Google’s secondary email app, Inbox, has been shut down by the company, and many of you are probably looking for an alternative, at least those of you who are not willing to revert back to Gmail. A direct alternative for Inbox does not exist, but there are some apps that are taking a similar approach, apps like Spike (formerly known as Hop).
Spike is an e-mail app that we’re here to talk about, and it’s actually quite a versatile application. First and foremost, it is worth noting that this app is free to download and use, while it is packed with features.
The company behind this app, Hop, actually advertizes Spike as “the world’s first conversational email app”. The company also claims that the app will increase productivity thanks to its smart features, such as organizing your inbox, for example, which is something Inbox was truly great at.
So, why is the company referring to this app as a “conversational email app”? Well, its email threads are presented in bubbles, similar to what you’re used to in messaging apps such as WhatsApp, (Facebook Messenger), Viber, and so on. So, this app basically hides away all the unnecessary information, and leaves you with the email content only, in addition to the subject of the e-mail, and the name of person / company you’re conversing with.
This setup is not for everyone, of course, so if you don’t prefer your emails to be presented as a conversation, this may be the option for you. Spike also comes with a rather useful email bundling feature, even though it works differently to Inbox. The app also allows you to organize your emails in three ways, the first if the traditional inbox / sent setup, while you can also organize them by subject or by people, if that is what you prefer. This app will also automatically prioritize emails for you.
Most of the options in this email applications are available on the bottom of the display, as you can access various menus this way, similar to (Facebook) Messenger, and similar messaging applications, actually. This app’s design is quite nice overall, it’s flat, and chances are that many of you will like it, presuming you like modern mobile software design.
Spike also comes with a dark mode, which is always a nice addition, and a feature that Inbox did not offer, nor does Gmail. Calendar integration is also a part of this package, while Spike supports a ton of different email services, so you can have plenty of accounts all in one place. Spike is available on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, so you can access it from wherever you like. Please do note that the app can be somewhat buggy, though, at least according to some comments on the Play Store (and the app’s rating), but that’s something that can be fixed via an update. We did not encounter any issues during out testing, though.
If you’re not really digging the conversational style of Spike, you may be interested in Spark, which is yet another application that is trying to cater to former Inbox users. We’ve talked about Spark yesterday, so feel free to inform yourself by clicking here.
