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.

@bsag @devilgate I did a lot of hand-wringing about not having an IMAP server to connect to. After using HEY for months, I've concluded that I no longer want one. No more fretting over which client to use. And I get all the nice add-ons, so I'm happy and completely content being in this weird new place. It's been a pleasant surprise.

@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.

@jack @bsag @devilgate - Everything I’ve read about Hey is that it’s much more useful for people who get a large amount of email, which right now I’m not. In your opinion is it worth pursuing in my case?

@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.

@jack I'm getting back into a frenzy to sign up, mostly because of the talk over here. I do need to use my own domain on the email, for practical purposes. I'm aware that domains are not yet available on the personal account, but SMTP sending already is. Did you use this ? Is it practical ? Forwarding the other accounts there and replying via this workaround ?

@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.

@jack Thanks. All my domains have their email hosted with Fastmail, so hopefully that would work. A ton of aliases, though, but I mostly use a couple of them.
Not an easy decision, but I still want to do it. Silly too, since I've recently purchased Mailmate and Canary (for iOS). Almost enough money there to pay for a year already... Duh!

@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.

@bsag Yes and no, I would definitely need to train myself out of managing everything that’s for sure. Email used to be my favourite medium and then fell out of favour with me, in no small part thanks to Gmail actually. Maybe I’ll give the trial a go!

@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.

@joshbrez Thanks for sharing that, I’m going to jump on a trial and test it out. I’m trying to simplify and consolidate some of my digital life, which I know is what Hey is all about. It’s also why I’ve been bringing as much as possible into RSS, and do plan on tackling email.

@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 @jack Thanks. Signed up for the trial and, somehow, the thing I expected to work (the forwarding), isn’t. I created a filter to forward all messages getting in to the Hey address, but it fails to do so. Already emailed Fastmail support about it.

@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 🙃

@bsag Thanks for the help. The SMTP part is working just fine, I can send emails from HEY using my domain. The part that’s not working, and that’s what baffles me, is the simple forwarding from Fastmail to HEY. I expected that to be the easy part, but it’s failing 😔

@maique Fastmail’s forwarding is very odd. It only forward’s a copy of the email and that results in some formatting changes. Gmail handles gbjs much more nicely. But I decided to give HEY a try and paid for a personal account and I’ll probably keep my HEY for Work account (much of personal email is done through my personal URL, so that was my missing link with HEy earlier) after the trial is over. @bsag @jack

@gpittman The thing is it’s not forwarding at all for me. I can send email from HEY using the SMTP server at Fastmail, no issues there. But if I try to Send a Copy from Fastmail to HEY, individual email, or using a rule, nothing happens. At all. It says it’s sending, but nothing arrives...

@maique Now that I think about it, I could have used the SMTP method as well, rather than signing up for a HEY for Work account. But I think I like this setup better anyway. I'll be able to drop SaneBox and likely Fastmail (though I do love both services).

On a side note, I'm quite intrigued by the new HEY World feature. I can't decide if the seeming impermanence (drop your HEY account, lose your writing) is a pro or a con.

@amit Interesting thoughts, Amit, thanks for sharing that. No doubt I’ll be considering and comparing my current workflow during the trial. I do wish the cost was lower, perhaps in line with Fastmail’s standard plan which is literally half the cost.

@gpittman I can’t leave Fastmail for now, but I’m willing to give HEY a try. For Work is too rich for my money at the moment, I’ll have to stick with For You.

As far as World goes, I was wondering today if the new thing I’m trying at blot could be done with it, it would save the 4$/month, making me feel HEY is cheaper than actually is 🤣🤣

@maique HEY for Work is not terribly more expensive that HEY. $12/month for Work vs. $99/year for personal. Dropping Fastmail’s $5/month fee and SaneBox’s annual fee probably brings me even, if not a little better.

I'm definitely not trying to be argumentative or trying to talk you into something you don't want to do or aren't ready to do. I've been down the “HEY is nothing special” path before but for some reason, it's clicking now.

@gpittman Hahahaha. Don’t worry, I’m pretty good at talking me into spending money! 😇

For Work doesn’t have the World feature, I’d love to try that. And, another thing, can you add as many domains as you wish to For Work ? At the moment I have a couple with Fastmail, and all these aliases.

@maique You have to have a separate account for each domain.

The DNS setup is more involved (though not difficult) than other email services. But Support was very quick (5 minutes?) to respond when I had trouble. They immediately knew what the problem I was describing meant. I had completely forgotten I turned Cloudflare on for my domain and needed to make the DNS changes there. They were also helpful in preventing another mistake. “When you get to such-and-such step, you're going to want to do this thing, not that thing.”

@gpittman Separate accounts for each domain would be a hassle 😔 I have my own domains, and also using a couple of their own alternative domains 😔

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! 😁

@bensmithuk @bsag @gpittman Thank you all. The issue was solved not ten minutes ago, with a great support from HEY. They emailed hours after we had both given up, while still waiting for Fastmail support (it takes forever!), with a new possible solution.

Thankfully it worked. The issue was basically setting up the forwarding address with my personal domain, and Fastmail uses the generic username on their server to send the copies.

@maique That’s fantastic! I’m going to take some time this weekend to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the few newsletters I have coming to my specific Fastmail address and sort of go all-in with HEY. I think it’s going to take that for me to determine whether this is a fad for me.

@gpittman Yes, he was great. Sadly there's no way to rate their support. And that's what I'm thinking about as well, I'm going to subscribe for a year, and try to use it exclusively. Now that my personal email is working with it, I'm willing to give it a shot. We'll compare notes later 😃

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

@sumudu The combination for me, the one that's working, is smtp.fastmail.com on the server, the original username (not the custom one), and app specific password.

@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

@sumudu Do you get to the end of the process ? It should say everything is ok. Or do you get an error message ?

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

@sumudu Yeah, it did for me as well, a couple of times. Then it managed. Also, and not sure if it even applies to you, but my original email ends in .fm, not .com. I ALWAYS have to use .fm even though I have both.

@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

@sumudu Yes, the emails you configured are available when you're starting an email. If everything is ok with the configuration, you should be able to pick the one you want to use by clicking on your email on the To: field.

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

@sumudu Don't mention it, my pleasure. Have fun.