Six of the best iOS email apps to boost your productivity

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Inbox by Gmail
Since I'm a heavy Gmail user, my app of choice is Inbox for Gmail, and it's worked well at helping me tame my bloated inbox.
- HIGHLIGHTS - Get the most important information without even opening the message. Check-in for flights, see shipping information for purchases, and view photos from friends right up front.
- BUNDLES - Similar messages are bundled together so you can deal with them all at once. And get rid of them with one swipe.
- REMINDERS - More than mail, you can add Reminders so your inbox contains all the things you need to get back to.
- SNOOZE - Snooze emails and Reminders to come back when you are ready to deal with them: next week, when you get home, or whenever you choose.
- SEARCH - Inbox helps you find exactly what you're looking for-- from your upcoming flight to a friend's address-- without having to dig through messages.
- WORKS WITH GMAIL - Inbox is built by the Gmail team, so all your messages from Gmail are here, along with the reliability and spam protection of Gmail. All of your messages are still in Gmail and always will be.
Price: Free
Download.
Published: May 5, 2016 -- 08:54 GMT (01:54 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Microsoft Outlook
Who said Microsoft can't develop great apps for iOS? Outlook is one of the best - if not the best - mail apps for iOS out there. And don't let the Outlook name fool you, this app has nothing to do with the desktop application that man remember (usually with dread and hated).
Outlook for iOS works with Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com (including Hotmail and MSN), Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud.
If Google Inbox didn't work for me as well as it does, I'd more than likely switch to Outlook as my go-to email client on iOS.
It features:
Seamless inbox management
- A "Focused" inbox that displays your most important messages first. The more you use it, the smarter it gets.
- Swipe gestures to quickly schedule, delete and archive messages.
- Smart filters to help you sort through your inbox.
Easy access to calendar and files
- Share your meeting availability with just a tap and easily find times to meet with others.
- View and attach any file from your email, OneDrive, Dropbox, and more, without having to download them to your phone.
Work on the go
- Open Word, Excel, or other Office document attachments to edit them directly in the corresponding app and attach them back to an email.
- Set your Out of Office messages directly from your iPhone or iPad.
- Multitask seamlessly on iPad with full Split View support in iOS 9.
Price: Free
Download.
Published: May 5, 2016 -- 08:54 GMT (01:54 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Dispatch
A very highly rated app. It's biggest "trick" is that it integrates with over 55 other apps. For example:
- Archive important emails to Evernote
- Save links to read later with Pocket
- Create tasks in OmniFocus and Things
- Set reminders in Reminders or Due
Other apps it integrates with include: 1Password, Asana, AppigoTodo, 2 Days, 2Do, Appigo Todo, Asana, Box, Chrome, Clear, Dolphin Browser, DashPlus, Drafts, Droplr, Evernote, Facebook, Fantastical, Finish, Google Maps, Google Translate, HockeyApp, iCabMobile, Instapaper, Message, Mercury, Omnifocus, Pinner, Pinbook, Pinswift, Pushpin, Pocket, Pocket Informant, Readability, Reminder, Safari, Skype, The Hit List, Things, Trello, Todoist, Toodledo, Twitter, Wunderlist.
Price: $6.99
Download.
Published: May 5, 2016 -- 08:54 GMT (01:54 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Boxer
Boxer claims to be the fastest, most innovative email, calendar, and contacts app available for iPhone, and I'm not really about to argue with that. It offers support for Gmail, Outlook, Exchange (2007 and up), Yahoo, Hotmail, iCloud, & IMAP accounts.
Features include:
- CUSTOMIZE YOUR SWIPES - Swipe to delete, archive, spam + 9 other options to choose from
- CLOUD ATTACHMENTS - Dropbox, Box, Google Drive support & more
- PUSH NOTIFICATIONS - Notifications for all your email
- EVERNOTE INTEGRATION - Send emails to Evernote with just a tap
- BUILT-IN CALENDAR - Now your email and calendar are seamlessly integrated in one unified app
- CALENDAR INTEGRATION - Swipe to accept/decline meeting invites
- SEND AVAILABILITY - Calendar invites tell you if you're available and let you choose and send your availability
- BUILT-IN CONTACTS - Sort your contacts by recent and set favorites
- GMAIL LABELS - Full Gmail label support
- SMART FOLDERS - Boxer remembers where you like to file things
- CONFIGURABLE INTERFACE - Don't like our swipe actions? You can change them in the settings.
- PROFILE PICTURES - See who your email is from with profile pictures right in your inbox
- CANNED RESPONSES - Use "quick replies" to send common responses while on the go
- CONTACTS INTEGRATION - Including links to social profiles, phone numbers & even recent messages
- TODO LIST - Swipe to your To-Do list and never forget an important message
- EMAIL "LIKES" - Use Like to quickly acknowledge a friend's message
- DASHBOARD - Shows you all of your important and time sensitive items at a glance
- SECURITY - Secure your email with a passcode or PIN to encrypt your data
Very powerful app.
Price: $4.99
Download.
Published: May 5, 2016 -- 08:54 GMT (01:54 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Spark
If your email is littered with newsletters that you want to remain subscribed to but don't have the time to organize, then this could be the email client for you. Spark automatically determines if an email is a personal message, a newsletter, or just an automated notification.
Other features:
- UNIFIED INBOX - See all of your important email at a glance, with a unified inbox which knows the difference between a personal email, a notification and a newsletter.
- SMART SEARCH - Use natural language to search through your emails. Type "attachments from Alex last week" to see all the emails sent to you last week by Alex with an attachment.
- SIGNATURES - Spark will automatically find your most used signatures. So you can quickly swipe between them when composing an email, to choose the one that's best suited.
- INTEGRATIONS WITH SERVICES YOU USE - Integrate Spark with tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Readability, Pocket, Evernote and OneNote to easily attach files from these services to your emails.
- QUICK REPLIES - Let your friends and colleagues quickly know what you thought about their email with one tap to send a "Like", "Thanks" or any other custom reply.
- SMART NOTIFICATIONS - Enable Smart Notifications to only be disturbed by emails you care about.
- SAVE ATTACHMENTS - Save attachments to iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Readability, Pocket, Evernote, OneNote or any application on your iPhone and iPad.
- SAVE EMAILs AS PDFs - Need to refer to an email at a later date? Save it as a PDF to view later on your iPhone or save it to the cloud to access anywhere.
- CUSTOMIZATION AND PERSONALISATION - Customize Spark's widgets and sidebars to match your workflow.
- CALENDAR WIDGET - Add the calendar widget to quickly see all of your event invitations at a glance. Respond to invitations and save them to your phone's calendar with just a tap.
- APPLE WATCH APP - Quickly manage and reply to your emails from your wrist. Tap one of our quick responses or dictate a longer message, all while your phone stays in your pocket.
- GREAT DESIGN - Sparks is designed to look great on your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. The content of your emails is always the priority.
- ATTENTION TO DETAILS - We've spent over 18 months sweating every detail and interaction of Spark. We hope that you'll love using it as much as we loved making it!
Price: Free
Download.
Published: May 5, 2016 -- 08:54 GMT (01:54 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Triage

Triage isn't a true email client, instead it "is for people who struggle to stay on top of their inbox. It doesn't try to replace your desktop mail client, but lets you use your downtime to quickly remove the noise and stress."
When you sign in to your mail account, your new messages will appear as a stack of cards. Simply flick messages up to archive, or flick them down to keep in your inbox for later. You can also tap a message to view its full contents, and compose a short reply.
Triage supports Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and iCloud Mail accounts, and most email services that support IMAP.
Price: $2.99
Download.

Published: May 5, 2016 -- 08:54 GMT (01:54 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

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If you're someone who sends and receives a lot of emails, the stock Mail app just isn't going to cut it. Here is a selection of apps that will help to make you more productive (and take control of your inbox!).

Dispatch

A very highly rated app. It's biggest "trick" is that it integrates with over 55 other apps. For example:

Archive important emails to Evernote
Save links to read later with Pocket
Create tasks in OmniFocus and Things
Set reminders in Reminders or Due

Other apps it integrates with include: 1Password, Asana, AppigoTodo, 2 Days, 2Do, Appigo Todo, Asana, Box, Chrome, Clear, Dolphin Browser, DashPlus, Drafts, Droplr, Evernote, Facebook, Fantastical, Finish, Google Maps, Google Translate, HockeyApp, iCabMobile, Instapaper, Message, Mercury, Omnifocus, Pinner, Pinbook, Pinswift, Pushpin, Pocket, Pocket Informant, Readability, Reminder, Safari, Skype, The Hit List, Things, Trello, Todoist, Toodledo, Twitter, Wunderlist.

Price: $6.99

Download.

Published: May 5, 2016 -- 08:54 GMT (01:54 PDT)

Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

3 of 6 NEXT PREV