This app helps bring inbox zero into sight

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SaneBox uses machine learning to sort out junk email and help manage your inbox.
This app uses machine learning to sort out junk email and help manage your inbox.
Image: SaneBox

This post is brought to you by SaneBox.

Unless you’re very disciplined, you have an overstuffed email inbox like the rest of us. But being on top of correspondence still eats up valuable minutes and even hours.

One way to do that is to develop your own complex system of protocols for sorting email. Another, less-crazy way is to get an app like SaneBox.

SaneBox uses machine-learning algorithms to move unimportant emails into a special folder called @SaneLater. It judges based on which emails you open most frequently, which you respond to the fastest, things like that. Then, it summarizes them in a daily digest for quick processing. The company claims this process can save up to four hours per week of email maintenance.

Let the bot do the sorting

SaneBox sits on top of your existing email setup, so you won’t need to change your inbox habits. After an initial scan of your email headers, it sorts based on what seems to be important (or not). Mailing lists, CCs, spam, every day — the varieties of email get sorted into a digest. These digests also serve as an interactive dashboard, where you can review and help shape the tastes of SaneBox’s algorithms.

This is the core function of SaneBox, but it’s got some other inbox-enhancing goodies, too. SaneBlackHole automatically catches mailing list spam and sales emails. That can account for hundreds of emails a week. SaneReminders remind you when you need to send a follow-up email.

On the other hand, SaneSnooze can help keep your replies prioritized. Additionally, SaneAttachments expands your email attachments to Dropbox, Evernote, Box and other services. And that’s just a few — SaneBox also offers tools for automatically forwarding emails to outside services, connecting with colleagues who share an email postfix, filtering out threads you’re CC’d on and more.

We all want to start making our inboxes more manageable. But the phrase “scan your inbox” can raise privacy concerns. SaneBox scans emails solely for their headings. That means email content itself never gets scanned.

You can use SaneBox anywhere

SaneBox isn’t just a desktop solution, by the way. There’s no download or install involved. It operates on every device where you check your mail.

This system has earned praise from TechCrunch, Forbes, The New York Times and plenty of users. SaneBox is worth a try, especially because it’s risk-free — if you cancel, your email returns to the way it was. Plus, right now you can get an exclusive $25 credit for new users through Cult of Mac.

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