AltaMail 17+

AltaMail is one powerful email system

I have been using AltaMail on my iPhone for over 8 years and on my iMac for over 2 years. This is a very powerful email client that any power user would love and is definitely an option for the average user as well. It is not the best client for the casual user because of the relatively steep learning curve and the many processing / setup options that could be overwhelming.

The AltaMail application includes an email client, contacts, calendar and web browser in a single app. All components are synchronized with the Mac’s email, contacts and calendar applications making them highly functional. It also integrates with the Mac and IOS file systems and iCloud servers and iPhoto.

I have 4 email addresses that are live on AltaMail (Gmail, Yahoo, AT&T, Comcast) with my main email being gmail.

Here are the key items that I really love about AltaMail:
1. Ability to customize the set up so the app works exactly like I want it to work. This includes a sidebar with just the functions I frequently use. Once setup, a simple click takes me to where I want to go. This also includes powerful search functions so I can find things like “all emails that have been read, or have attachments, or have a high priority, have a flag, have been answered, have been forwarded, emails that came from a known sender, an unknown sender, is one of my contacts, etc.”.
2. In a single day I can get over 200 emails (many being retail offers or spam). With 2 clicks and a simple swipe action, I can mark as read all emails….poof gone! Try that with Apple Mail.
3. Business rules are easy to set up so I can file any email into a folder for future reference as well as immediately handle spam. The actions that can be taken are very powerful. In addition to filing an email in a folder you can also do such things as ‘ move to trash, set flag, mark as read, copy to email account, move to email account, play a sound, reply with a template, unsubscribe, print, and more’.
4. When on an email a simple swipe right or left brings up actions that would work on that email such as ‘read, unread, reply, reply to all, forward, reply with template, add a new rule, move to file, move to folder, print, delete, set flag, spam, open with app, share, set gmail labels, show email thread and more’.
5. The ability to mark as read both the inbox and ‘filed in folder ‘email at the same time.
6. The integrated help system is excellent. It is extremely easy to reference just about any feature and get step by step instructions.
7. Functionality is the same between Mac, iPhone and iPad.
8. Answer the question “what happened to my email”. The history function gives you immediate insight into what happened to your email (where was it filed, what business rule was used, did it go to spam, etc.).
9. Quick access to Calendar, Contacts and Web from within the AltaMail app.
10. Ability to change how emails appear, ‘text size, color, boarders, send vs. inbox, etc.’, very handy to differentiate emails from multiple email addresses.
11. Right click on an email to take an action like, ‘attach to a new email, save as document, remove duplicate emails, open all threads, change email appearance, reply with template and more’
12. The customer service is 5 star. When you have a question or problem, you send an integrated help request right from within the application. It is all done by email which is a bit cumbersome, however you always get an answer within a day or sooner. They are extremely responsive.

What I don’t like:
1. There is a learning curve due to the many features of AltaMail. This is a two edge sword in that you can probably tailor AltaMil to make this app do exactly what you want, but you need to invest the time to truly understand the settings. Don’t get frustrated, it’s worth it in the long run.
2. The Mac app is a port from the iOS app, so it is not a native Mac app. This doesn’t hurt the deep functionality, however, it does impact the WYSIWYG functionality you expect on the Mac (ie. in how some of the windows work, scalability of text, drag and drop, etc.). This is something that is minor in the long run if you are looking for a robust email system. The WYSIWYG problem is really due to the app being a port from the iPhone (where the features really don’t exist). Hopefully, this will become a native Mac app in the future.
3. Some emails don’t render properly. This is random and will occur from a few vendors that probably are using some outdated code for their emails. I would occasionally need to open Apple Mail to read an email, which is OK, but not ideal.

Things I don’t use (because I am retired) but would think are powerful for the business user:
1. It has the ability to segregate business emails from personal emails with one click
2. Template responses would be very useful. They are completely customizable and can be easily accessed with one click from the side bar or a simple swipe action on an email..
3. Scheduling of email sends (send emails at 8 AM vs. immediately)
4. Setting of email reminders with a simple swipe to follow up today at a specific time, tomorrow, next week, In a week, by the weekend or choose a date.

I gladly pay the $10 per year recurring subscription fee because of the power of AltaMail (one for the iPhone and one for the Mac). I give the iPhone app 5 stars and the Mac app 4 stars. The main reason for the 1 star difference is that the Mac app is not a fully native Mac app. Once the app is a native app, it becomes a 5 star on the Mac.

Good and Bad

I've tried numerous email client over the years and this is the Best for Junk email... that's theb good. Setting up Folders etc is confusing-- Apple Mail allows you to setup folders and subfolders and move emails rom multiple emails into them.... Altamail is confused at best... terrible at allowing this. Customer service is great BUT their fix is for me to write rules in some complicated way. After a week of use I'm back on Apple Mail. I really wanted to like this but.....

Developer Response ,

Hi, AltaMail has several ways for moving multiple emails to folders and sub folders, including swipe actions and also automated rules. Please contact our friendly help desk team for a rapid response with support https://esz.us/c

Like it so far

I am new to AltaMail and got it because i was having a lot of spam mail that I wanted to stop. So far I am getting less and I really appreciate that! I have not learned about the other aspects of AltaMail yet, such as organizing the inbox and look forward to gettin that done.