Edison Email for Mac
Mac’s version of the email client has some great features
A dig around in Preferences reveals a plethora of options
Free FROM Edison Software, mail.edison.tech NEEDS OS X 10.10 or later
Edison is one of our favourite email clients for iOS, in part because of the way it uses AI to organise messages into categories such as Bills & Receipts, Travel, and Packages. It also has tons of other features that make it a compelling option to replace Mail as your email client.
Sadly, categorisation isn’t as consistent in the Mac version as it is in the iOS version. Messages that appeared in a category on one version didn’t appear in the other. And on both platforms it misses more messages than it hits in terms of identifying them as belonging in a category. The presentation on the Mac isn’t nearly as neat as it is in iOS, and there’s no Subscriptions category to allow you to group and unsubscribe from newsletters quickly.
But there’s plenty to love about Edison on the Mac. Its search is quick, supports functions such as ‘from:’ and ‘subject:’ and allows you to combine them using Boolean operators like ‘and’ and ‘or’.
Edison also allows you to split messages into ‘Focused’ and ‘Other’ inboxes. The app decides which are which depending on the sender, content, and your previous communication with them. It’s very similar to Outlook’s Focused inbox. And it also supports Gmail labels.
Layout and labels
You can unsubscribe from bulk email and block senders in the same way you can in Apple’s Mail, and Edison blocks tracking pixels by default. A dig around in Preferences reveals a plethora of options like templated messages, customisable gestures for actions like Archive and Flag, and customisable keyboard shortcuts. Templates can be used to reply to messages using Quick Reply.
To top it all, Edison looks great. Its Compose window is thoughtfully laid out, with sensible, clearly labelled options for formatting text and adding attachments, signature, and inline images.
Edison is more suited to personal email than business use – it lacks Spark’s ability to delegate, for example, and you can’t forward messages to a productivity app as you can in both Airmail and Spark. KENNY HEMPHILL