clean interface which will please minimalists.
When I asked why the app was more like the iPhone version and not the iPad version — which has a more familiar side-bar with your emails and a preview window on the right — CloudMagic founder Rohit Nadhani said the iPad version is a bit of an anomaly:
To be honest the iPad app was done with no big thinking behind it. We had less time and we had to support iPad as quickly as possible. So we just went with the no brainer, two-pane approach and we thought it would work. But we were wrong. Our iPad experience was never the simple, beautiful, distraction free experience as it was on the iPhone.
Still, the Mac app offers features that will make busy email aficionados happy. One of my favorites is bulk delete (sorry, PR folks!), which CloudMagic lets you do by quickly and easily selecting a ton of emails from your preview window. The distraction-free environment is also nice for composing new messages.
Nadhani says the minimalism was purposeful, too. “When you focus on the right thing you become more productive. You are relaxed and thus managing emails becomes more pleasant rather than a burden.”
While CloudMagic is very much the company’s MVP app for the desktop at this point, Nadhani tells me they’ve got big things in the works. More gesture controls and 3D Touch are coming, as is the ability to reply in-line rather than open a new compose window.
I’ve been using CloudMagic’s Mac app for a few weeks now. Alhough I have been a dedicated Airmail user to this point, I must say CloudMagic’s fresh take on email is inspired. I have noticed I get through my email faster, and actually respond more (you’re welcome, PR folks!). It also has many of the same keyboard shortcuts as other popular email apps (‘R’ to respond, for instance), so the learning curve is slight.
At $19.99, the app isn’t cheap, but it keeps pace with the Airmails of the world. If you’re interested in an aesthetically clean app that still lets you work through the tedium of communicating with others via email, give CloudMagic a shot.
➤ CloudMagic [Mac App Store]
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