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I think it was back in February when my buddy sent me a link about this new email app called

Mailbox that was destined to change the way we do email.
I’m a sucker for a new app, so even though the premise seemed dubious at best, I was at least going to give the article a read. The article hinted at the fact there would be a lag between download time (reserving my Mailbox) and when I would actually get the app, but I had no idea how ridiculous it would be. Once I saw I had 500 thousand people in front of me, I made a mental note to assess whether or not Mailbox lived up to the hype, so here we are.

Ok, so I told you Mailbox was supposed to change the email game but I didn’t tell you how, so let me start there. Mailbox’s whole m.o. is about getting you to #inboxZero by moving things you already read but still need to take action on until you’re ready to take action. They call this putting email in its place. After a few weeks of playing around with this, I can honestly say it reduces clutter in the inbox and distraction of things that you shouldn’t be paying attention to anyway. Oh, and to reward you for clearing your inbox you get a cool instagram picture in the shape of the Mailbox logo and the option to let people know on your social networks that you’re a beacon of productivity.

Mailbox has quite a few features going for it and as with anything else it has some limitations, so to change things up from the usual routine, I’m going to start with the cons. One key limitation is the search functionality. As it stands, the search in the Gmail app is unmatched by either native iphone mail app or this latest offering from Mailbox. And it’s not even close.

The biggest “fault” with Mailbox is the fact that it’s only for iPhone and only works with Gmail. Believe it or not, people still exist who like to use Yahoo and Hotmail as their email services of choice. And with hotmail 2.0 aka Outlook aggressively pursuing users, Mailbox excludes a large cross-section of mobile email users from its user base.

The app is free now but one would think the goal is to have as many users as possible to convert to customers at some point in the future.

Mailbox has already been purchased by Dropbox so maybe that was the goal of the original developers. As for how this benefits Dropbox, I’m still trying to figure that one out. Part of me still thinks selling Mailbox to Google makes a lot more sense than the deal that took place and once I talk you through some of the features you’ll feel the same way.

Now that we got that out of the way let’s talk about what Mailbox can do. When you first log into Mailbox, it looks similar to the iPhone native email app, nothing spectacular at first glance. One difference, though, is the the app badge is the number of inbox messages, regardless of how many are unread. Once you start sorting your emails, though, that’s where the magic happens.

The interface for Mailbox makes the Gmail app look amateur in some ways, and that’s saying a lot because I really like the Gmail app’s functionality. Using swipes almost exclusively makes Mailbox surprisingly easy to use. Short and long swipes to the left or the right provides pretty much all actions you need to execute within the app on your journey to #inboxZero.

Do I like it? Yes, I might even go so far as to say I love the interface…but without better search and support of Microsoft Exchange email accounts, I can’t yet rely on it as my exclusive email app.

Here’s a look at some screenshots from the app so you can see the interface for yourself.