Mailplane Helps Gmail Soar on Your Mac Desktop
8:59 am, July 16th, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
Are you a Gmail person? With more than one @gmail.com account? Thought so. How many times have you thought how much you like Gmail but felt frustrated by one aspect or another of the limits (mostly time and productivity-oriented) imposed by working with email in a web browser?
Yup. Well, guess what? There’s an app for that.
Mailplane brings Gmail to your Mac desktop and unleashes power and productivity you’ve only wished for in Google’s excellent mail product.
We’re only just now checking Mailplane out, but with support for:
# Drag and drop attachments
# Multiple Gmail accounts
# New mail notifications
# Easy screenshot sending
# Gmail shortcuts
# Integration with OmniFocus,
our first impressions are that Mailplane is well worth giving a more extensive test drive. It’s got a 30 day free trial and we’ll be giving you our more extensive review in about a month.
If you check Mailplane out, be sure to let us know what you think about it in comments.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in First impressions, Macintosh, Software | Comment on this article
Mailplane truly is the best way to integrate Gmail and Mac OS X. I’ve been using it since it was still in beta (almost 2 years now), and it’s been a great experience. If you have multiple Gmail accounts or send many attachments, Mailplane is definitely an application you should look into. I would highly recommend checking out the free trial. If you’re satisfied, $24.95 isn’t much for a program you’ll use as often as this.
The V, on July 16th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Have I missed something, or isn’t Mail.app perfectly capable of doing the same things for free?
/Jakob F.
Jakob, on July 16th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I see a couple of added conveniences. But I’ve got multiple Gmail accounts that I already use with Apple’s Mail. Everything works fine. Mail is free. So, I’ll stick with Mail.
DCJ001, on July 16th, 2009 at 10:20 am
@ Jakob F. – yes, you have
. Mail.app is incapable of handling the Gmail server-side. Not to mention other Gmail features, from wallpaper to Docs.
Just as The V, I have been using it since beta, have it installed on two Macs and cannot imagine living without it!
Also, the developer is very responsive and acts immediately in case of any changes to Gmail itself.
right_geek, on July 16th, 2009 at 11:06 am
“Have I missed something, or isn’t Mail.app perfectly capable of doing the same things for free?”
I was going to say the same exact thing. Word for word. Creepy!
dadsgravy, on July 16th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
That’s what I was thinking Jakob. The default Apple ‘Mail’ app works perfect for all of those things, for free.
Nikolas Mason, on July 16th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
nice music, eh?
coltrane, on July 16th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Looks sweet. Day 1 of my trial. Thank for the tip.
Frank B, on July 16th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I agree.. in fact I would say Apple Mail is better! I use it with 3 Gmail accounts, and the beautiful thing is that I can see all my accounts and all my new emails in one inbox! I don’t have to click around to get to my new emails.
Jared, on July 16th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I’ve never understood the raving about MailPlane. It’s got some neat features, but I’ve used Mail.app for years now with a few gmail accounts. Attach files, embed them, add stationary, whatever .. it’s just Mail.app. I’d rather not use more than one email app, and Mail works great for me.
EcoNoob, on July 16th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I use Mail for 4 Google accounts without issue. I send attachments via drag and drop, get notifications, etc. I also use it for 3 other non-Google accounts. What am I missing here?
Mike C, on July 16th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Apple’s Mail app will support:
# Drag and drop attachments
# Multiple Gmail accounts
# New mail notifications
# Easy screenshot sending
# NON-GMAIL ACCOUNTS
Tony, on July 16th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Which is why I’ve always enjoyed my GMail through Mail.app via IMAP. Yeah, there already was an app for that. Call me old-school — I’ve never enjoyed using webmail apps — there’s no network or JavaScript lag when it comes to native clients. Not to mention that things like drag-and-drop attachments and other native host bindings have been around for a long time. I do like the fact that my mail lives in the cloud (yay IMAP), but I like having a native, integrated interface to it even better.
Tom, on July 16th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
I did try it out, but prefer Mail really.
Kev Robinson, on July 17th, 2009 at 12:53 am
The thing that irritated me beyond belief about Mail is how regularly I sent new mail from the wrong account. I know that’s my own damn fault but equally Mail could make it a smidge more positive a decision; maybe a dialogue box saying ‘Which account do you want to send this from?’. Since using Mailplane, I have confused precisely Zero people.
The second annoying thing is that the IMAP tagging / mapping seems to be wonky.
The killer thing for me though is that I use Gmail for personal accounts. My company blocks IMAP, POP, SMTP from within the firewall. I can use Mailplane to enrich a web app and still be fully connected whether at home or work. It also gives me full integrated access to Google Chat which I love for keeping in contact with my family.
Andrew, on July 17th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Went to the website and watched the demo. Laughable. Why should I pay for the ability to set labels from a MacOS menu item instead of from a menu in the web browser itself?
This offers nothing over the gmail interface. Multiple accounts? Multiple browsers.
Save your $$$
Lefthanded Eggbeater, on July 17th, 2009 at 5:41 am
I played with Mailplane last night, and I was extremely disappointed. It looks, feels and acts just like a browser version of Gmail, with a couple minor, somewhat insignificant additions (drag and drop attachments, for example). What we really need is a Gmail-based email app that better addresses Gmail’s shortcomings. (Preferably something web-based.)
Yes, I know Mail is a great app, but I use multiple computers and need full access to my email from all of them. I’d gladly use MobileMe to accomplish this, but currently MobileMe doesn’t support multiple accounts. (I have 10+ email accounts for various purposes.) Again, Mail is the best app I’ve come across so far to manage them all, but it’s limiting when I need to have full access between my iMac, iPhone, Macbook, etc.
Anyone have any suggestions?
FlyCasual, on July 17th, 2009 at 5:53 am
I don’t know how well Mailplane actually works, but that video I just tried to watch was the most annoying and least edifying thing I’ve suffered through in *awhile.
Mailplane is a cool name, but that video…yikes…
JustMe, on July 17th, 2009 at 8:58 am
can i use yahoo along ? i wanna use yahoo and g mail , what do u think guys ?!!!
iKoja, on July 17th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Reasons to use Mailplane (and Gmail) over Mail:
1) useful labels: you can create a label called “mailplane” that appears next to an email containing that word – can’t do it in Mail. The best you can do is create a separate mailbox for emails with that word.
2) conversations: Mailplane puts your related mail into conversation view, where you can see all the mails in a thread. Mail can merely highlight related mails, not show them together on one page.
3) search: Mailplane/Gmail has a consistent syntax for filters/search/labels. Mail search is inconsistent: regular search doesn’t allow you to find from:bob OR john, but that syntax does work in a smart mailbox.
4) if using a Gmail account, Mail has problems keeping up with changes – what has been read/deleted/archived in various mailboxes. Mailplane changes are updated immediately.
There are advantages to Mail too, of course, but it’s not like there are no advantages to using Gmail, and Mailplane makes Gmail even better.
Bob, on July 17th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I’ve been using Mailplane for about 6 months or so, and can’t imagine getting along without it. I enjoy the .app aspect of it. The lack of support for non-Gmail accounts doesn’t bother me, as I use GMail for 99% of my communication. The app is updated frequently and the developer is easily accessed. A bit pricey, IMO, but I’m happy that I bought it.
Rob-0, on July 19th, 2009 at 8:09 am
I’ve been using MailPlane for about a month, and I *love* it. Personally, I like the fact that the different screens look like the gmail broswer windows. Also, I love how it updates within seconds when you have new mail- I’ve not found this to be the case with other applications and notifiers.
Esther, on July 19th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Mailplane is a truly amazing app. The developers are top notch folk and whenever Gmail trumps them with a new feature they are there with a solid update. My issue with it comes down to the pricing. Maybe 9.99 and man would it sell like no tomorrow! Now back to you apple Mail lovers.
Mail is a quality program with everything besides Gmail. The way it handles the folder structure in Gmail and especially the way you CAN NOT exempt certain folders from being cached is ridiculous. In addition, the Mail app can get awfully bloated and bog down with people who hate to throw away email. This is why I have moved to Postbox which actually seems to shadow the email unless you decide to open it in which it quickly downloads that exact file. The interface also collects all links, pictures, etc into one pane making it a breeze to search for just about anything. Do not get me wrong, I love Mail (apple script functions alone make it awesome) but, until it has some robustness with Gmail I will hang with Postbox.
Braden, on July 20th, 2009 at 5:32 am