iOS Mail alternate options: 5 business-friendly choices

Apple contains its Mail app on each iPhone. Whereas it’s a completely usable e mail consumer that connects to a wide range of mail companies together with Microsoft Change and Microsoft 365, it isn’t as feature-rich because it could possibly be, notably for enterprise and enterprise environments.

Fortunately, there’s a variety of other e mail apps for iOS. On this article, I’ll focus on 5 wonderful decisions, every with its personal distinctive characteristic set.

One observe earlier than we get began: I’m solely together with mail apps that connect with a number of companies. Companies like Gmail and Yahoo Mail provide first-party apps that join with solely that service. They’re typically stable choices for those who solely must entry a single service.

Outlook

Outlook is Microsoft’s mail and calendar app for iOS. It connects natively to Change and Microsoft 365 and allows deep integration with Outlook for Home windows or macOS, making it a superb and apparent selection in lots of enterprises. However Outlook isn’t a one-trick pony. It helps different mail companies as effectively, which means it may be helpful if you would like a single mail consumer for work and residential, or for conditions the place that you must entry a number of work-related accounts.

Ryan Faas / IDG

Outlook’s iOS interface is surprisingly clear and straightforward to navigate — in some methods it’s higher than its desktop sibling. Microsoft additionally provides a superb Outlook watchOS app that continues that clear interface.

Just like the Outlook desktop consumer, the iOS app reduces inbox muddle with an non-compulsory Targeted Inbox characteristic, which places messages Outlook deems extra necessary within the inbox’s predominant Targeted tab. Much less necessary emails are positioned out of the way in which in Different tab. Different helpful message dealing with options embody non-compulsory message threading and the power to rapidly flag, pin, or snooze messages through swiping or a number of faucets.

Whereas the mail part of Outlook is sort of good, the calendar part could possibly be higher, and also you may wish to depend on a devoted calendar app like Fantastical, or Readdle’s Calendars, or Apple’s built-in Calendar.

Spark

Spark is a superb mail app from Readdle that connects to all the key e mail companies. It has a novel interface for serving to you kind by your mail by grouping new messages into three classes: folks, notifications, and newsletters. This lets you give attention to notification messages and people from particular person folks instantly, then look by emails despatched to teams later. This sorting of messages doesn’t place them in separate folders (although Spark does assist folders) — it merely separates the way you view gadgets in your inbox, and you may swap to a extra normal inbox view at any time.

Ryan Faas / IDG

Spark provides the power to snooze messages to take a look at them later, and it permits most actions like delete, archive, or pin to be achieved with particular swipes. It additionally provides workflow administration choices, with the power to mark emails as “achieved” or “put aside for later assessment, and its pin characteristic permits you to mark emails that want a response or a follow-up. You may also recall a despatched e mail — primarily, you have got a number of seconds to click on “undo” after clicking “ship.”

Spark’s watchOS app contains a very completely different interface from its iOS and macOS apps, however one that’s rather more purposeful for the smaller show — it nonetheless helps inbox sorting and many of the different options, and it really works effectively with Apple Handoff.

Spark additionally provides a set of premium options for each people and organizations. For people, this contains choices to set priorities for sure messages or senders, block and set “gatekeeper” guidelines, group emails by sender, and mute dialogue threads that don’t require speedy consideration. For organizations, there are alternatives to share draft emails and customary e mail templates, shared cupboard space, and the power to assign messages or threads to particular workforce members. With an annual subscription, premium options begin at $5 a month for people and $7 per person monthly for organizations.

Edison Mail

Edison Mail helps all main e mail companies. It provides a consumer-oriented characteristic set that’s additionally helpful for enterprise customers, with the power to handle journey plans, bundle monitoring, payments and receipts, and refund standing, and extra when it detects pertinent data in your emails. It additionally provides the power to view and cancel e mail subscriptions with a single faucet.

Ryan Faas / IDG

There’s an non-compulsory premium characteristic set known as Edison Mail+ ($15 monthly or $100 per 12 months) that makes updating contact data simpler, verifies e mail senders, blocks spam calls and texts, and shows caller ID data detected out of your emails on incoming calls.

Edison Mail’s interface additionally helps setting swipe choices on your inbox, snoozing messages, and interesting in a spotlight mode to keep away from distractions (one thing a bit outdated by Apple’s Focus mode that debuted in iOS 15), and it features a respectable watchOS app.

Canary Mail

Canary Mail, designed largely round safe messaging utilizing PGP encryption, helps commonest e mail companies. Like Spark, it organizes messages in your inbox into a number of classes together with Private, Social (emails from social media websites or notifications), Updates, Boards (discussion board or listserv emails), and Promotions (emails providing particular offers or companies). Canary additionally helps darkish mode, customized swipe actions, and the power to snooze messages.

Ryan Faas / IDG

Like Edison Mail, Canary E mail provides a premium characteristic set known as Canary Professional for a one-time price of $20. The Professional model features a huge array of options together with contact profiles with further particulars for the sender of any e mail, a built-in calendar characteristic, quick access to messages from favourite contacts, pinned emails, compose solutions when creating a brand new message, customized e mail thread actions, customized notifications, an attachments browser, end-to-end encryption, push notifications, learn receipts, customized e mail templates, and customised snooze instances.

The developer can be piloting an enterprise choice that features simple encryption key administration, enterprise-wide PGP administration, person onboarding, assist for regulatory compliance, and different enterprise options. Companies can request to be a part of the pilot by deciding on an choice inside the app.

Spike E mail

Spike is an attention-grabbing tackle e mail. It organizes all of your e mail threads as chat conversations, just like the messaging options of Slack or Microsoft Groups. This makes a superb instrument for workforce collaboration the place devoted apps like Slack and Groups aren’t accessible. E mail conversations might be sorted by folks or by topic. The app additionally provides shared or group duties and to-dos, in addition to entry to calendars configured in your iPhone.

Ryan Faas / IDG

Spike enables you to streamline your inbox by separating messages, though its sorting choices are extra restricted than another apps on this record, providing solely Precedence (folks you’ve emailed beforehand), Different (emails from “strangers”), and Unread views.

Like different apps, Spike can snooze messages, helps swipe actions for message administration (although in a extra restricted capability than another apps), provides fast message templates, and might be locked after a time period. (Though the setting exhibits solely Contact ID as an unlock choice, activating it’s going to activate unlock with Face ID on units that assist Face ID.)

Spike’s free plan helps only one e mail deal with and limits search outcomes to the final 60 days. To incorporate extra addresses and get limitless search historical past, you’ll must improve to a paid plan. Professional and Enterprise plans begin at $5 per person monthly (billed yearly) and embody extra storage, group video calls, precedence assist, and different business-oriented options.