Minimalist email client Sparrow continues to grow apace, thanks to some updates over the summer. We last looked at it back in March, but there’s a lot of new stuff since then.
One new feature is called the Extended Sidebar, which makes Sparrow look a lot more like traditional email clients and less like a Twitter or IM app.
With the Extended Sidebar visible (you’ll find it in the Window menu) you get a good overview not just of the standard Gmail folders (Spam, Starred and so on) alongside your labels. Each shows the count of unread messages within.
Hit Command+Shift+M and the sidebar – extended or otherwise – disappears, leaving you with a very minimal list of messages.
There’s also a new Send and Archive command, nice for people who like to keep their inboxes and their outboxes clean and tidy. If clean and tidy isn’t enough, there’s support for Shortmail, a Twitter-like email service that deliberately limits messages to 500 characters.
In short, there’s a lot of new stuff here which, in my opinion, broadens Sparrow’s appeal. I like Gmail but I like to keep it outside my main browser. I’ve been a contented Mailplane user for some years, but I like Sparrow more every time I try it. It costs $9.99 in the Mac App Store, but there’s a Lite version you can try first.
[xrr rating=80%]
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
4 responses to “Email Client Sparrow Gets Better With Summer Updates [Review]”
I bought this app because of the minimalist layout, but after using it for a few months I was missing the folder view that they included in the updates you mentioned. It’s almost perfect for me now. Great alternative to apple mail.
is this old news? – Like 9 August release?!