Part of my digital de-cluttering has been to rationalise multiple email accounts into 2 hey.com accounts. I tried the service when it launched, but it didn’t click with me at the time. Now I really like it. It is making me feel more in control.

@bsag I read their ethos and I like it but for some weird reason I just couldn’t bring myself to pay for an email service.

@ridwan I can understand that. I did have to stop and think about it, but I do already pay for Fastmail, and when you think how important email (still) is, paying for a great service that significantly (for me, anyway) eases and simplifies dealing with email, is well worth it. I was also able to stop my SaneBox subscription, because Hey covers what I was using that for. It depends a lot on the volume of mail you get though.

@bsag I tried Sanebox, but I discovered I can do everything they do using Fastmail’s filters. They’re not as easy to configure, but it’s OK.

Now Hey, I’ll look at them again when they’ve got standard IMAP.

The daft thing about them not having a standard interface is that you know it’s almost certain to be IMAP under the covers.

@devilgate I worried for a while about the non-standard nature of it and how opinionated it is. But I was in a mood to burn everything down and start afresh, so… we’ll see I guess! I do really like the choices they made, so that bodes well I think.

@jack @devilgate I’m starting to get that feeling already. I like the way that the things which seem a bit eccentric to start with end up making a lot of sense as you use them.

@peterimoore I was originally forwarding my work email there, but now it’s just personal and I don’t receive nearly as much. I still feel it’s worth it. I’ve stopped thinking about email. Or I stopped thinking about managing email at least. Even for low volumes this is valuable to me.

@peterimoore Difficult to say I think. If you’re happy with the set up you have now, stick with it. If not, you could do the 2 week trial of HEY and see if you like it?

@maique I use the SMPT forwarding and it works pretty seamlessly. It sets the sending domain based on the original so I never get it “wrong”. The forwarding doesn’t work with all email hosts though, most notably Gmail I think. I use Fastmail and that works great.

@bsag I’m trying to streamline all of my inboxes. I just want to have 1 email inbox and I think the Hey service could be a good option.

@peterimoore I’ll share an opinion here if you’ll have it, ‘cause I found myself in a similar boat (pretty good control over my email, not very high volume).

I was seeking two things: an overall method to reduce total screen time and reclaim much of my attention, and a product that’s better aligned to what I’m valuing right now than Gmail.

With the Feed feature, I’ve subscribed to the newsletter of just about every website that I had previously mindlessly visited throughout the day, and I’m using Mailbrew to make newsletters out of anything else that doesn’t have one.

I had a 34% screen time reduction last week, and bought a Kindle.

So, overall, definitely still a use for Hey, even when you’re not a heavy email recipient.

@peterimoore I’d come to a similar conclusion – email was just not worth enough to me. I don’t get enough emails to justify the cost. I had made some changes to my existing setup to make it less painful.

@maique @jack that’s what I do, and it works well. I initially tried it with one account but you can only have one name associated so I needed to separate my bsag account from my personal (real name) one. In the end it felt easier and cleaner that way anyway.

@bsag Do you pay twice for 2-off HEY accounts? I’m thinking of having one of personal and one for professional use.

@ridwan Yes. That’s the disadvantage. But being able to link them so you can see them together or separately works really well and helps you focus on what you need to at any one point.

@maique I think you need to hook it up both ends: forwarding from Fastmail and then setting up details of the address you are forwarding into HEY within HEY. Then you can set up SMTP too in HEY if you want that. I’ve written ‘HEY’ way too much 🙃

Hmmm! When both @bsag and @jack like a service this much, it usually means I need to pay attention. :)

@twelvety It usually costs me money… 👀

@twelvety It’s a tough call. HEY is nicely implemented but also opinionated. I hesitate recommending it for all kinds of reasons. But, if it clicks, it really clicks. It clicked for me.

@maique @gpittman That’s frustrating! I was previously forwarding mail in to Fastmail, not out from it, so I hadn’t come across this problem.

@twelvety Sorry! 😁

@maique Yay! I’m glad it is working for you now.

@maique I have a similar problem; but I am having difficulties in setting up SMTP to reply from HEY for my custom domains forwarded to HEY from FastMail. I had put SMTP as fastmail.com in HEY, username I tried both my custom domain email address as well as my fastmail (dot) com email address and for password, I had created a app specific password in Fastmail

@maique That’s exactly I did. All the settings as you explained. Still doesn’t seem to be working for replies. Forwarding seems to work though. I did also write to HEY support and they replied back asking me to do what you just said

@maique After entering the settings I was taken to Verification screen and that process kept going for quite sometime hanging up

@maique Finally It started working now. I did put fastmail (dot) com though. I guess theoretically we should also be able to compose any new emails using those custom domains configured in HEY right? Not just only being able to reply to emails received

@maique Will try it out later in the day. Many Thanks for your help. Much appreciated