Squadmail unveils shared email-folder tool

Squadmail, a service that lets users set up shared email folders that work in any client, has gone into public beta.

The tool creates the shared folders at the IMAP server level, making the choice of client irrelevant. Squadmail says the service removes the need for CCs and forwarded emails, and claims the early testing phase picked up users in more than 70 countries, with around 500 of them corporate customers.

"About half of our business users are small-sized companies from the IT sector but there's also already a small number of Fortune 500s and internationally known universities and NGOs with individual teams using SquadMail," co-founder Philipp Mayer said.

Each shared folder created with Squadmail comes with its own email address ending in '@box.squadmail.com', although the company said it is planning to allow the use of the customers' own domains in future.

The startup, which is based in Berlin, said this feature would make the tool suitable for creating temporary folders for newsletter sign-ups and the like. However, the main draw for businesses would be the ability to establish folders that can be accessed by various members of a team, regardless of which client they use.

Users can drag emails from other folders into the shared folders for collaboration purposes and, because the service operates at the server level, it also works on mobile email clients without the need for an extra app.

However, it is not currently possible to send emails from the addresses associated with the shared folders.

The core service is free and will remain so, but Mayer said the company plans to "introduce paid plans with additional features during the next quarter".