Mailbox Review – Sort Your Emails with a Swipe

good
key review info
  • Application: Mailbox 0.3.14 Beta
  • Reviewed on:
application features
  • Sort your emails with simple swipe movements
  • (2 more, see all...)

Dealing with a large influx of emails on a daily basis is both time consuming and stressful. Mailbox is a desktop email client maintained by Dropbox that aims to streamline the process by allowing you to effortlessly organize, archive, and delete your messages with simple swipe motions.

The Mailbox capabilities are organized around two main functions: you get to manage your messages in a more intuitive manner, while all modifications are synced instantly between your devices with the help of your Dropbox account.

To achieve the latter, you must log in within the app using your Dropbox credentials and then add the Gmail or iCloud accounts you want to manage (up to 10 different accounts are supported).

Effortlessly connect to multiple Gmail and iCloud accounts

For email services that support IMAP (Gmail), Mailbox is using the OAuth authorization framework, which replaces the account credentials with a token that will be used by the app to access your data. As a result, you must manually add and authorize the Gmail account for each device you use Mailbox on.

In the case of iCloud accounts though, the credentials are stored in the Dropbox account in an encrypted form: this means that your iCloud email account will be automatically added to all Mailbox installations. Consequently, enabling at least the Dropbox two-step verification login feature is highly recommended.

As a workaround, you can disable the "Automatically Login" function within the Mailbox Preferences window, which is enabled by default for all your email accounts. However, that means that you must remember to sign out from your Dropbox account (within Mailbox) and that the next time you want to use the app, you will have to add each account again.

Use the Dropbox services to sync credentials, preferences, and account modifications

While handling your email messages, Mailbox encrypts the data using the SSL cryptographic protocol, but we believe that it is important to understand that this system places a third element between your desktop computer and your email service provider.

Directing the content through the Dropbox servers is necessary if you want to use the Mailbox Auto-Swipe functionality and to sync the modifications between devices: in the end, it is all about understanding how things work and making an informed decision regarding your communications.

In addition, if you want to stop using Mailbox, you must start by removing the email accounts from the app’s preferences (you will have the option to remove the associated data from everywhere or only from the current device) and then uninstall the app.

Moreover, when dealing with Gmail, you must deauthorize the app via your Google's account Security panel. To do this, you have to go to https://www.google.com/settings/security?hl=en, open the Gmail Account Permissions list for Apps and Websites, find the Mailbox entry, and revoke the access.

Streamlined email management app that significantly boosts your workflow

The novelty when it comes to Mailbox is the fact that you have the option to organize email messages into various lists or send them to specific folders with a simple swipe: a short movement to the right will archive the message, while a long swipe in the same direction will delete the entry.

In the same fashion, a short swipe to the left allows you to postpone dealing with the message (you can schedule an alert for later today, this evening, tomorrow, this weekend, and so on), while a long movement to the left offers you the possibility to add the item to a specific list.

Even though the Auto-Swipe function is included in the Mailbox Preferences for the desktop version, you have the option to set up swipe rules (which will be used to automatically handle emails) only via the iOS or Android Mailbox clients. You can see and manage the Auto-Swipe patterns in the Mailbox OS X application Preferences window.

In terms of usability, the fact that Mailbox does not integrate any kind of tooltips or help messages can be fairly annoying: if you are not familiar with the app’s capabilities, you might have a hard time understanding the function of certain buttons or how you are supposed to handle emails.

Furthermore, the fact that you cannot manually refresh your email accounts and you do not have the option to adjust the refresh rate or to see any type of information about it can be quite disconcerting, but during our test we noticed that messages were being received almost instantly. In fact, from setting up new accounts to moving emails around, the changes were reflected by all connected devices in no time.

Keep in mind, though, that Mailbox is still a beta release, which means that the app is under active development, so new features will probably be added in the near future. For example, on the iOS client, you can log in to email accounts without using a Dropbox account. Browse the online Mailbox Help area in order to learn more about how the app works and what functions are supported by the Mailbox client for each platform it is available on.

In terms of resource usage, Mailbox puts an almost insignificant strain upon your system: on a 2GHz Intel Core Duo iMac with 6GB RAM, the app used up to 3% CPU power and around 100MB RAM. As a comparison, the Apple Mail app used more CPU power (could spike up to 25%) and more RAM memory (about 200 MB).


The Good

Mailbox enables you to deal with your email messages in a new, more time-efficient manner: you can move them to specific lists or you can decide to postpone dealing with certain tasks, without cluttering your inbox. Since you can organize the messages into various lists, you will also be able to find things faster.

Thanks to the Dropbox integration, all these modifications will be synced to all your devices, so you can sort them on the go on your mobile device and actually write replies from the comfort of your desktop, when you get to the office.

The Bad

At the moment, the Mailbox app cannot be used without Dropbox integration: this means that you cannot use the app as a simple mail client, and your iCloud credentials will be stored on the Dropbox servers, in an encrypted form.

Of course, to be able to sync your modifications between devices and to employ the Mailbox auto-swipe capabilities, using a Dropbox account is necessary, but granting access to an email account via a third-party service is not precisely a good idea.

Furthermore, certain functions do not work properly, while others are not yet active, but this can be all attributed to the beta stage of the app: if you do not enjoy working with this kind of releases, you might want to wait for the stable version.

The Truth

Mailbox has the potential of improving your productivity level if you need to deal with a large volume of emails on a daily basis: you can sort through new messages with swift movements, while making sure the important tasks get your full attention.

However, for Mailbox to become a viable solution, additional security layers are in order: full control over the app's preferences and their storage location (currently no Mailbox support files are placed in your Dropbox account) and the possibility to encrypt all this information with a personal key before entering the cloud.

user interface 3
features 2
ease of use 3
pricing / value 3


final rating 3
Editor's review
good
 
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Photo Gallery (18 Images)

In the Mailbox main window you must log in using your Dropbox credentials
You can easily connect to multiple Gmail or iCloud accountsIn the Mailbox main window you can easily read emails and write repliesMailbox allows you to postpone dealing with certain emailsYou also have the option to send messages to user created lists
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