Dear Mail, Isn't It About Time You Grew Up?

Dear Mail, It’s nearly 100 degrees here today, which seems appropriate, since I’m pretty steamed. You're 5-years-old now and I’m starting to think it’s time for you to finally grow up and give me the mobile mail experience I deserve. Your developers at Apple are saying they’re about to deliver to me an “even better email experience.” Unfortunately, I’ve heard this before. In 2011 and in 2010 too. And don’t get me started on those modest updates from 2008 and 2009. Copy and paste? So kind of you to give me that feature, which should have arrived much earlier. Last year, you finally gave me the ability to use rich formatting when composing an email. And yes, I was pretty impressed with the ability to flag emails. Still, these functions and the others that came with iOS 5 were boring, Mail. Don't you agree? This year, with iOS 6, Apple promises me a VIP inbox and Per Account Signatures, as well as Pull-to-Refresh to update mail accounts. Zzzzzz. Instead of giving me ONE inbox where emails from my most important contacts can go, why not just let me setup email rules like I can do with Mail on my Mac? That way, I can set my own rules and you can work on other things. Could these rules just sync with iCloud, or aren't you two that close? And signatures for my different emails? Oh, wow, that would be damn exciting if it was 2005 and I was still using a Windows PC with Outlook. Pull-to-Refresh? Well, it is about time. Of course, Sparrow has done this for a while now and it’s 3-months-old. Plus, for a limited time, the app is available for just $0.99! Maybe Apple should just put you out of your misery and buy this third-party email client and make it their own. Take that, old guy. I like visuals and here’s some suggestions on how you can make yourself better. For one, I want to see who I’m communicating with, if possible. Apple is in love with Facebook now and all that, so why don't you tell them to bring photos from my friends from there and feed them to you? Sounds quite simple, if you ask me. Also, why do I have to delete my emails one at a time? Some mornings you wake me with 50 emails sitting there in my inbox. Most of these, as you know, are worthless to me. Please, Mail, let me delete all my emails at one time! Also, would it kill you to have a spam filter? I don't think so! I would also like you to learn more about gesturing. For example, use tap and hold to flag, or double tap to flag. One final request and this has to do with rules again. Do you have something against colors? I’d really like to add colored labels to some of my emails. Pretty please? Listen, I’m not saying you’re all that bad. In fact, I've liked many of the new features you've given me over the years. However, I think it’s time for you to grow up and become an adult. I know you can do it! With love (for now anyway), What other ways could Apple improve their native Mail app? Which mail client do you use on your iPhone/iPod touch and iPad? Dear X is a new column featured on AppAdvice.com. Do you have any gripes, suggestions, or concerns about certain apps or iDevices that you want us to highlight? Please email: bryan@appadvice.com or contact me via Twitter. Photo: Apple.com

Mentioned apps

Related articles