If you know, you know!

I’ve been using the Spark mail client for about 2 years now (almost since the start of all things 4Heron) and i’m constantly finding myself marvelling at how much I enjoy using the Spark mobile and desktop application to manage my emails and calendar. I thought I would take a minute to share with you some of the stand out features which for me, make it my number one choice.

Ok, so it’s important to start with the bit that usually perks up everyone’s ears, it’s FREE! Well the version I use is and it has so many amazing features that until the business grows exponentially (which is the dream) the free version is just perfect for us right now. There is a premium version which you can subscribe to, which offers the same features but with additional storage and team members etc (find out more at https://sparkmailapp.com/pricing), however we currently use the free version as it’s just right for our company size.

The first big pro for me is the UI (user interface), it’s simple and clean, easy to use and visually appealing which as a Designer is always what strive to not only create but to provide for my co-workers to use. Those little details like an inbox which intelligently proritises your emails and allows you to pin and reply to them while batch archiving those pesky circulars.

I have myself and two team members on my account; we all can collaborate at the same time on draft emails, live chat, assign / allocate emails. For example, I received an email just now from somebody praising a blog a team member wrote and I was able to add him on to that email thread without having to just forward it on as you would with other basic mail clients. It does everything you’d expect in terms of external connections with an email client; works with Google, and Outlook and SMTP.

Probably, my favourite (and most frequently used) feature has to me the live email draft collab. I’m not the greatest wordsmith (the aesthetics and functionality are more my bag) and it’s always good to get a little proof reading, particularly if you’re emailing a new client or pitching a project, I use the email share / collab feature so she can be making live changes to emails as i’m writing them. This saves us so much time and eliminated that tedious back for forth of editing and forwarding emails. It is by far the number one time saving feature for us.

I don’t know of anyone else that I’ve asked who is using this so maybe it’s still flying a little under the radar, but join me in supporting this amazing Ukranian founded business (they are in great need of our support right now!) if you are in search of a new email client, trust me you won’t look back and miss boring old Outlook inboxes!

What email client do you use and why? Do you see Outlook or Gmail as outdated? Comment below and join the debate.