What's The Email Client App Of My Dreams?

[Mike Rivers]

I'm getting more and more annoyed with my present e-mail client app. I have a BLU Studio XL phone, Android 6 OS, and I'm using the e-mail app that was pre-installed, the one with the icon of an envelope with an @ on it. I was using the same app on my previous phone, a ZTE running Android 4.2, and the newer version (like most newer versions of favorite apps, it seems) is lacking some useful features of the older version. I've looked at the usual recommendations, installed them, and un-installed them. My common problem with them is that they try to organize my whole life. I JUST WANT TO READ AND WRITE E-MAIL, DAMMIT! - not manage my phone contacts, not put things on my calendar, etc.

What I'm looking for (and practically nothing else):

1. Multiple accounts (Yahoo, Verizon, and Gmail) - this is no problem

2. When I open the app, it lists the three accounts and tells me how many new messages I have for each account. The new version just has a check mark next to the account name if there are any new messages. I can then look scroll down to the folders and the number of new (or, actually, unread) messages. It's just an annoyance if I want to take a quick look.

3. Display which account I'm looking at when I've selected that account. Of course I see a list of accounts when I open the app, but the old version showed the account name that I'm looking at, right at the top of the page. The new one doesn't. I have a short memory.

4. Let me tell the app (in settings) to always download the entire message when I open it. It's so annoying to have to tap "download the rest of the message" or whatever exactly it says, for every message. The old version had a setting for this, the new version doesn't. It would be nice if it offered me a the option of automatically downloading the whole message if I'm on WiFi and only downloading the header if I'm using cell data.

That's about it. It could be that other manufacturers' versions of this app do more things than the one that BLU provided, so I'm looking for a generic app, and one that doesn't throw up ads (the app I'm using now doesn't).

I know that GMail can handle other accounts, but for the sake of privacy, I'd rather not have Google reading, or at least storing, ALL of my e-mail.

So, what's a straightforward e-mail app that won't bug me?

 

[Rukbat]

Add a single inbox for all accounts (sometimes I know that most of what's just come in is junk I want to delete - in all my accounts - because I've just done that on my desktop. And add checkboxes to the list of emails. I know I can long-press them, but I like checkboxes. (And, of course, let me see a list of my folders for the account I'm in.)

That, and your list, and I'd have mo old email app - which, unfortunately, only runs on a Samsung, and I'm now on a Pixel 2, so I'n using K9, which is better than GMail, but still not good.

If I live long enough, and get annoyed enough, I'll write my own. I've said it for decades - the only perfect program is the one you write yourself.