15 ms·

SlideMail – an email app that can think

146 points by vu0tran 12y ago

maelito 12y ago
"All the processing happens within the SlideMail app itself. Whether you're syncing through Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, or any other IMAP based email service, your emails will never be stored outside of your app. If you delete the application from your phone, your data is gone for good." This is interesting.
- alienasa 12y ago
  And a differentiator. Otherwise all of the functionality described is already provided by GMail (and possibly others that I don't use frequently).
  - vu0tran 12y ago
    Yeah, totally. I think with these features, one group that it has resonated with that was unexpected were college students and people that are less tech saavy like my mom and my dad. They still use Yahoo mail so Inbox / Gmail just doesn't work for them. SlideMail sort of brings what the Gmail app has to offer, in my opinion, enhances it and provides it for IMAP in general as well as other services.
  - gcz92 12y ago
    but is that enough to make people switch?
vu0tran 12y ago
Hey guys, Vu, the founder here. I'm a developer and my email habits are absolutely horrible. Whenever I put in long hours of coding, I feel like the time it takes to context switch between development and doing email is way too high. Because of this, I'm notorious for missing emails, flights even or just not responding to emails as it gets lost in my inbox forever. I essentially started making this email app for myself and it's finally working quite well. There have been times where I've completely forgotten about a meeting and it's reminded me to show up on time. The sorting uses a lot of NLP magic and I find it to be pretty accurate too for me to take back control of my inbox. I just want to see how far I can run with it and already working on trying to suggest replies to emails. There are a lot of email apps on the market and I think their concept is "how do we incorporate better design and work flow to solve the email problem"? My notion is rather, "how do we use technology to solve the email problem?" Other than that, I'm also really excited with the privacy route I decided to take. The downside is that deploying across multiple platforms will be more challenging without a central server side component, but if the plus is that if one chooses the option of going "private" (essentially this turns off server side push notifications) there won't be any communication with my server at all. It's been a real struggle these past few months so I'm super excited!!
- Mithaldu 12y ago
  I can't tell for what OS this is, and unless you're planning to make it for both android and ios, please put the fact that it's only for one, and which it is, top and large on your site. There is little that makes me think worse of a company than having it breathlessly describe a product i actually want, without telling me whether i can actually use it.
  - jmhobbs 12y ago
    Screen previews are wrapped in an iPhone, so I'm guessing iOS.
    - 51Cards 12y ago
      True but not uncommon to just use one device for the marketing. Also went looking for the platform icons myself as I would have tried this out on Android.
  - halflings 12y ago
    I really do hope there's an android version planned. It'd be great to have some competition in the field of "intelligent email clients". Inbox is doing a great job, but it's for Gmail only.
  - dethstar 12y ago
    Same. I added myself in the "get early access" and then thought, wait is this even for my OS?
  - mynameisvlad 12y ago
    Literally every single product image uses an iPhone, and the real product photo is also clearly an iPhone. Just because it doesn't have a big image or text with OS compatibility does not mean you can't intelligently determine based on the product photos what OS it's for. If it were for Android, they'd have at least one Android photo, or specifically mention Android compatibility. If it's a completely iOS-centric page, you can guess /quite easily/ it's iOS only.
tthayer 12y ago
Does it support IMAP IDLE? I've had to do some ridiculous workaround by forwarding my work and gmail accounts to icloud accounts just so I can get push working and none of the other email clients I have tried support it.
- vu0tran 12y ago
  It'll detect if IMAP IDLE is supported on the provider and use it wherever it can, so IIRC: Gmail / iCloud: Yes FastMail: Yes Yahoo: No AoL / Exchange / Hotmail / Live: Can't remember
_mikz 12y ago
My CPU BURNS! With latest Chrome on OSX.
mfkp 12y ago
The name is very similar to an app that I worked on - ClearSlide Mail: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clearslide-mail-sales-inbox/id909142984?ls=1&mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clearslide-mail-sales-inbox/... We also did the "only check mail on the phone" implementation for security, but it ends up hurting the user experience because Apple gets to decide when to use background data. It gets better (more frequent) the more you use the app, but it's hard to get users over the initial delays in mail checking. Just something to think about as you're building this.
mike-cardwell 12y ago
How does it fare against https://emailprivacytester.com/ https://emailprivacytester.com/ ? I'm yet to see a new Email client which doesn't fail at least one of the tests.
ocdtrekkie 12y ago
"All the processing happens within the SlideMail app itself." Kudos to this. Bunch of scammers like Google try convincing you they HAVE to have your data for these things to be possible.
- andrewguenther 12y ago
  I wouldn't say Google is trying to convince anyone they "have" to have your data in this case. If you use GMail, they already have it, so why not?
- Killswitch 12y ago
  Ummm, for you to use Gmail, they HAVE to have your data... Where do you think that email is stored?
  - ocdtrekkie 12y ago
    There's a big difference between just storing and routing it, and processing every line and generating personal profiles off of it. o_o
    - Killswitch 12y ago
      Well you have two options, pay for email, or use gmail for free in exchange for allowing this. I'm all for privacy, but sometimes you guys go way overboard and complain and act entitled like Google is obligated to offer Gmail free of charge with nothing in return.
      - ocdtrekkie 12y ago
        I'd be happy to pay for good private email service. But of course, Google doesn't offer it. Because offering that sort of option would be a much more obvious admission of how much they rifle through your data as an income source. My issue is not that they offer a business relationship where they use your data for money, my issue is how shady they are about it.
locksley 12y ago
Why is this Show HN? Can a mod please remove it, so we can respect the other Show HNs. "... blog posts, email signups, and fundraisers can't be tried out, so they don't count as Show HNs" (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
- vishalzone2002 12y ago
  I agree.. We'll soon start seeing bunch of launch rock pages in ShowHN
  - veb 12y ago
    The difference is... they offer nothing except "we made something, sign up?!" whereas this is actually a lot different. If you read the thread, the founder is in here commenting and you can tell that there's already a working product. Polished and shiny it may not be, but this is not just empty space like most LaunchRock type pages.
    - vishalzone2002 12y ago
      First difference doesn't even count. With no offense to the founder, its easy to take part in the discussion. How can you tell that there is actually a working prototype/MVP? These wireframes can be made in proto or PSDs.
    - prawn 12y ago
      How is it a lot different? If I click the misleading "Get app" button, it shunts me down to the email capture which says that even the early subscribers won't get anything for three months. I don't think the fact that the founder is commenting is relevant. I could chat with people about a theoretical or in-progress product quite easily. I've flagged this submission. However much work has gone into it, GP is correct in saying that it's an email sign-up. Better for OP to wait until there is a product for people to use.
- veb 12y ago
  What? > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. Which is what it is. It's not just an email sign-up. I think this is a perfect example of a good Show HN.
logicalmike 12y ago
Just a small issue I noticed on the landing page, you're including the "bootstrap.js" file twice.
hayksaakian 12y ago
Three Practical tips to get your slidemail app more sign ups: - You should have a call to action at the bottom of the page. It would be as simple as copy/pasting the code for the one-line email capture from above - encourage sharing. i didn't provide my email address to test this, but you should encourage people (at some point: before signing up, right after signing up, or in a follow up email) to share this thing. - I got the impression that it's iOS only. You probably got a lot of visits from android devices (check your own logs if you don't believe me). You could address that with a separate capture form using User Agent detection? Something like: "Get notified when we launch the Android version" small nit pick about the page: - <meta> tags are like <img> tags they should NOT have a corresponding close tag, "</meta>" good luck with the app Vu (i'm still using your old "hack" parakeet so i know you make some interesting stuff) ~ @hayksaakian on twitter
oellegaard 12y ago
Wish all this iOS app development would result in similar apps for OS X.
- spost 12y ago
  Ditto, I would love a well-designed alternative to Mail or Airmail.
- m_mueller 12y ago
  Second this. I'd happily pay up to 50$ for an OSX client that's reliable and does exactly what's shown on the landing page.
general_failure 12y ago
Is the app available for me to try now? Looks like this is something very far out in the future? Why is this Show HN? Edit: or is the intent here that I will get immediate access if I put in my email? And the 'invites' is for the ready product?
wingerlang 12y ago
I don't like that the first thing I see is an "sign up now" and the entering of my email. Show me what you've got before trying to get (Only the impression) my email.

146 points by vu0tran 12y ago

"All the processing happens within the SlideMail app itself. Whether you're syncing through Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, or any other IMAP based email service, your emails will never be stored outside of your app. If you delete the application from your phone, your data is gone for good." This is interesting.

alienasa 12y ago
And a differentiator. Otherwise all of the functionality described is already provided by GMail (and possibly others that I don't use frequently).
- vu0tran 12y ago
  Yeah, totally. I think with these features, one group that it has resonated with that was unexpected were college students and people that are less tech saavy like my mom and my dad. They still use Yahoo mail so Inbox / Gmail just doesn't work for them. SlideMail sort of brings what the Gmail app has to offer, in my opinion, enhances it and provides it for IMAP in general as well as other services.
- gcz92 12y ago
  but is that enough to make people switch?

vu0tran 12y ago

Hey guys, Vu, the founder here. I'm a developer and my email habits are absolutely horrible. Whenever I put in long hours of coding, I feel like the time it takes to context switch between development and doing email is way too high. Because of this, I'm notorious for missing emails, flights even or just not responding to emails as it gets lost in my inbox forever. I essentially started making this email app for myself and it's finally working quite well. There have been times where I've completely forgotten about a meeting and it's reminded me to show up on time. The sorting uses a lot of NLP magic and I find it to be pretty accurate too for me to take back control of my inbox. I just want to see how far I can run with it and already working on trying to suggest replies to emails. There are a lot of email apps on the market and I think their concept is "how do we incorporate better design and work flow to solve the email problem"? My notion is rather, "how do we use technology to solve the email problem?" Other than that, I'm also really excited with the privacy route I decided to take. The downside is that deploying across multiple platforms will be more challenging without a central server side component, but if the plus is that if one chooses the option of going "private" (essentially this turns off server side push notifications) there won't be any communication with my server at all. It's been a real struggle these past few months so I'm super excited!!

Mithaldu 12y ago
I can't tell for what OS this is, and unless you're planning to make it for both android and ios, please put the fact that it's only for one, and which it is, top and large on your site. There is little that makes me think worse of a company than having it breathlessly describe a product i actually want, without telling me whether i can actually use it.
- jmhobbs 12y ago
  Screen previews are wrapped in an iPhone, so I'm guessing iOS.
  - 51Cards 12y ago
    True but not uncommon to just use one device for the marketing. Also went looking for the platform icons myself as I would have tried this out on Android.
- halflings 12y ago
  I really do hope there's an android version planned. It'd be great to have some competition in the field of "intelligent email clients". Inbox is doing a great job, but it's for Gmail only.
- dethstar 12y ago
  Same. I added myself in the "get early access" and then thought, wait is this even for my OS?
- mynameisvlad 12y ago
  Literally every single product image uses an iPhone, and the real product photo is also clearly an iPhone. Just because it doesn't have a big image or text with OS compatibility does not mean you can't intelligently determine based on the product photos what OS it's for. If it were for Android, they'd have at least one Android photo, or specifically mention Android compatibility. If it's a completely iOS-centric page, you can guess /quite easily/ it's iOS only.

tthayer 12y ago

Does it support IMAP IDLE? I've had to do some ridiculous workaround by forwarding my work and gmail accounts to icloud accounts just so I can get push working and none of the other email clients I have tried support it.

vu0tran 12y ago
It'll detect if IMAP IDLE is supported on the provider and use it wherever it can, so IIRC: Gmail / iCloud: Yes FastMail: Yes Yahoo: No AoL / Exchange / Hotmail / Live: Can't remember

_mikz 12y ago

My CPU BURNS! With latest Chrome on OSX.

mfkp 12y ago

The name is very similar to an app that I worked on - ClearSlide Mail: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clearslide-mail-sales-inbox/id909142984?ls=1&mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clearslide-mail-sales-inbox/... We also did the "only check mail on the phone" implementation for security, but it ends up hurting the user experience because Apple gets to decide when to use background data. It gets better (more frequent) the more you use the app, but it's hard to get users over the initial delays in mail checking. Just something to think about as you're building this.

mike-cardwell 12y ago

How does it fare against https://emailprivacytester.com/ https://emailprivacytester.com/ ? I'm yet to see a new Email client which doesn't fail at least one of the tests.

ocdtrekkie 12y ago

"All the processing happens within the SlideMail app itself." Kudos to this. Bunch of scammers like Google try convincing you they HAVE to have your data for these things to be possible.

andrewguenther 12y ago
I wouldn't say Google is trying to convince anyone they "have" to have your data in this case. If you use GMail, they already have it, so why not?
Killswitch 12y ago
Ummm, for you to use Gmail, they HAVE to have your data... Where do you think that email is stored?
- ocdtrekkie 12y ago
  There's a big difference between just storing and routing it, and processing every line and generating personal profiles off of it. o_o
  - Killswitch 12y ago
    Well you have two options, pay for email, or use gmail for free in exchange for allowing this. I'm all for privacy, but sometimes you guys go way overboard and complain and act entitled like Google is obligated to offer Gmail free of charge with nothing in return.
    - ocdtrekkie 12y ago
      I'd be happy to pay for good private email service. But of course, Google doesn't offer it. Because offering that sort of option would be a much more obvious admission of how much they rifle through your data as an income source. My issue is not that they offer a business relationship where they use your data for money, my issue is how shady they are about it.

locksley 12y ago

Why is this Show HN? Can a mod please remove it, so we can respect the other Show HNs. "... blog posts, email signups, and fundraisers can't be tried out, so they don't count as Show HNs" (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

vishalzone2002 12y ago
I agree.. We'll soon start seeing bunch of launch rock pages in ShowHN
- veb 12y ago
  The difference is... they offer nothing except "we made something, sign up?!" whereas this is actually a lot different. If you read the thread, the founder is in here commenting and you can tell that there's already a working product. Polished and shiny it may not be, but this is not just empty space like most LaunchRock type pages.
  - vishalzone2002 12y ago
    First difference doesn't even count. With no offense to the founder, its easy to take part in the discussion. How can you tell that there is actually a working prototype/MVP? These wireframes can be made in proto or PSDs.
  - prawn 12y ago
    How is it a lot different? If I click the misleading "Get app" button, it shunts me down to the email capture which says that even the early subscribers won't get anything for three months. I don't think the fact that the founder is commenting is relevant. I could chat with people about a theoretical or in-progress product quite easily. I've flagged this submission. However much work has gone into it, GP is correct in saying that it's an email sign-up. Better for OP to wait until there is a product for people to use.
veb 12y ago
What? > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. Which is what it is. It's not just an email sign-up. I think this is a perfect example of a good Show HN.

logicalmike 12y ago

Just a small issue I noticed on the landing page, you're including the "bootstrap.js" file twice.

hayksaakian 12y ago

Three Practical tips to get your slidemail app more sign ups: - You should have a call to action at the bottom of the page. It would be as simple as copy/pasting the code for the one-line email capture from above - encourage sharing. i didn't provide my email address to test this, but you should encourage people (at some point: before signing up, right after signing up, or in a follow up email) to share this thing. - I got the impression that it's iOS only. You probably got a lot of visits from android devices (check your own logs if you don't believe me). You could address that with a separate capture form using User Agent detection? Something like: "Get notified when we launch the Android version" small nit pick about the page: - <meta> tags are like <img> tags they should NOT have a corresponding close tag, "</meta>" good luck with the app Vu (i'm still using your old "hack" parakeet so i know you make some interesting stuff) ~ @hayksaakian on twitter

oellegaard 12y ago

Wish all this iOS app development would result in similar apps for OS X.

spost 12y ago
Ditto, I would love a well-designed alternative to Mail or Airmail.
m_mueller 12y ago
Second this. I'd happily pay up to 50$ for an OSX client that's reliable and does exactly what's shown on the landing page.

general_failure 12y ago

Is the app available for me to try now? Looks like this is something very far out in the future? Why is this Show HN? Edit: or is the intent here that I will get immediate access if I put in my email? And the 'invites' is for the ready product?

wingerlang 12y ago

I don't like that the first thing I see is an "sign up now" and the entering of my email. Show me what you've got before trying to get (Only the impression) my email.