It’s been a while since I’ve switched to the iPhone full time and it’s mostly been a great experience but I still think that the standard e-mail client is kind of a mess, particularly for Google-backed accounts. The folks at Sparrow are trying to fix this with a new iOS mail app and while it’s still missing a few key features, I think it’s well on its way to being better than the native mail app.
I’m a big fan of the Sparrow Mac mail app and I’m glad to see a lot of familiar icons in the iOS app. What really makes me like the iOS Sparrow app is that the team has done a great job of utilizing the iPhone’s capabilities to help you manage your inbox. For example, there are multiple, natural swiping motions for bringing up contextual menues and for switching between inboxes. As you would expect, this has support for multiple e-mail accounts with a universal inbox.
Check out the video below for a brief demonstration on what you can expect. I’ve played with it for a few minutes and I really like it. The visuals and sounds just seem spot on and I could almost see myself using this exclusively.
The reason I say “almost” is because there are a few critical missing features at the moment like the lack of push notification. While this may not be a big deal for some of you, I need this from my e-mail provider. The app also doesn’t support POP access and if there’s a landscape mode, I haven’t found it.
Still, it’s a very good-looking and efficient mail app that’s well worth the $2.99 price tag. You can download the Sparrow iOS app here (iTunes link).
Sparrow iPhone from domleca on Vimeo.