Mail 4+

I downloaded this app on both my iPad and iPhone with OS 16.1 and I have had no problems whatsoever. It started working fine right away. In fact, I am thinking about potentially using this app over Outlook… it loads faster, I can have the most recent message on top in each thread, and the benefit of being able to tap and hold an email address outside of the app to send a quick email will make things a LOT easier. (Just like being able to tap and hold an address to get directions in Maps) Plus there’s no Ads! 😃

IF ANYTHING, CONSIDER THIS….. I went to Apple settings and under Outlook set the default as Mail, then went up to Mail and under Composing I set Outlook as the default. This way I can keep using Outlook as my primary app for the meantime and yet still be able to click and hold an email address anywhere and be able to send a quick email. (I set Mail to use Outlook to compose emails remember?)

Ok, Apple. We get it. You’re a large corporation at war with other large corporations over internet dominance. You’re willing to use your customers as means to your ends. So it’s no great surprise when we try to read emails on this app that we get messages like “Account Error” or “This message was not downloaded from the server.” In my case, it happens all the time with my AOL and Gmail accounts. What is a nifty little surprise is that those same messages show up with my iCloud email account. That’s the funny thing about the battles in life. Once you start them, you never know where it will end. So tell us, Apple, are you at war with yourselves??? Or is it ever increasing incompetence and arrogance??? The dissatisfaction with this app and other native iOS apps speaks to a bigger problem for you, Apple. Things on our devices don’t work as well as they once did. Your customers are trying to tell you something and you don’t seem to be listening any longer. Bigger companies than you have gone out of business, companies that everyone thought would be around forever. Think Sears. Think it can’t happen to you? The nonsense with this app has been going on for over a year now. Email is a basic iOS function. For once, listen to your customers and get this thing fixed.

Some of Apple’s native apps leave much to be desired, so I was dubious when I decided to give Apple Mail a shot. But I have to say, it’s an improvement over Gmail - at least for me. The main reason I ditched Gmail is the lack of a “select all” button to delete multiple emails simultaneously - something I consider a must. Having this option in Apple Mail is extremely convenient. I simply select all emails at once and uncheck the ones I want to keep. I also like the clean UI and all the mailbox customization options. Everything is very easy to use. However, one complaint is that flagged emails should be automatically removed from the inbox and show ONLY in the “flagged” folder. There is no logical need for them to remain in the inbox, too. This makes it inconvenient when I want to delete multiple inbox emails at once, because I have to separate the flagged emails first. Also, something I miss from Gmail is the colored icon headings that individualize emails and make them pop. For these two reasons, I rate the app four stars, instead of five. Otherwise, very good work.