Re: Gmail vs Inbox - Your Preffered Email App?
I've tried Inbox when it first came out and quickly deleted it again after only a few minutes of usage. The reason for this being that I somehow didn't get what it was doing to my perfectly organized inbox and how whatever it was that it was doing was supposed to be any better in organizing my stuff than I am myself. Then, after a couple of months I gave it another shot and once again, Inbox and terminated our relationship prematurely on a rather sad note with an important message disappearing for good (most likely a bug). Today, I have started my third and final attempt hoping that we'll get along this time now that Google has had enough time to iron out the most disturbing bugs and optimize and fine tune the gyst of Inbox.
Bottom line is: I still don't get it, and I think I know why. Attempting to use Inbox with the set of experiences with and expectations from handling emails one has collected and nurtured for years and years will inevitably result in a horrible user experience. If I've learned anything at all during my two previous attempts it's that in order to use Inbox one has to rid oneself of decades of experience and start with a blank and unsoiled mindset.
Even so it seems weird to me to organize messages in bundles, or to consider a message or conversation to be "done". Since I've never used Gmails archive-feature but rather kept my own set of folders (or rather labels, as they are called in Gmail) to prevent clutter I know I have to get used to it first. Bundles seem an odd yet faszinating way to organize messages and I'll definitely try to get used to them and make the most of it. Snoozing seems like an interesting idea but I very often keep messages in my inbox, usually starred, that I still need, such as flight or hotel bookings, correspondence with a person or group of people, etc. That won't work in Inbox anymore and I'm not sure how to work around this, or rather how to solve this. Maybe someone can give me an idea since this time I'm really keen on giving it an honest and lengthy shot. I'm currently on a RTW trip and have plenty of time to take it all in yet I highly depend on certain messages and the information stored therein, such as flight details, schedules, etc. I really hope I won't regret this experiment at some point ;-)