Gmail comes pre-installed on most new Android devices, but is there a better free alternative? Edward Munn finds out
TypeApp
TypeApp (previously Type Mail) won the Gold Award in our round-up of free Android email apps last year thanks to its unbeatable combination of features, performance and usability. Since then, its developers have added the one feature we thought it lacked, which made it a shoo-in for our top prize again.
The new tool, Clusters, removes unnecessary clutter from your inbox by grouping together emails from automated services and organising them into neat subfolders. For example, all our promotional emails from Groupon were collected in one ‘cluster’ that appeared in our inbox according to the time the last message was sent. Unlike Gmail’s Promotional and Social filters, this means you can find newsletters quickly without having to check a second (or third) inbox, but they take up a minimum of space so that you can concentrate on more important correspondence. What’s more, the tool lets you perform group actions such as muting future notifications, and deleting or marking as read all emails from a particular sender, which makes managing your inbox easier than ever.
Adding multiple accounts (including Gmail, Outlook, Office 365, Yahoo and Exchange) is very straightforward and you can easily jump between them using TypeApp’s top or side menu (or you can view all your emails in one unified inbox). The app displays sent and received messages in a useful ‘Conversation’ view and also boasts a ‘task list’ feature, which lets you set reminders for emails that require further attention. TypeApp also offers an unrivalled number of customisation options and we love its Do Not Disturb tool, which lets you set both quiet hours and quiet days for specific accounts.
There’s very little we don’t like about TypeApp, but we think its interface could be refined a little further. Also, its search function isn’t as sophisticated as Gmail’s.
VERDICT
It’s not often that we get excited about an email app but TypeApp managed to enthuse us with the introduction of its excellent new Clusters feature. If you’re looking for an excellent free Android email app, look no further.
Gmail
Since our last round-up of free Android email apps, Gmail has i troduced Gmailify, a useful new option that lets you link another email account to your Gmail inbox and take full advantage of the app’s best tools. Gmail automatically splits your emails into three default categories – Primary, Social and Promotions – so the account you link to it also benefits from its intelligent inbox organisation (along with the app’s excellent spam filter). This means that you’ll no longer be disturbed by notifications from promotional emails because only your Primary inbox notifies you of new email by default.
Unsurprisingly, Google also offers some of the best email search tools available (letting you use operators including ‘to:’, ‘from:’ and ‘subject:’ to narrow your search), as well as the option to add attachments directly from Google Drive. Although you can only Gmailify one account, Gmail still lets you add multiple IMAP and POP3 accounts, which can be viewed independently or using the ‘All inboxes’ option.
Unfortunately, Gmail still doesn’t support Exchange accounts on all devices and its automatic inbox organisation can be a hassle if you don’t remember to check the Promotions and Social categories.
VERDICT
Gmail won our Bronze award last year, but its new account-linking feature now gives it the edge over Mailwise. If you use Gmail as your primary email account, Google’s app should be your top choice.
Mailwise
Mailwise is an excellent free email app with an easy-to-use interface that offers support for IMAP and Exchange accounts. Like our Gold Award-winner, the app aims to keep your inbox clutter-free by grouping promotional emails and newsletters into subfolders for each sender. This not only leaves more room for your important emails but also makes it easier to perform group actions such as deleting or archiving all messages from one source.
Mailwise also compiles sent and received messages into our favourite of all the award winners’ ‘conversation’ views, stripping unnecessary formatting and making it quick and easy to see an overview of your correspondence.
The app lets you use swipe-based gestures to perform actions: a swipe left archives a message (or a group of them), while a swipe right gives you the option to star, move or delete it. Like both our other award winners, if you add multiple accounts, you can view them separately or in one combined view.
Unlike TypeApp and Gmail, Mailwise doesn’t support POP3 accounts and there’s no push option for IMAP accounts. You still have to carry out separate searches for downloaded emails and those stored on the server, too.
VERDICT
Mailwise won our Silver Award last year, but the free version of the app has had no significant improvements, so we would recommend TypeApp or Gmail first.
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook for Android offers tools for email, contacts and calendar, as well as a file/attachment manager, all in one app. We like the idea of its ‘Focused’ inbox, which helps you find all your important emails in one place, but found its algorithm less sophisticated than Google’s because several of our emails unexpectedly ended up in the Other inbox. Although Outlook’s abundance of features is impressive, we couldn’t see ourselves using it as our primary calendar or contacts app.
CloudMagic
We love the simplicity of CloudMagic, which works with Exchange and all IMAP email accounts, and has recently added calendar support so you can read your emails and manage your schedule in one place. Although there have been plenty of small refinements made to the app since our last round-up, it still lacks the tools to stop promotional emails cluttering your inbox.
WeMail
WeMail aims to tidy up your inbox by organising all your emails according to their sender. Like TypeApp, promotional emails are grouped together and if you open an email from a friend, the app displays your previous correspondence in an easy-to-read conversation view. However, the app’s interface doesn’t display as many emails to a page and its Contacts feature produced multiple instances for entries with more than one email address.