Favourite Android email client

[truemagic]

Because I'm recently looking for one that has support for multiple IMAP accounts and identities (email alias), I'm wondering what's your favourite one and why?

FairEmail
K9 Email
AquaMail
BlueMail
CanaryMail
Edison Mail
Nine Mail
Spark Mail
Samsung Email
GMail
Outlook

At the moment I'm using FairEmail, it's good and open source, well maintaned but UI is too simple for my liking. It has a one-time fee so this is one of the rarest email clients with such a "generous" offer. Other clients in the list (excluding the last four) are mostly subscription basis and they aren't cheap to begin with. Take AquaMail as example, it was sold at $0.99 few years back during promotion for the PRO license and they're now going for subscription basis for $9.99/month if I'm not mistaken (I can hardly find pricing plan and subscription plan on their website).

As for Blue Mail, Spark Mail and Edison Mail, rumours says they're cloud based email clients whereby we as users have to agree to have our emails served to their cloud before reaching the clients (that's just my rough understanding so I might be wrong). Again there's privacy concerns to me if this is true.

What's your take on this? Or if you're not using any mobile email client and prefer an app made by email provider itself such as ProtonMail, Tutanota, ZohoMail...etc feel free to let us know why this is your preference.

[Berenburger]

Icloud mail app is only on Apple.

[Avion]

I quite like Fairemail and have used it for several years, however Marcel Bokhorst (the app creator) is a perfectionist, and takes exception if the app gets less than 5 stars on the Play Store, and has hinted in the past that he might just scrap the app. I don't know whether that is still (currently) the case, but nevertheless it is a concern.

Also, a few weeks ago, the app occasionally stopped notifying of new messages, and I had to manually check the app - mostly it worked, occasionally it didn't. I don't know if it is an app or my phone problem.

Currently using K9 mail, and I've used it on and off over the years.

I also use the default Gmail app, but just for my Gmail account.

[TenFour]

I've tried a bunch of them too. Recently I checked out K9 since it is morphing into Thunderbird soon. Seems to work OK, though very slow to fetch emails from my IMAP account for some reason. I might be able to change that in the settings. I hate the current logo, which is a minor turnoff. Fairemail has a million settings and takes awhile to get setup the way you want it, and the touchy developer is a bit worrisome. Samsung email is pretty reliable and simple. I suggest checking it out as one of the most straightforward email apps maintained by a major company. Not sure about its ability to work offline though. Edison is very fast in fetching emails, has a good interface, and has unique features. But, I'm not into having my email app automatically filter and categorize my emails, so much of the additional functionality is lost on me. Same with Onmail by the same company. I personally really like Gmail, though I find it forces you to use their POP3 for fetching. This can be frustratingly slow, resulting in delays of up to an hour before email is received unless you force a mail check using the web interface. I personally like labels as opposed to folders. I would be very wary of using many Android apps that are relatively unknown with smaller user bases. It seems like every day I read of some Android app that has become malware of some sort. For now I am using Gmail as my main email app, but still looking.

[truemagic]

Originally Posted by Berenburger

Icloud mail app is only on Apple.

Oops technical error. Removed!

[TenFour]

I just checked and you can sync (IMAP) up to a month's worth of email with the Samsung app, and you can set it to retrieve emails as received instead of only every 15 minutes or so. Since I have unlimited data I would go for instant retrieval. Very easy to set up.

[truemagic]

Originally Posted by Avion

I quite like Fairemail and have used it for several years, however Marcel Bokhorst (the app creator) is a perfectionist, and takes exception if the app gets less than 5 stars on the Play Store, and has hinted in the past that he might just scrap the app. I don't know whether that is still (currently) the case, but nevertheless it is a concern.

Also, a few weeks ago, the app occasionally stopped notifying of new messages, and I had to manually check the app - mostly it worked, occasionally it didn't. I don't know if it is an app or my phone problem.

Currently using K9 mail, and I've used it on and off over the years.

I also use the default Gmail app, but just for my Gmail account.

Yes FairEmail is cool for power user but as you mentioned it perfectly, Marcel is the one-man show and I've been in touch with him numerous times and the responses were superb (often receive a reply within minutes no matter the timezone, impressive!). However there're some feature requests or "bugs" as I call them, don't get into his fix list as he doesn't acknowledge them as bugs hence I have to live with that for as long as I'm with the app, until now -- see below that I'm currently switching to Nine Mail

Originally Posted by TenFour

I've tried a bunch of them too. Recently I checked out K9 since it is morphing into Thunderbird soon. Seems to work OK, though very slow to fetch emails from my IMAP account for some reason. I might be able to change that in the settings. I hate the current logo, which is a minor turnoff. Fairemail has a million settings and takes awhile to get setup the way you want it, and the touchy developer is a bit worrisome. Samsung email is pretty reliable and simple. I suggest checking it out as one of the most straightforward email apps maintained by a major company. Not sure about its ability to work offline though. Edison is very fast in fetching emails, has a good interface, and has unique features. But, I'm not into having my email app automatically filter and categorize my emails, so much of the additional functionality is lost on me. Same with Onmail by the same company. I personally really like Gmail, though I find it forces you to use their POP3 for fetching. This can be frustratingly slow, resulting in delays of up to an hour before email is received unless you force a mail check using the web interface. I personally like labels as opposed to folders. I would be very wary of using many Android apps that are relatively unknown with smaller user bases. It seems like every day I read of some Android app that has become malware of some sort. For now I am using Gmail as my main email app, but still looking.

That's a comprehensive list that you've tried, appreciate your feedback. But I see you haven't tried some "cloud-based" ones that I mentioned above i.e. BlueMail, SparkMail etc. Because they're highly rated by people who use it but I don't know if I should give them a try.

Originally Posted by TenFour

I just checked and you can sync (IMAP) up to a month's worth of email with the Samsung app, and you can set it to retrieve emails as received instead of only every 15 minutes or so. Since I have unlimited data I would go for instant retrieval. Very easy to set up.

Good to know! That's one vote for Samsung Email

I'm currently trying out Nine Mail, it was one that I purchased a license long long time ago (not sure if it's still possible now -- similar to AquaMail that you can be grandfathered into a PRO license if you did purchase a one-time license before).
Nine Mail has a better UI than FairEmail but lack of the ability to manage identities, there's a workaround though if anyone wants to know let me know.
So far I'm staying with Nine Mail and getting rid of FairEmail (this is a Hi-Bye-Hi friend as always lol) and ZohoMail (connecting it to Nine Mail as well).
On the plus side, Nine Mail can also handle ActiveSync and Exchange Server if you ever need one.

[TenFour]

I've used some of the others too, like BlueMail and AquaMail, but dropped them for some reason--can't really remember why. One I didn't mention that works well for many people is Outlook. It is particularly good if you want to sync with a Microsoft account, including your calendar and contacts.

[dryoldlime]

I spent time searching and reading and searching and reading. Finally I have only these:

GMail: Preinstalled on the device and easy enough to learn to use
BlueMail: Size is not too large, and is able auto-configure for certain well known email services.

Both of those are essentially free. Anything with too strict of limitations or requires a regular subscription is not something I'd try or want. I have two email accounts set up on both the Gmail app and the BlueMail app. In actual use, GMail is the one which I use. I like having the extra app (BlueMail), just in case.

[ankupan]

Superhuman... USD 30 per month

I guess, most expensive email app.

[somdcomputerguy]

Re: Superhuman

Why use a Gmail address, and an app/web UI/real client for free when one can pay $30 a month for a ridiculously over-priced app/program?

[ankupan]

my Google Workspace data is almost 300+ GB emails of last 15 years.

I am using Gmail.com only and it has all features, I don't require any app or client.

it took time to use to it. but after daily usage. it is rocking webmail.

[TenFour]

One thing I have found over the years of trying various email services and apps is that my simple needs are better served by simple programs that don't use fancy AI and other clues to decide for me what to do with an incoming message. I hate conversation view, for example. Just deliver to me my messages in the order they arrive, and do it quickly. I then skim or read, delete, or archive. Plus, I want reliable and deliverable sending that doesn't get blocked by other's spam filters. And, lastly, I need great spam and phishing filters on the incoming mail, and that is where Gmail really shines. I have found no other email clients are close in determining what is spam or malicious.

[truemagic]

Originally Posted by TenFour

One thing I have found over the years of trying various email services and apps is that my simple needs are better served by simple programs that don't use fancy AI and other clues to decide for me what to do with an incoming message. I hate conversation view, for example. Just deliver to me my messages in the order they arrive, and do it quickly. I then skim or read, delete, or archive. Plus, I want reliable and deliverable sending that doesn't get blocked by other's spam filters. And, lastly, I need great spam and phishing filters on the incoming mail, and that is where Gmail really shines. I have found no other email clients are close in determining what is spam or malicious.

Yeah can't beat Gmail really in nearly all aspects, but the fact that it scans for your emails such as your invoices, receipts and flight information etc to deliver you advertisements is something that makes me wanted to avoid using Gmail and the alike (i.e.Outlook) as much as possible.

[chrisretusn]

Originally Posted by TenFour

One thing I have found over the years of trying various email services and apps is that my simple needs are better served by simple programs that don't use fancy AI and other clues to decide for me what to do with an incoming message. I hate conversation view, for example. Just deliver to me my messages in the order they arrive, and do it quickly. I then skim or read, delete, or archive. Plus, I want reliable and deliverable sending that doesn't get blocked by other's spam filters. And, lastly, I need great spam and phishing filters on the incoming mail, and that is where Gmail really shines. I have found no other email clients are close in determining what is spam or malicious.

I don't get a lot of messages, around 60 or so a day. You must get a lot. I check once a day, no alerts on email receipts from my cell phone. I use my client once a day, close it after checking and reviewing received messages. Messages are filtered in to folders. Those that get past the filters end up on the Inbox, Spam Unsure or Spam folders.

I just want email and that's it. I agree Gmail has excellent spam and phishing filters (probably the best). Their App, like most other Apps has more bells and whistles than I want but it does serve up my email in a good way. I just ignore the rest of the junk.

I use my cell phone primarily to check spam. I use POP3 in my email client. If I could I would prefer to turn off spam at the service and handle it my self. Unfortunately, Gmail, GMX, Outlook and Yahoo don't allow this. Yahoo is terrible regarding spam and telling Yahoo it's "Not spam" is worthless.

I may be traveling abroad for a month. My plan is to use the App if the service has one. For those that don't my plan is to use an App that lets me connect with IMAP. I am currently looking at Fairmail and K-9 Mail. I removed Samsung Email from my phone a long time ago. No plans to bring it back.