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Review: CloudMagic offers minimalist email experience on OS X and iOS

When Google launched Inbox for Gmail in 2014, many users of the service approved the possibility of having a simplified interface for reading and writing emails, noting that the traditional web client, although greatly improved over the years, showed less flexibility than than other options emerging at the time. The same scenario is also felt by those using Mail on OS X or even on iOS: a very solid application, but it also leaves spaces to be filled by other alternatives.

Last year, when reviewing Airmail 2 (newly updated for OS X Yosemite) we found a lot of additional flexibility in relation to the Mail that comes with all Macs. Its differentiated interface was not oriented to be simple and focused, but this was not necessarily a problem, in fact, the cycle had to be completed with an iOS version, recently released.

Jos developers of CloudMagic followed the opposite path. Creators of a smartphone email client quite praised and with more than 3 million users on iOS / Android, they reached Mac App Store in January. And the result, for those who appreciate good design and minimalist interface, could not have been better.

Account Support

As in its mobile version, CloudMagic supports all popular email services, in addition to corporate accounts (assuming your company uses Office 365 or Exchange with ActiveSync / EWS) and any provider that supports IMAP.

CloudMagic for OS X

Those who have never used CloudMagic on any device have an initial assistant to support the configuration, but the company also offers a profile synchronization service. If you choose to use it, you can import the server information and credentials used to access any other device, once you authenticate with the application.

CloudMagic for OS X

For contacts, however, CloudMagic relies only on the local calendar on your Mac or iOS device. For home users, this is not a problem, but in corporate email it is common to count as a catalog of the organization's global addresses for reaching work colleagues. In such cases, it is necessary to have the addresses saved in the local directory for use.

Reading and searching

here where CloudMagic starts showing its best attributes. With an interface inspired by Google's Inbox, it presents messages in a single list, with the most common commands visible when hovering item by item. Although the use of gestures is only available on iOS, more experienced keyboard users can speed up Mac reading using simple keyboard shortcuts.

CloudMagic for OS X

Just a short time working in the application for the benefits to appear. Reading becomes very pleasant and efficient. The display of messages owes nothing in relation to competing products and, when it is necessary to reply or forward, the commands for this are within easy reach at the bottom of each message or just next to the title, grouped in a steel button.

CloudMagic for OS X

When opening a message on the Mac, the toolbar shows commands for moving or archiving / deleting. In the lists, it shows a search field. The application does not recognize the same natural compositions of terms that Mail supports via Spotlight (which does not represent so much loss, considering that it still does not work in Brazil), but from a single screen it is possible to find emails on any account in which they are , even remotely.

Cards (iOS only)

Still exclusive to iOS, but very powerful, Cards they are extensive for reading email within CloudMagic. Instead of distributing commands to a multitude of different places, the company is curating the features to be offered through this resource, based on external partners.

When opening a conversation on the iPhone or iPad, in addition to the common response action options, you will have a button similar to a stack of letters. With a touch, it presents a series of additional actions based on CloudMagic partners, whether or not they are context sensitive.

It is possible to add and remove Cards It depends on the usage habits of each user, but their purpose is to complement the reading experience with the use of productivity tools that are already in their workflow. Examples: you probably already have your day-to-day tasks at Trello or Evernote. Then you can also add items from your emails to these services. Or you may want to have all the links in a newsletter a touch to save in Pocket, for later reading.

Competitive products try to lock us in a specific work philosophy within the context in which they were created and in that regard, CloudMagic beats everyone. The use of Cards enables the user to work with their emails where their day-to-day organization really is.

In addition, even if you do not use any of the partners supported by CloudMagic, the developers of the app maintain Card which intelligently aggregates information about the senders of your emails from the internet, including social networks like LinkedIn. It is very useful to know the profile of senders that you do not know yet.

Writing and personalization

Like all areas of the app, the CloudMagic compose window is content-focused. It is possible to write email as if writing a document in the modern writing application of your choice.

CloudMagic for OS X

Some features still do not appear in relation to what is possible in iCloud accounts, such as the use of Mail Drop. But that is likely to change in the future.

Some customizations regarding the composition and other areas of email accounts reside in Preferences, within the CloudMagic menu. You can choose specific attributes for each account, such as signature used and categorization color, in addition to receiving alerts. Customizations are also synchronized with your CloudMagic account, so you can open your accounts on a new device with everything set up the way you want.

A missing function for adjustments are rules, a concept that most people who are very dependent on email still rely heavily on day-to-day.

Completed

CloudMagic offers a much more efficient email reading and writing experience for any user. Its interface is very similar to those who have already tried the Inbox of Gmail and accommodates the essential functions for managing your communication on a daily basis.

In the case of OS X, I'm curious to see how the company has the functionality of Cards existing for mobile devices. After using iOS with some supported services, I saw enormous potential to encourage the use of the app in teams. It is difficult to work today without any task management solution, so the approach of this application easily stands out.


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