Users eager to download new mail app
2013-02-18 21:09
Toronto - More than 800 000 people are waiting to access
a new iPhone app that aims to transform their e-mail experience by helping them
achieve the elusive "inbox zero" - a fully processed and empty inbox.
The Mailbox app, which launched this month, is slowly
rolling out invitations to people waiting in line.
The excitement, according to its creators, is a testament
to their frustration with existing, out-dated methods of dealing with e-mail.
"The big shift is away from a mobile e-mail client
that is a shrunken version of a desktop e-mail client towards a mobile e-mail
client focused primarily around processing and triage," said Gentry
Underwood, the CEO and co-founder of Palo-Alto-based company Orchestra, which
created the app.
The ability to "snooze" an e-mail, which is to
defer it to another time, whether later in the day, on the weekend, or until
the following week, is one of the main features of the app.
"We want to decide 'do I need to reply now', 'can I
deal with this later', or 'should I get it out of the way and never deal with
it again?'" he said.
The other strong point is its use of gestural swipes for
quickly archiving, deleting and filing messages, or adding them to lists, such
as "to read", or "to buy".
The company, which also created to-do list app Orchestra,
pulls inspiration from author David Allen's "Getting Things Done"
system. The system outlines a rule of "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop
it" to help people maintain empty inboxes.
"That creates a very different experience and peace
of mind where you know that everything is in its place," said Underwood.
However, one problem with this system, according to
Underwood, is that it requires discipline to constantly review folders where
tasks are stored for future reference. To overcome this, the Mailbox app
provides push notifications for e-mails that have been snoozed on the day when
they are relevant.
"All of a sudden you can have the blissful
experience without developing the ninja-like discipline and that's the secret
sauce behind this more euphoric experience," he said.
The company is rolling out invitations for the app daily,
but cannot provide specific timelines.
The wait, according to Underwood, is in place to maintain
stability of their system, which he said presents more of a challenge than
standard apps.
"Scaling something like an e-mail service is really
hard because it involves handling a lot of data and strange edge-cases – e-mail,
file attachments, content in all sorts of languages," he added.
In the meantime, a countdown in the app keeps people in
line up-to-date on where they stand.
The app provides many new features over the native iPhone
mail app, however, it lacks the ability to multi-edit or delete e-mails.
While the app currently only works with Gmail, the
company plans to expand to other types of e-mail and platforms in the future.
It is available worldwide.
