Almost 1 million people are waiting to access the latest iPhone app. This particular version of the iPhone app aims to improve a user’s email experience by assisting the user to achieve the elusive inbox zero. You know what I’m talking about, a fully processed and empty inbox.
In case you didn’t know, this particular Mailbox app launched this month. Orchestra, a Palo Alto based company that created the app, is slowly filtering invitations to people waiting in line. The app’s developers of course are very excited. These same developers claim the updated Mailbox app is a testament to customer’s frustration with existing and outdated methods of dealing with email.
Gentry Underwood, the CEO and co-founder of Orchestra states, “The big shift is away from a mobile email client that is a shrunken version of a desktop email client towards a mobile email client focused primarily around processing and triage.”
One of the main features of the app is the ability to snooze an email. If you are not familiar with the term snooze, the term refers to the user being able to defer a designated email to another time. Deferring an email can range from setting to view an email later in the day, on the weekend, or the following week. Underwood adds, “We want to decide ‘do I need to reply now‘, ‘can I deal with this later‘, or ‘should I get it out of the way and never deal with it again?’”
A major advantage of the app is that users are allowed the use of gestural swipes to quickly archive, delete and/or file messages. Users also have the option to add designated emails to lists, such as to read, or to buy.
Orchestra also created to-do list app. The to-do list app draws on ideas from author David Allen’s Getting Things Done system. The system outlines a hierarchy of tasks that need to be performed. The hierarchy allows users to designate tasks as:
- Do it
- Delegate it
- Defer it
- Drop it
Categorizing tasks in this fashion helps app users to maintain empty email inboxes. Underwood claims, “That creates a very different experience and peace of mind where you know that everything is in its place.”
Underwood however identifies one problem with the system. The system requires discipline to constantly review email folders where tasks are stored for future reference. Underwood says to overcome this problem the Mailbox app provides push notifications for emails that have been snoozed on the day when they are relevant. Underwood also mentions, “All of a sudden you can have the blissful experience without developing the ninja-like discipline and that’s the secret sauce behind this more euphoric experience.”
Orchestra is sending out daily invitations for the app however the company cannot provide specific timelines. According to Underwood the wait is in place to maintain stability of the system, which he said presents more of a challenge than standard apps. In Underwood’s opinion, “Scaling something like an email service is really hard because it involves handling a lot of data and strange edge-cases – email, file attachments, content in all sorts of languages.”
An internal countdown in the app keeps people in the queue informed on where the user stands in relation to other people requesting the new app. The app provides many new features over the native iPhone mail app. Keep in mind that the new app lacks the ability to multi-edit or multi-delete emails, and currently only works with Gmail. Orchestra promises to expand to other types of email and platforms in the future.
