I’ve been using Spark by Readdle to manage my email since it’s release now – its the only email app I’ve found for iOS that simply works – notifications, sending and receiving all works great with no hassle, that other email apps handled badly. Recently Readdle released an update to Spark that brings many features catered to teams whilst also improving upon multiple aspects of the app. Spark is available for both iOS and macOS, and this review will focus mainly on the iOS app.
Whilst Spark 2 is great for teams, especially with the latest update, the app is also great for an individual user looking to sort out their email.
One of the standout features of Spark is its Smart Inbox feature, and its Smart Notifications. Spark automatically categorises emails into categories such as Newsletters, Personal and more, which allows you to remove the clutter that newsletters bring to a busy inbox. You can also use smart notifications to only alert you about emails you care about, from real people – it won’t alert you when you receive an advertising email or a newsletter. This is incredibly useful for reducing the amount of clutter and spam that you receive in your inbox, and getting only the information you care about.
Multiple accounts with different settings can also be added. You can add custom signatures for each account, and all emails from all your accounts are seen in the unified inbox – you can also opt to go into each account separately to see your email in those. Changing email accounts when you are sending is easy – tap on the the top of the draft, and a dropdown menu appears allowing you to select a different email address. The signature will change to the one you set for the email address, and you can also swipe through the signatures in order to change it to what you want. Spark allows you to input HTML signatures too, so you can have a signature complete with images and snazzy fonts if you want.
Spark allows you to save emails to popular apps and services, such as Evernote, Dropbox, Things, and many more. These allow you to quickly save the email in an app, and with a link to the email itself which when tapped will reopen that individual message even if it has been moved or archived. These message URLs are universal across both iOS and macOS, so they’ll work when you sync them across.
The integrations are great – they allow you to easily save the emails into other apps you use. I’ve been using the Evernote and Things integrations a lot – saving emails I use a lot to Evernote, and emails I need to take an action on into Things, and this allows me to keep my inbox clean of clutter.
Another feature, added in the version 2 update, of Spark is the ability to generate a link which you can paste anywhere or share with anyone that will allow them to open the email. Note that the links are not private, which is what allows you to share them with other people to open the email – they rely on being obscure to prevent people from viewing the email, using a long random alphanumeric string placed at the end of the link to make it hard for those to guess it. Keep in mind when you share emails using the ‘Copy link’ button that your going to be hosting those emails on a public server, so it’s best not to use them for private matters. You can however set the email to be only visible to you.
Spark is a great app for those looking to sort out the clutter of their email. With the Smart Inbox and app integrations, I’ve found Spark to be the best email client on the App Store.
Spark is available for iOS for free, and is also available for macOS for free.