7 ms·

If you're sick of the mail program that comes with your OS, try Inky (http://inky.com http://inky.com). It's still in beta, but we just put out a refreshed vers

If you're sick of the mail program that comes with your OS, try Inky (http://inky.com http://inky.com). It's still in beta, but we just put out a refreshed version that fixes a lot of issues users reported throughout 2013. Lots of polishing work still remains, but we're happily dog-fooding it and have a loyal following around the world. (And yes, Linux guys, we're still planning to release a version for Ubuntu -- finally.) Inky is a clean-sheet mail client implementation written with Python and Chrome Embedded Framework. It's taken us several years to get it to this beta stage; give it a try and let us know your thoughts at <hi@inky.com>. It's currently free; we'll likely offer upsell freemium versions at some point, once we're satisfied with it. Mail is hard.

MAGZine 13y ago
I've been looking for a replacement for Sparrow after it's gone unsupported. Will definitely check this out and pass along any relevant feedback.
porker 13y ago
You might want to rethink this text on your website: "Most mail clients only support the popular email providers." That's false FUD.
- dmbaggett 13y ago
  :( That's primarily a reaction to the dozens of mail startups that layer on top of GMail instead of supporting IMAP, POP, and SMTP etc. But obviously there's something on that page to offend anyone who tries hard enough to be offended.
  - porker 13y ago
    When I think of "most mail clients" I think of Outlook, Thunderbird and so on - I wouldn't term something that didn't support at least one of POP or IMAP an email client. Proprietary email client maybe, like AOL's built-in one...
    - dmbaggett 13y ago
      So your differing point of view means it's OK to malign us publicly? By "FUD" you surely meant to imply that we were trying to do something malicious, when, literally, all we're trying to do is make people's inboxes ever-so-slightly happier places. To be clear: - this is a really hard problem - we're iterating in public to get user feedback - we're not charging anything and don't have any immediate plans to - we specifically ask for feedback via <hi@inky.com> I'm not sure which aspect of this gave you the impression that our objective is to foist -- as you put it -- "false FUD" on poor unsuspecting consumers. Sorry to bitch, but snarky comments are the main reason HN -- once my absolute favorite place on the web -- is turning into a useless cesspool. See you on Quora, where the discourse is still reasonably civil.
      - zwily 13y ago
        Inky looks pretty cool, but I had the same reaction as porker when I read that part. I don't think he's trying to malign you, it's just a pretty blatantly false statement amongst a sea of neat-looking stuff.
      - anoncowherd 13y ago
        >> "Most mail clients only support the popular email providers." This is simply false, as most mail clients really do support IMAP/POP. The statement caught my eye too. No need to get all huffy about someone pointing this out.
      - lancewiggs 13y ago
        Those are potential customers you are yelling at. Really smart early adopters with influence. And a very large number of people are watching. Whether they are right or wrong, we are all watching for how you handle the situation. Between this and an avoided answer to whether you keep passwords in the cloud you've lost one potential customer.
        sgs1370 13y ago
        We know it makes some uncomfortable to have the credentials in the cloud, but we felt it was important to make it as easy as possible for people to be able to use any device (we're working on iOS and Android) to access all of their email accounts. Of course it's up to you to decide if you trust us, but we've went to great lengths to make sure your emails don't pass through our servers and to keep your credentials secure. We explain our security precautions on our FAQ, which we'll continue to enhance going forward.
  - bdcravens 13y ago
    Then say "startup mail clients" not "most mail clients". I know if I surveyed your typical business persons and had them list out "popular mail clients", you'd almost never hear the "mail startups" you're referring to. I think there may be a bit of echo chamber going on, as if your only customers would be the HN crowd.
    - dmbaggett 13y ago
      I get what you're saying, but regular people have no idea what the difference is between a mail client, GMail, and something like Mailbox. It's just "the thing I use read my email". That was the thinking behind the statement in the first place: we let you check mail in all your accounts, unlike most alternatives consumers use.
mistermann 13y ago
Do you consider yourself a good replacement for Windows Live Mail client (formerly known as outlook express)?
- dmbaggett 13y ago
  Yes, particularly now that outlook.com supports IMAP.
gcr 13y ago
Inky is an excellent client. I tried+reviewed the first version released on HN about a year(?) ago and it was quite solid and well-engineered. If I weren't already happy with my notmuch/emacs setup, I would switch close to immediately.
songgao 13y ago
Look neat. Is GPG support in plan? EDIT: also why a .pkg with password requirement instead of a simple .app ?
- dmbaggett 13y ago
  GPG: certainly encrypted mail is on the list .pkg: it's so we can clean up prior installs; maybe not a permanent thing
bdcravens 13y ago
Couple of things that bug me: 1) I have to log in to your service. Why? Makes me think you're storing my mail credentials on your server. If it's a cloud sync issue, use Dropbox/iCloud. 2) Doesn't use my Contacts in To: field. This makes it a non-starter for me. It does look pretty, I think the filtering is very smart, and I like the "smart cards".
- dmbaggett 13y ago
  1) We address the (fairly complex) questions around authentication in our FAQ: http://inky.com/pages/faq/ http://inky.com/pages/faq/ -- you have to scroll to the bottom for security details. 2) It will. Give it a little while to find your contacts. :)
  - bdcravens 13y ago
    How long is a "little while"?
    - dmbaggett 13y ago
      5 minutes or so, unless something is wrong.
farslan 13y ago
Do you have threaded conversation support (like the one in mutt)?
- dmbaggett 13y ago
  If you mean indenting according to thread parent/child relationships, no. We've found that the majority of users find that really confusing. It also has the negative effect that new mail arrives buried within the thread tree, not at the top where users can see it. Threaded view might resurface some day for advanced users, but right now it's not on the roadmap. We do support a (non-hierarchical) conversation, though (of course), as well as a sender-based view that's pretty handy in certain circumstances.
ifcho 13y ago
It may be nice, but it looks terrible on a Macbook Retina :-/
- sgs1370 13y ago
  Retina support is in development now, it requires moving from CEF1 to CEF3.
buster 13y ago
I would love to find a new mail client to replace evolution or thunderbird. Will Inky be released for Debian as well? Does Inky support this? - proper mail indexing and search on large mailboxes - S/MIME - per-account HTML signatures - CardDAV - CalDAV Edit: Also, i am wondering what inky's business model is? Will the client cost money in the future? Ads?
- sgs1370 13y ago
  We're working on linux support. - Inky caches your email on your computer and indexes it. We'll continue to improve the performance aspects of this. - S/Mime and calendar support are on our to-do list. - Inky lets you create per-account HTML signatures, and a default signature for the others.
w4 13y ago
I'm super interested -- do you guys offer notifications/setting reminders on messages for later (like Mailbox.app)? I really need that, because I'm disorganized and forgetful and it saves my ass constantly.
- dmbaggett 13y ago
  Not yet, but it's on the roadmap. Snoozing emails and related features are obviously requirements these days. At this point we're mainly focusing on getting the core solid and performing well. Probably another few months on that; more new features will come in 2014.
  - w4 13y ago
    Very cool. Thanks for the reply!

MAGZine 13y ago

I've been looking for a replacement for Sparrow after it's gone unsupported. Will definitely check this out and pass along any relevant feedback.

porker 13y ago

You might want to rethink this text on your website: "Most mail clients only support the popular email providers." That's false FUD.

dmbaggett 13y ago
:( That's primarily a reaction to the dozens of mail startups that layer on top of GMail instead of supporting IMAP, POP, and SMTP etc. But obviously there's something on that page to offend anyone who tries hard enough to be offended.
- porker 13y ago
  When I think of "most mail clients" I think of Outlook, Thunderbird and so on - I wouldn't term something that didn't support at least one of POP or IMAP an email client. Proprietary email client maybe, like AOL's built-in one...
  - dmbaggett 13y ago
    So your differing point of view means it's OK to malign us publicly? By "FUD" you surely meant to imply that we were trying to do something malicious, when, literally, all we're trying to do is make people's inboxes ever-so-slightly happier places. To be clear: - this is a really hard problem - we're iterating in public to get user feedback - we're not charging anything and don't have any immediate plans to - we specifically ask for feedback via <hi@inky.com> I'm not sure which aspect of this gave you the impression that our objective is to foist -- as you put it -- "false FUD" on poor unsuspecting consumers. Sorry to bitch, but snarky comments are the main reason HN -- once my absolute favorite place on the web -- is turning into a useless cesspool. See you on Quora, where the discourse is still reasonably civil.
    - zwily 13y ago
      Inky looks pretty cool, but I had the same reaction as porker when I read that part. I don't think he's trying to malign you, it's just a pretty blatantly false statement amongst a sea of neat-looking stuff.
    - anoncowherd 13y ago
      >> "Most mail clients only support the popular email providers." This is simply false, as most mail clients really do support IMAP/POP. The statement caught my eye too. No need to get all huffy about someone pointing this out.
    - lancewiggs 13y ago
      Those are potential customers you are yelling at. Really smart early adopters with influence. And a very large number of people are watching. Whether they are right or wrong, we are all watching for how you handle the situation. Between this and an avoided answer to whether you keep passwords in the cloud you've lost one potential customer.
      - sgs1370 13y ago
        We know it makes some uncomfortable to have the credentials in the cloud, but we felt it was important to make it as easy as possible for people to be able to use any device (we're working on iOS and Android) to access all of their email accounts. Of course it's up to you to decide if you trust us, but we've went to great lengths to make sure your emails don't pass through our servers and to keep your credentials secure. We explain our security precautions on our FAQ, which we'll continue to enhance going forward.
- bdcravens 13y ago
  Then say "startup mail clients" not "most mail clients". I know if I surveyed your typical business persons and had them list out "popular mail clients", you'd almost never hear the "mail startups" you're referring to. I think there may be a bit of echo chamber going on, as if your only customers would be the HN crowd.
  - dmbaggett 13y ago
    I get what you're saying, but regular people have no idea what the difference is between a mail client, GMail, and something like Mailbox. It's just "the thing I use read my email". That was the thinking behind the statement in the first place: we let you check mail in all your accounts, unlike most alternatives consumers use.

mistermann 13y ago

Do you consider yourself a good replacement for Windows Live Mail client (formerly known as outlook express)?

dmbaggett 13y ago
Yes, particularly now that outlook.com supports IMAP.

gcr 13y ago

Inky is an excellent client. I tried+reviewed the first version released on HN about a year(?) ago and it was quite solid and well-engineered. If I weren't already happy with my notmuch/emacs setup, I would switch close to immediately.

songgao 13y ago

Look neat. Is GPG support in plan? EDIT: also why a .pkg with password requirement instead of a simple .app ?

dmbaggett 13y ago
GPG: certainly encrypted mail is on the list .pkg: it's so we can clean up prior installs; maybe not a permanent thing

bdcravens 13y ago

Couple of things that bug me: 1) I have to log in to your service. Why? Makes me think you're storing my mail credentials on your server. If it's a cloud sync issue, use Dropbox/iCloud. 2) Doesn't use my Contacts in To: field. This makes it a non-starter for me. It does look pretty, I think the filtering is very smart, and I like the "smart cards".

dmbaggett 13y ago
1) We address the (fairly complex) questions around authentication in our FAQ: http://inky.com/pages/faq/ http://inky.com/pages/faq/ -- you have to scroll to the bottom for security details. 2) It will. Give it a little while to find your contacts. :)
- bdcravens 13y ago
  How long is a "little while"?
  - dmbaggett 13y ago
    5 minutes or so, unless something is wrong.

farslan 13y ago

Do you have threaded conversation support (like the one in mutt)?

dmbaggett 13y ago
If you mean indenting according to thread parent/child relationships, no. We've found that the majority of users find that really confusing. It also has the negative effect that new mail arrives buried within the thread tree, not at the top where users can see it. Threaded view might resurface some day for advanced users, but right now it's not on the roadmap. We do support a (non-hierarchical) conversation, though (of course), as well as a sender-based view that's pretty handy in certain circumstances.

ifcho 13y ago

It may be nice, but it looks terrible on a Macbook Retina :-/

sgs1370 13y ago
Retina support is in development now, it requires moving from CEF1 to CEF3.

buster 13y ago

I would love to find a new mail client to replace evolution or thunderbird. Will Inky be released for Debian as well? Does Inky support this? - proper mail indexing and search on large mailboxes - S/MIME - per-account HTML signatures - CardDAV - CalDAV Edit: Also, i am wondering what inky's business model is? Will the client cost money in the future? Ads?

sgs1370 13y ago
We're working on linux support. - Inky caches your email on your computer and indexes it. We'll continue to improve the performance aspects of this. - S/Mime and calendar support are on our to-do list. - Inky lets you create per-account HTML signatures, and a default signature for the others.

w4 13y ago

I'm super interested -- do you guys offer notifications/setting reminders on messages for later (like Mailbox.app)? I really need that, because I'm disorganized and forgetful and it saves my ass constantly.

dmbaggett 13y ago
Not yet, but it's on the roadmap. Snoozing emails and related features are obviously requirements these days. At this point we're mainly focusing on getting the core solid and performing well. Probably another few months on that; more new features will come in 2014.
- w4 13y ago
  Very cool. Thanks for the reply!