How to use Spark’s amazing advanced email features

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spark header
Spark works everywhere.
Photo: Readdle

Apple’s own Mail app is pretty amazing in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, and is more than good enough for most people. But Cult of Mac readers aren’t “most people,” and that’s where Readdle’s Spark comes in. If you’re looking for more features, like scheduled sending, automatic follow-ups, and integrations with third-party apps and services, then Spark is the place to look. Today we’ll look at how to use these great new features.

Send Later and Follow Up

You get quick shortcuts, as well as full control.
You get quick shortcuts, as well as full control.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Spark just added these two new features to its Mac and iOS versions. When composing an email, you can choose to send it later. This is great for those late-night insomniac email sessions, letting you line up a bunch of mails to be automatically fired off at a more reasonable hour. Or you may compose a mail on a Friday afternoon, and schedule it for Monday morning so that the recipient won’t ignore it and forget about it over the weekend.

To schedule the sending time for an email, just click (or tap, on iOS) the new Send Later icon in the mail composer window — it’s a little airplane with a clock on it. This brings up the picker, seen in the screenshot above, which lets you easily choose a time and date to send the message. Once set, the Send button changes to one reading Schedule.

These boxes tell you what you've done.
These boxes tell you what you’ve done.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The actually sending is done by storing your outgoing mail on Readdle’s servers. This requires that you have notifications enabled inside Spark. Once scheduled, your mail is queued on Readdle’s servers, and the sending is done from there. This means that even if your phone is powered off, the mail will still be sent on time.

When scheduling mail, you can also choose to get a reminder to follow up on that email. A reminder will then be added to a new sidebar item in Spark, called Reminders. Reminders are stored locally on your device, not on the Readdle servers.

Using Spark’s third-party integrations

Most of the popular task and note apps are covered.
Most of the popular task and note apps are covered.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Spark’s integrations have been around for a while now, and currently only exist on the Mac version of the app. They let you do something with your received mails, instead of just leaving them in your inbox and forgetting about them. Compatible services are: Reminders, OmniFocus, 2Do, Things, Wunderlist, Todoist, Asana, OneNote, Evernote, Trello, and Bear.

To use these integrations, you just have to click on the ellipsis at the top of any incoming mail. The three dots are up there next to your other filing options (including the neat snooze feature). Click the , and you’ll see the sharing box.

You can save an email as tasks, or todo items, in several apps.
You can save an email as tasks, or todo items, in several apps.
Photo: Cult of Mac

This box lets you pick a time (for reminder apps), and to choose whether to save the text of the email itself, or a link back to the email. If you choose the latter, the link can be clicked on any of your devices, and the original email will be opened in Spark for iOS or Spark for Mac.

Spark is a powerful email client, but is also very easy to use. If you find yourself unsatisfied with Apple’s built-in Mail app, then this should be first on your list. It is also free.

Price: $Free

Download: Spark from the App Store (iOS)

Price: $Free

Download: Spark from the App Store (macOS)

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