14 DAY TRIAL // Spiffy is a simple email notification tool that can check for new messages in five different Gmail accounts. It sits in your system tray and verifies the mailboxes as frequent as you want. The pop ups can be accompanied by a sound of your choice so that you notice the alert even if you miss the visuals.
The application is free of charge and stores all of its settings locally, so it can be used on multiple computers without any modification to its configuration. No installation is required as launching the executable is all you need to get the program started.
Main application window is actually a log panel that logs every move Spiffy does. Functionality precedes good looks in this case as the program brings no nifty interface. You can hide the log and then you’re left with a blank screen that offers only the menu bar, or you can clear all the information it makes available (and a new action log will be built).
Adding the Gmail accounts you want the application to verify is an easy job that requires only the login credentials. If you have Google Apps email Spiffy comes prepared and offers support for this, too. Additional options available include setting up a particular Gmail label to be verified as well as defining how often you want it to be checked for unread messages. These settings are available for all five accounts you want Spiffy to check.
Further set up is available in the “Configuration” panel. The available settings let you enable the program to start with Windows or make it go to system tray on close or when minimize button is pushed.
Customizing the way you are alerted any unread messages in Inbox is a simple job. The settings at your disposal include choosing display duration for the pop up; you can also make it show the alert until the message is no longer marked as unread. Audio alert is not available by default in Spiffy, but you can enable it and choose the track to sound the alarm as long as it is in WAV or MP3 format.
This is not all the personalization Spiffy lays out in front of you as it offers control over the opacity of the main window, its title bar (you can customize it with a text of your own) or adjust the font type, size and color.
Although alert windows can also be subject to customization, the default configuration has been optimized for best view of the message. However, for those who want to make some changes, Spiffy features adjustable values for width, height and position of the title, time, sender or subject of the message. These are just values delimiting the area of each of these and do not impact on the actual text, for which Spiffy allows changing the color and format (bold and italic).
Whenever Spiffy raises the flag for a new message you can view it by clicking on the alert. If you are not logged into the account already, the application will automatically open up the Gmail login page in your default web browser.
A big drawback, the sign in process has to be completed manually as the application cannot fill in the credentials for you. However, this can be accomplished by the web browser if you have the password and username stored in (this is when Google multiple account log-in comes in handy).
Spiffy offers plenty of customization options for details most of the users don’t care too much because the default configuration works fine, and falls short of functions that would really count. Having to log in manually into the Gmail account instead of displaying the message in a separate window as soon as the user clicks the alert is the greatest drawback in the application.
On the upside, the program can work straight from an USB drive and requires no installation. It can check a specific label in the account instead of the Inbox and it can be used both for regular Gmail accounts as well as Google Apps ones.
If you want to remove an account from being checked you only need to disable the verification, or simply delete the username. Spiffy will show in the log that the specific account cannot be checked in lack of a username.
Support for Google Apps email accounts is a plus, just like the timers that can be disabled whenever you want. It can be configured to verify a different folder than Inbox. The large number of customizations available for the alert window alone may not be appreciated by many users who would rather have more functional options. However, its functionality stops at verifying the mail boxes and customizing the alert windows. More options, like a password manager or mail retrieving capabilities would fit right in.
The Good
The Bad
The Truth
