Couple of things that bug me:

1) I have to log in to your service. Why? Makes me think you're storing my mail credentials on your server. If it's a cloud sync issue, use Dropbox/iCloud.

2) Doesn't use my Contacts in To: field. This makes it a non-starter for me.

It does look pretty, I think the filtering is very smart, and I like the "smart cards".

1) We address the (fairly complex) questions around authentication in our FAQ: http://inky.com/pages/faq/ -- you have to scroll to the bottom for security details.

2) It will. Give it a little while to find your contacts. :)

How long is a "little while"?

5 minutes or so, unless something is wrong.

You might want to rethink this text on your website: "Most mail clients only support the popular email providers."

That's false FUD.

:(

That's primarily a reaction to the dozens of mail startups that layer on top of GMail instead of supporting IMAP, POP, and SMTP etc. But obviously there's something on that page to offend anyone who tries hard enough to be offended.

When I think of "most mail clients" I think of Outlook, Thunderbird and so on - I wouldn't term something that didn't support at least one of POP or IMAP an email client. Proprietary email client maybe, like AOL's built-in one...

So your differing point of view means it's OK to malign us publicly? By "FUD" you surely meant to imply that we were trying to do something malicious, when, literally, all we're trying to do is make people's inboxes ever-so-slightly happier places.

To be clear:

- this is a really hard problem

- we're iterating in public to get user feedback

- we're not charging anything and don't have any immediate plans to

- we specifically ask for feedback via <[email protected]>

I'm not sure which aspect of this gave you the impression that our objective is to foist -- as you put it -- "false FUD" on poor unsuspecting consumers.

Sorry to bitch, but snarky comments are the main reason HN -- once my absolute favorite place on the web -- is turning into a useless cesspool.

See you on Quora, where the discourse is still reasonably civil.

Inky looks pretty cool, but I had the same reaction as porker when I read that part. I don't think he's trying to malign you, it's just a pretty blatantly false statement amongst a sea of neat-looking stuff.

>> "Most mail clients only support the popular email providers."

This is simply false, as most mail clients really do support IMAP/POP. The statement caught my eye too. No need to get all huffy about someone pointing this out.

> So your differing point of view means it's OK to malign us publicly?

You publicly "malign" your competition in a way that several people in this thread feel is nearly libelous, then get huffy when someone calls you on it. I agree with his view: the conventional (i.e., in the average person's mind) "mail client" supports _any_ conventional "email provider" by definition.

I understand where you were coming from, but the statement itself was too broad, and now your reaction is digging a deeper hole. If a little blunt, I believe the original observation was meant as "feedback" that you claim to want. Nobody was talking about boycotting or ragequitting for a better forum, until you got defensive and refused to respond in a way that doesn't end in a personal insult against the commenter, or a general sneer at the community in general.

Those are potential customers you are yelling at. Really smart early adopters with influence. And a very large number of people are watching. Whether they are right or wrong, we are all watching for how you handle the situation.

Between this and an avoided answer to whether you keep passwords in the cloud you've lost one potential customer.

We know it makes some uncomfortable to have the credentials in the cloud, but we felt it was important to make it as easy as possible for people to be able to use any device (we're working on iOS and Android) to access all of their email accounts. Of course it's up to you to decide if you trust us, but we've went to great lengths to make sure your emails don't pass through our servers and to keep your credentials secure. We explain our security precautions on our FAQ, which we'll continue to enhance going forward.

I didn't avoid the question on security; I pointed everyone to FAQ that specifically answers that question. And I didn't yell at anyone. But if someone spits in your face, you're allowed to wipe the spit off, aren't you?

But sure, take your ball and go home.

dmbaggett, I apologise that you have taken my message this way, and it's true I have been influenced by the all-too-common tone on this site; but I stand by my original comment that this is a line to spread FUD, like any company who tries to make out that their product is so different to the competition. You have unique features I'm sure, a unique take on email - don't rubbish your competition by spreading what is demonstrably not true for most email clients.

So you did mean to imply were were doing something malicious. Got it. For the record: we were not.

Your outburst just lost me as a potential user. If you don't want public feedback don't promote your "email client" on a public website. If you prefer the login-wall circle jerk of Quora, keep your promotions there.

Done! And your refund check is in the mail.

I should have added GMail to my list of 'mail clients' - they will check external accounts too. Forgot I'd been using that for a few years!

Then say "startup mail clients" not "most mail clients". I know if I surveyed your typical business persons and had them list out "popular mail clients", you'd almost never hear the "mail startups" you're referring to. I think there may be a bit of echo chamber going on, as if your only customers would be the HN crowd.

I get what you're saying, but regular people have no idea what the difference is between a mail client, GMail, and something like Mailbox. It's just "the thing I use read my email". That was the thinking behind the statement in the first place: we let you check mail in all your accounts, unlike most alternatives consumers use.

I've been looking for a replacement for Sparrow after it's gone unsupported.

Will definitely check this out and pass along any relevant feedback.

Inky is an excellent client. I tried+reviewed the first version released on HN about a year(?) ago and it was quite solid and well-engineered. If I weren't already happy with my notmuch/emacs setup, I would switch close to immediately.

I'm super interested -- do you guys offer notifications/setting reminders on messages for later (like Mailbox.app)? I really need that, because I'm disorganized and forgetful and it saves my ass constantly.

Not yet, but it's on the roadmap. Snoozing emails and related features are obviously requirements these days.

At this point we're mainly focusing on getting the core solid and performing well.

Probably another few months on that; more new features will come in 2014.

Very cool. Thanks for the reply!

I would love to find a new mail client to replace evolution or thunderbird. Will Inky be released for Debian as well?

Does Inky support this?

  - proper mail indexing and search on large mailboxes
  - S/MIME
  - per-account HTML signatures
  - CardDAV
  - CalDAV

Edit: Also, i am wondering what inky's business model is? Will the client cost money in the future? Ads?

We're working on linux support.

    - Inky caches your email on your computer and indexes it.  We'll continue to improve the performance aspects of this.
    - S/Mime and calendar support are on our to-do list.
    - Inky lets you create per-account HTML signatures, and a default signature for the others.

It may be nice, but it looks terrible on a Macbook Retina :-/

Retina support is in development now, it requires moving from CEF1 to CEF3.

Look neat. Is GPG support in plan?

EDIT: also why a .pkg with password requirement instead of a simple .app ?

GPG: certainly encrypted mail is on the list

.pkg: it's so we can clean up prior installs; maybe not a permanent thing

Do you consider yourself a good replacement for Windows Live Mail client (formerly known as outlook express)?

Yes, particularly now that outlook.com supports IMAP.

Do you have threaded conversation support (like the one in mutt)?

If you mean indenting according to thread parent/child relationships, no. We've found that the majority of users find that really confusing. It also has the negative effect that new mail arrives buried within the thread tree, not at the top where users can see it.

Threaded view might resurface some day for advanced users, but right now it's not on the roadmap.

We do support a (non-hierarchical) conversation, though (of course), as well as a sender-based view that's pretty handy in certain circumstances.