So much that’s missing: Upgrade of Spark 2 email app falls far short
Some technology users live in mortal fear of software upgrades. When a new version appears at their download doorstep, it’s with great trepidation that they mash the “Update” button.
And with good reason. While most new versions add useful features, fix bugs, patch security holes and extend capabilities, others bring new bugs, challenge muscle memory, slow things down and, worst of all, come with a price increase.
It’s why a lot of folks avoid updates and upgrades at all costs. It’s why I still get emails from people running Windows 7 who ask whether it’s finally safe to switch to Windows 8.
My answer: No, Windows 8 was awful, but do give Windows 10 a try!
For the most part, I welcome new versions. I like them and the challenge that comes with figuring out all the new things. But I want to tell you about an upgrade gone horribly wrong. I believe the developers’ hearts are in the right place, and there’s a seed of something new and interesting here, but this is the kind of thing for which the word “botched” was invented.
First, a little background. When I retired, kinda, I no longer had access to Microsoft Outlook, the email app that’s ubiquitous in corporate environs. I had used it for years as a Houston Chronicle staff member and in my brief dalliance with Forbes. I am one of the few who will admit to actually liking Outlook but not enough to start my life as a freelancer by paying for it.
As a Mac user, I could have adopted Apple’s Mail desktop app, but I’ve never cared for it. I went in search of software that was Outlook-like but without the price tag.
I found it in Spark 2, an email app from Readdle that has drawn praise from reviewers and users. It is a Mac app, but there are mobile versions for iOS and Android. The company, based in Ukraine, promised that a Windows version was coming soon.
It’s free for individuals, with a paid version for corporate teams.
I reviewed it last November on my personal blog. You can read it at dwightsilverman.com/spark2.
Spark 2 uses the design conventions that Outlook and other venerable email apps have long established, so it’s familiar. There’s a left sidebar featuring inboxes and folders, a center well with email headers and a mini-summary of the content, and a right-hand reading pane.
It also has features you’d expect in modern email apps, including smart filtering of important email, scheduled sending, templates for quick responses, a built-in calendar and the ability to integrate services from other apps, such as OneNote and Zoom. There are even social media-style “like” responses if an email doesn’t need a full-on reply.
I loved Spark the more I used it. So I was excited to hear that Readdle was ready with Spark 3 at sparkmailapp.com, a followup that would also bring the long-promised Windows version. That excitement dimmed when I got my hands on the beta version, and it was snuffed out with the official release Oct. 4.
I don’t want to say that Spark 3 is a disaster, but it kind of is. You can use it as an email app, but there are so many things missing and so much that is promising but poorly executed.
Spark 3 attempts to rethink email by dramatically simplifying the design. The inbox is a series of rows, each containing the sender’s name, subject line, a content snippet and the time the email arrived. The default is an all-inclusive inbox, blending mail from all your addresses. There’s no visible left pane showing your email accounts and no reading pane to let you quickly look over an email.
Hover over any one of those rows, and you’ll get a series of six icons: set aside, mark as priority, unread or done (which archives it), pin it to the inbox, trash it and snooze it for later.
There’s one huge omission you may have noticed: Reply. For that you must click a three-button menu at the end of the icon row to get the Command Center, where you are urged to search for the command you want because there are dozens from which to choose. As you use commands regularly, they do move to the top of the alphabetical list. But this made me long for the infamously cluttered ribbon of icons on older versions of Outlook.
There is a narrow black column on the left that, when you click it, opens to reveal your email accounts. You can choose one to see only that account’s inbox, but the sidebar immediately collapses again. There’s no option to pin it open, though Readdle says it’s coming. Also promised: an optional reading pane.
There are other things missing, some of which are astounding. Spark 2 had a decent calendar, and it’s gone, for now. The quick response templates are MIA. And it lacks the ability to print an email. Say what?
There are some really intriguing features here, including Gatekeeper, which alerts you to email from new sources. You can let the mail into your inbox or block it and never see anything else from that sender.
Like Gmail’s web app, Spark 3 will categorize your email, including sequestering Notifications and Newsletters into their own inboxes. This works very well, and I’ve already been using it to prioritize the many newsletters I get.
I do like the homepage, which replaces your inbox with a pleasing nature photograph that changes daily. The idea is that you’re not staring at your email until you’re ready to work in it. You can schedule times when the inbox is presented, or you can click into it at will.
Essentially, Readdle has made an email app built around its own assumptions about the way you should be using email, versus how you want to use it. The developers’ way may or may not be better, but it’s not something to force on users without a more conventional design fallback.
Along with all the changes also comes a subscription payment model. While existing Spark users can continue to use all the features they’re used to — so long as they actually exist in Spark 3 — without paying. But certain premium features will cost $5 a month or $60 a year. Premium teams features are $7 a month.
Spark 3 has so enraged the app’s loyal base that Readdle co-founder Alex Tyagulsky emailed Spark users Wednesday to apologize.
“I’m proud of the hard work that has gone into this new version but have also realized that I made some mistakes,” he wrote. “We did not communicate with loyal users like yourself clearly enough. For that I’m sorry.”Features such as the always-open left pane, a reader pane, being able to print, the calendar, email, templates, dark mode and more are in progress, he said. But frankly, Spark 3 should not have gone out the door in this condition. It has damaged the goodwill Readdle established with prior versions. Fortunately, version 2 — which remains excellent — will continue to be available and updated, Tyagulsky said, for at least a year. If you’re looking for a great Mac mail app, I can recommend version 2 heartily. But Spark 3? Not so much.