feature request: smart up/down direction when deleting mails
A feature request, applicable when I use the Android fastmail app
Problem: When going through and cleaning up mails in a folder, I sometimes start not at the top (=most recent mail), but rather somewhere in the middle of my list (e.g. just above the last mail I have already read). I then quickly read an email and decide to delete it or not (or move it somewhere). The next mail displayed is then always the older one, rather than a more recent one. I then have to click the "up arrow". After when the scenario repeats itself... Suggestion: When deleting/moving an email, the next messageto be displayed should follow the last direction indicated by the user that has pressed the up or down button (relatively). If no up or down button has been pressed yet, the default could be either (a) down, or (b) remembered from last session. |
That's a really neat idea.
I suggest you bring it to the attention of Fastmail by raising a support ticket. |
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I (already!) got feedback from the fastmail support team.
They gave me the following answer: Quote:
I do wonder however, who will find this very hidden preference by its own. |
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It's not hidden at all; it's at Settings -> Preferences -> Advanced. That's exactly where you would expect to find a preference that's not an everyday one. When you start using a new application (or whatever) do you not explore the preferences available? |
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I had not expected that there was going to be a setting to decide on the navigation direction after deleting an email. I would have expected it to "just work" (i.e. navigating into the direction I was going through my emails), thereby also avoiding the need to have a setting. So, when I wrote the above statement, what I meant was that I don't think many people will go into the settings menu searching for something to fix this specific navigation "issue". |
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A possible idea could be to go forward if the next message is unread, backwards if the previous message is unread, and navigate to the nearest unread message if neither next or previous is unread. Again, complicated/ |
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I just checked, and indeed Apple Mail (version 9.3) has smart navigation, and it works as follows (at least from my experience, I can't know how it works under the hood):
In the current Fastmail client, in step 8 the message number 6 would be shown again, requiring the user to press "up" after each delete Of course, the smart navigation adapts when the user changes his direction (by pressing the "down" button) Quote:
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Just posting a follow-up on the FM support team suggestion to change the direction (see above).
This isn't really practical either. Sometimes I do start my actions on the top mail; then deleting it brings me back to the message list, rather than the next message. So ... eagerly awaiting the smart navigation feature... |
Short update: I was happy to hear from Fastmail support that the feature is currently available in beta.
See https://beta.fastmail.com/ and then Settings > Preferences > Reading > Navigation It looks like the old navigation options (always previous, or always next) were removed. I made the suggestion to Fastmail to reintroduce this, as I would image some people like the fixed up or fixed down. |
I like the new feature so much, I switched to beta the whole day just to be able to have the pleasure of using it :-)
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Unfortunately, Fastmail decided to not continue with the feature. Apparently it's causing more confusion than it's helpful. IMO, introducing it in addition to the existing navigation options might have prevented this. Too bad, it really improved my flow.
On the other hand, it's great that Fastmail took the efforts to actually implement it and have it evaluated... |
90% of my FastMail usage is with the Apple MacOS Mail app on my iMac. It seems to behave the way you are requesting FastMail to adopt.
In my experience, this works really well. Seems to me that it should be made available to those who use the FastMail app - at least as an option. |
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