Mailbox: thoughts and questions
The UI is fantastic. I’ve always liked Sparrow on iPhone for its use of gestures, and Mailbox takes that to another level completely. Well done.
I think the concept of “Snoozes” is another great feature. I often get email that I can’t or don’t have to act on right away, and treating that like a task by having it reappear/remind me later is great. Haven’t gotten to use it yet, but I’m eager.
What are Lists supposed to be for? I imagine them almost like Labels, but less permanent? I’m using one for Orders and one for Important things, but am I supposed to do it this way? I feel like I’m defying the rules of Mailbox by “labelling”.
I also don’t see why Labels couldn’t be included, if only as an organizational tool. I think they could still work well alongside the “task” based paradigm of inbox management.
In this Verge article, Gentry explains that people should stop starring and labelling and rely on search. However, I tried to use Mailbox to find my Pebble order confirmation from January and it couldn’t. I had to use desktop Gmail to move my Pebble confirmation to my Mailbox “Orders” list so it would show up. Replacing labels with search would be great if it worked.
I just recently joined the “Inbox Zero” club - before that I was an inbox hoarder. I didn’t realize that Gmail archived messages automatically, I thought I had to keep them in my inbox if I ever wanted to see them again. I guess one of my biggest questions about Mailbox is how I save stuff I want for later, but that I don’t necessarily want to Snooze? Is that what Lists are for?
I also don’t quite get the implementation of Stars. In Gmail, Stars are almost like favourites, but they don’t seem to mean anything in Mailbox, aside from making a message in your inbox stand out.
Current Mailbox wishlist: inline contact photos in the inbox and the message view, IMAP support, labels.
