mimestream (a native gmail client) is a relatively new app and is fantastic. still in beta, but actively developed and solved the one thing I wanted more than anything... to be able to command-tab into my email box.
Two other Mac-native tools that I really enjoy using every day: GitUp (http://www.gitup.co/) and Postico (https://eggerapps.at/postico/).
It works together very well with Secretive[1] which allows you to keep your SSH key in your Mac’s Secure Enclave and require Touch ID to use them, as well as displaying a notification showing what’s trying to access keys. It can also store keys in hardware dongles (like YubiKeys) and has a nice native UI for managing multiple keys.
[0]: https://git-fork.com/ [1]: https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive
"It looks… just like Apple Mail."
"Yes"
"… why?"
This allows it to function similarly to the Gmail web app while also being a good citizen of the Mac desktop and being much more lightweight.
A lot of the unexpected odd integrations of Gmail and an IMAP email client disappear, most notably including Search, which has never seemed to work quite right in Apple Mail w/ Google services.
I should of course just bail on Google, especially since they're discontinuing my previous freebie G-Suite account, but, well, you know.