Hey, the new email service from 37 Signals started rolling out today. Jason Fried gives a video tour and there are many fresh ideas going on here. Worth a look.

I really care about email and have been using my current server/client/address for 20+ years so, this is not for me.

@bix Well, the FAQs say it’s importable in a standard formatso I’d imagine That gives some hope of non-lock-in.

@patrickrhone Excited to try Hey, but yeah, lack of IMAP means it probably is not for me. Tho, even Fastmail, which I use currently and solidly uses standards for all it's services, implemented snoozing only in it's own apps.

@patrickrhone No IMAP, no custom domain, it's not for me. I'll stick with Fastmail + Sanebox for the time being.

@patrickrhone I'm watching the demo video and building equivalent rules in MailMate as I go. MailMate offers IMAP tags that can be used to faciliate Smart Searches. It's working well.

@canion So much of this can be replicated (or I have already) in Mail.app.

I have a post Brewing about this but... It’s really about love. When you love someone (something) you take the time to build a relationship. No relationship is perfect but you find a way to make it work for you.

This is true of everything.

My friend Garrick asked me, “What’s the common element acrosss all your bad relationships?”

The answer of course is “Me”.

If your relationship with email has never worked with any client you have, then the problem isn’t email or the client, it’s you.

Email services are built for people that don’t love email and never have and never really will.

@bix Well, for people that don’t love email or feel overwhelmed by it I can certainly see where Hey could make a difference in the way you are able to process it.

But I would still argue that the problem is, at the core, your feeling toward email and not the client or service you use. Find a way to repair that relationship and the client/service does not matter.

@bix @patrickrhone These are interesting points and I hope you don’t mind me joining in the discussion. I heard Jason Fried interviewed on Recode Decode yesterday and found it really illuminating. It looks like there’s a lot more to this service than another ‘snooze and filter’ app. Working to put more control with the user and help us be more intentional. I’m interested. Will watch the video. Thank you for sharing

@patrickrhone I'm always impressed with the way you are able to find a philosophical position. I've gone the other way and detailed a technical solution! 😀

@susan You are welcome.

For me, I’ve never not felt I had control. But, then again, I’ve always been an email fan, have used Mail.app since the first Mac OS X Beta, and already “built” many of the same workflows long ago. For example, Newsletters (Smart folder called “Reading”) and receipts, tickets, etc. (Smart folder called, “Reference”).

I did this because I not only love email but care enough about each one I receive to have an inbox that I’ve worked hard to make a sacred space for me already.

@patrickrhone This interesting conversation mostly made me realize that a lot of people experience email really differently. I like email, don't find it stressful, and would rather use it than any other messaging system to converse with people. As time has gone by I've eliminated all folders and labels. Now there's just stuff in my inbox which I look through and either delete (usually) or archive. Since search has gotten so good, I haven't felt the need to categorize my saved mail at all in order to find old messages. (I do occasionally "pin" a message in FastMail if I want it out of my inbox but think I may want to refer to it in the next week or two.) Am I alone in this?

@JMaxB I don’t think so. My smart folders are for temporary storage, sorting, and triage. Once done, messages either end up in one large archive (going back to 1999!) or the trash.

@patrickrhone Thank you Patrick and all.

I wonder if much of our different experiences on this thread relate to our work roles? I work primarily with large governmental organisations in child protective services where, in general, people are not very tech-literate. Email is used almost as an audit trail and has been ‘over-embraced’ so deleting and missing things is serious. I teach about some of the methods to use and manage email but, to be honest, it’s very hard to fight this monster that’s been created and is led from the top. The poor practices are very deeply embedded in many organisations. As a result, out of control & mixed-topic email threads, coupled with indiscriminate cc use, means that even for me as an ‘outsider’ consulting with them, my inbox is a mess. Sanebox is brilliant but it’s not built to manage so much user-error. Neither am I 🙃. The ability to re-organise and title threads and retitling feature in Hey really interests me for this.

I’m also keen on their work looking at stopping trackers and creepiness in a cleverer way than spam filters. I gather they are going to open source this bit so hopefully other email providers will take up and build on this over time. One less tracker circling me to force purchase of mahabi slippers would be most welcome  ☺️

@canion that is a very good technical solution. Both needed 👏

@susan Thank you! Also to your earlier point about government, in Australia we have strict rules about email retention for the purposes of freedom of information where citizens can request the release of information. This leads to government email systems being strict, archaic, siloed and heavily governed. Hey would never pass muster for government use here.

@canion yes, same here for sure. As an external consultant I can make more choices but it’s a good reminder that I would need to look further at that if I decide to try it. Thank you

@canion That was my thought when I watched it a couple of days ago. I wasn't active enough to actually build the MailMate rules then and there, though, so I'm impressed.

@canion Excellent post. One thing: I don't think you explained how to get MailMate to show the ‘People Pages.’

@devilgate Good point! I've added an addendum.