Former Apple engineer Neil Jhaveri has been working on an email app for Mac called Mimestream. It is now out of beta after a long testing phase of more than two years. The app uses Gmail’s API, so it is currently only compatible with Gmail.
Jhaveri, who spent more than seven years at Apple, worked on the Mail app for the first iPad and the first Notes app for macOS. He later led teams working on Apple’s Mail app. He left the company in 2017 and founded Mimestream in 2019. Jhaveri said the company is still up and running with five people working on the app. He said more than 167,000 people have used the app in beta.
Because of its familiarity with Apple’s Mail app, many of Mimestream’s design elements look like the default app on the Mac, such as the use of blue dots to indicate unread emails, a three-column layout, and action buttons in the top bar . .
As a native app, Mimestream integrates nicely with the rest of the operating system. It supports trackpad gestures, dark themes, associating email profiles with focus filters, and keyboard shortcuts.
The app uses the Gmail API, which means it can easily import things like signatures, server-side filters, templates, labels, and holiday responses. The app also supports Gmail aliases, entries, blocks of code, Markdown replacements, undo send, and the ability to send and archive. This integration means that the Mimestream experience is closer to Gmail’s website.
Image Credits: Mimestream
With the new launch, Mimestream also supports profiles like “Work” and “Personal” so you can separate different accounts. You can also assign different colors to accounts to differentiate between emails in the unified view. In addition, you can set a notification schedule so that you are not disturbed by unnecessary notifications.
The app also has an additional menu bar: when you click on the menu bar icon, you can quickly check for unread messages without opening the app.
Image Credits: Mimestream
You can use Mimestream for free with a 14-day trial. After that, you have to pay $4.99/month or $49.99/year. However, the startup is offering the annual plan at a reduced launch price of $29.99 for the first year through June 9. Mimestream competes against other email clients such as Boxy, Edison Mail, and Shortwave, the former Google exec app. It relies on the simple and familiar interface for Mac users and tight integration with Gmail to stand out from the competition.