Gmail absolutely hits that sweet spot of API capabilities and where the users are, so I can’t fault the project creators (or most every email client business these days) for building first (or exclusively) for it.
That said, seeing Outlook as coming soon on their login page is reassuring that they’re building in a way that won’t tie them to Gmail forever. And while few email providers outside of Fastmail are offering JMAP support, as an API it’s much closer to the degree of functionality expected by anyone building on top of Gmail’s API today. A great new client that gives a big section of the public a better way to “do email” might be what it takes for more services to start offering JMAP.
So hats off to y’all and fingers crossed on incorporating open standards.
But right on about Gmail, it's much easier for us to prototype and test than some of the other clients.
Also really appreciate the kind words! Means a lot to us at this early stage. Hopefully you do join the email list or discord so we can keep you posted on our progress!
Remember Sparrow? (acquired and killed by Google, turned into Inbox then killed again)
Remember Mailbox? (acquired and killed by Dropbox)
Tech incumbents actively stifling innovation in email. Meanwhile the actual email spec itself hasn't evolved for decades so you still have to write HTML like it's 1999.
The most modern email client in terms of HTML/CSS support — by miles — is Apple Mail (on both macOS and iOS), which seems to support almost everything that modern Safari supports [1]. But you have to target the lowest common denominator (Outlook/Gmail), as polyfilling or progressive enhancement in emails are near impossible. GMail was once the client that revolutionized email, but then they started chasing after stuff like AMP for email and acquiring+killing other clients instead of just keeping up with standards.
Email could be such a nice technology if Google and Microsoft evolved their email clients with the same ambition as they evolved their web browsers.
All that's required is a static subset of CSS that omits stuff like dynamic imports, the use of `url` in any attribute, animations and transitions, but allows for better layout options than tables and inline style tags.
Do join our discord or mailing list so that we can keep you posted about it if you're interested!
I've also never heard of Mutt sadly :') but couple of you mention it already so it's definitely on my list of things to try today! What is your experiences with Mutt so far? How does it stack up with other more mainstream clients?