Think outside the box
I never knew email was broken… until I came across a new service that convinced me otherwise
HEY is a new take on email, rethinking the whole process from the ground up. So if you think you’re happy with your Gmail or your icloud accounts, read on. Because there is a better way.
I’ve been trialing Hey for a couple of weeks and discovered that it not only makes email a lot more enjoyable, it also reduces the time and stress spent dealing with it.
Traditional email is riddled with all sorts of time-wasting, energy-sapping tasks – from managing junk mail to finding attachments… or even just finding that email you meant to reply to yesterday. Hey turns that whole process on its head.
It starts with the Screener. Traditional email allows anyone to send you a message, whether you want them to or not – all they need is your address and they’re in your inbox.
Hey screens out first-time senders and keeps them in a holding folder called the Screener until you give them the thumbs-up. So rather than try to weed out junk or other unwanted mail, you have to give permission for others to gain access to your inbox.
Give them the thumbs-down and they just don’t make it through. You can reverse the decision if you change your mind. And that’s another thing, the inbox in Hey isn’t actually called the inbox – it’s called the Imbox (which does make me cringe a bit, I have to admit). The idea is it’s where your important stuff ends up…
That isn’t the only destination your email can end up, though – there are two other folders where mail can be sent automatically – the Feed and the Papertrail.
The makers of Hey – a company called Basecamp that makes excellent project management software – came to the conclusion we all get three kinds of email we actually want – there are those we welcome (they end up in the Imbox), there are those marketing and newsletter emails we like to read at some point, but are perhaps not so urgent (they end up in the Feed), and then there are things like receipts that we probably never read, but like to keep just in case (they end up in the Paper Trail).
It’s astounding how much this reversal of the usual workflow of dealing with email makes the whole thing so much more relaxing. This basic structure (and its automated nature) means the signal to noise ratio is turned on its head – your email becomes a place you like to spend time, rather than a place you enter armed with a machete to sort the wheat from the chaff.
There are all sorts of simple yet powerful touches throughout the service that make it a joy.
The “reply later” feature is a game-changer – hit that button on an email and it’s stacked up with others you want to get back to later at the bottom of your Imbox, all ready for when you have time to reply. There is also an attachment viewer that allows you to scroll through all the attachments you’ve been sent and search them – no need to find the email the attachment came with. You can also set notifications with granular control – by user or by thread, so you are in total control of what you see or don’t see. Privacy is also key. It’ll block trackers sent with email, and let you know when it has done so and why. It’s a real, refreshing change to a service we’ve all had frustrations with. It might not be for everyone – you have to pay for it, for a start, but it answers the question “can email be better?” with a resounding “yes!”.