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Google, I have the solution. Step 1: Checkout the Sparrow source code Step 2: Find and Replace All on the word "Sparrow" and change it to "Gmail" Step 3: Add

Google, I have the solution. Step 1: Checkout the Sparrow source code Step 2: Find and Replace All on the word "Sparrow" and change it to "Gmail" Step 3: Add push notifications. Compile and send to the app store.

Firehed 14y ago
I dunno about that - I really wanted to like Sparrow for iOS (aside from a couple bugs dealing with insane volumes of email, I love it on the desktop) but it never felt quite right to me. I've actually just now reinstalled it to check what bothered me so much, and it's the same issue I have with the new Gmail app: swipe-to-archive simply isn't there. Frequency of me archiving messages: extremely high. Frequency of changing between different folders: nearly zero. Yet the left-to-right swipe which gives you the "delete" button in Mail brings that weird Facebook-esque hierarchical navbar that's become so prevalent in the last couple years. Swiping the other direction exposes five options, two of which (I assume "archive" and "delete") have rather ambiguous icons. Mental energy - do not like (see also: new Gmail web UI). When viewing an individual message, it's two taps to do all of the stuff that takes one in Mail. The designers traded always-visible icons for extra message real estate; clearly a matter of personal preference, but the wrong one for me. Just goes to show how oddly personal the email experience can be, especially when you consider everyone's various workflows.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- atpaino 14y ago
  Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'swiping the other direction', but when I swipe from right to left on a message it displays an 'Archive' button over the message.
- bruceboughton 14y ago
  >> swipe-to-archive simply isn't there >> Swiping the other direction exposes five options, two of which (I assume "archive" and "delete") have rather ambiguous icons Hyperbole, much?
  - Firehed 14y ago
    No. Swipe-to-archive means working the same way as it works in every single other iOS app that implements that functionality: left-to-right. edit - To clarify: widely-adopted shortcuts are only effective when they work the same everywhere. Imagine if some applications mapped "paste" to ^P instead of ^V. It might as well not be there.
- Bullshituserid 14y ago
  Swiping is bullshit UI anyway. If there's no visual indication of what you can do, it's essentially nonexistent. This mania for turning every UI into a game of Myst is stupid.
mdonahoe 14y ago
Why didn't Sparrow have Push again? Seems like a no brainer, but I vaguely remember them being caught in a pickle that prevented it.
- pooriaazimi 14y ago
  IIRC because they didn't want to store your username/passwords on the cloud on their servers. The password you gave them was only used on the device, and to have push notification they had to have a server pinging Google every few second and if there was a new mail, send a notification to the device. Needless to say, it's a costly business when you have a few million users. They wanted Apple to allow then to run a daemon process that checks for new mail on the device, which Apple was reluctant to do (in general, I really like Apple's implementation of background services, but in this case I think they should've relented).

Firehed 14y ago

I dunno about that - I really wanted to like Sparrow for iOS (aside from a couple bugs dealing with insane volumes of email, I love it on the desktop) but it never felt quite right to me. I've actually just now reinstalled it to check what bothered me so much, and it's the same issue I have with the new Gmail app: swipe-to-archive simply isn't there. Frequency of me archiving messages: extremely high. Frequency of changing between different folders: nearly zero. Yet the left-to-right swipe which gives you the "delete" button in Mail brings that weird Facebook-esque hierarchical navbar that's become so prevalent in the last couple years. Swiping the other direction exposes five options, two of which (I assume "archive" and "delete") have rather ambiguous icons. Mental energy - do not like (see also: new Gmail web UI). When viewing an individual message, it's two taps to do all of the stuff that takes one in Mail. The designers traded always-visible icons for extra message real estate; clearly a matter of personal preference, but the wrong one for me. Just goes to show how oddly personal the email experience can be, especially when you consider everyone's various workflows.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
atpaino 14y ago
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'swiping the other direction', but when I swipe from right to left on a message it displays an 'Archive' button over the message.
bruceboughton 14y ago
>> swipe-to-archive simply isn't there >> Swiping the other direction exposes five options, two of which (I assume "archive" and "delete") have rather ambiguous icons Hyperbole, much?
- Firehed 14y ago
  No. Swipe-to-archive means working the same way as it works in every single other iOS app that implements that functionality: left-to-right. edit - To clarify: widely-adopted shortcuts are only effective when they work the same everywhere. Imagine if some applications mapped "paste" to ^P instead of ^V. It might as well not be there.
Bullshituserid 14y ago
Swiping is bullshit UI anyway. If there's no visual indication of what you can do, it's essentially nonexistent. This mania for turning every UI into a game of Myst is stupid.

mdonahoe 14y ago

Why didn't Sparrow have Push again? Seems like a no brainer, but I vaguely remember them being caught in a pickle that prevented it.

pooriaazimi 14y ago
IIRC because they didn't want to store your username/passwords on the cloud on their servers. The password you gave them was only used on the device, and to have push notification they had to have a server pinging Google every few second and if there was a new mail, send a notification to the device. Needless to say, it's a costly business when you have a few million users. They wanted Apple to allow then to run a daemon process that checks for new mail on the device, which Apple was reluctant to do (in general, I really like Apple's implementation of background services, but in this case I think they should've relented).