Review: CloudMagic for Mac
An interesting start, but it needs some more time in the oven.
Last week, CloudMagic, Inc. launched the desktop version of their email app, CloudMagic for Mac, on the Mac App Store. Via a giveaway they ran on Product Hunt, I was one of 25 readers randomly selected to win a free copy. It seems only fair to give them a bit of free promotion in return.
CloudMagic’s iOS apps are exceedingly well reviewed on the App Store (currently ★★★★½). Though I had never used them prior to learning of the Mac app, I’ve since installed them and find them to be very competent, if a bit drab in terms of design. Since the Mac App Store has no trial functionality, CloudMagic advises customers to install the free iOS apps to get a flavor for the desktop app. I don’t think this makes much sense, and given the feedback the developers received in the Product Hunt discussions, I suspect a direct-download trial should be forthcoming in the near future.
CloudMagic for Mac is quite interesting. Its design is something of a combination between Gmail, Outlook.com, and Medium. It uses Gmail’s single pane view with preview snippet, adds Outlook.com’s hovering quick actions, and takes hints from Medium’s minimalism, color palette, and general aesthetic. The inbox view includes helpful colored bars along the left side of the email list to distinguish between your various accounts (a feature I first noticed in Airmail, but who knows where it was originally invented). Composing is a full-screen affair, which I’d imagine is good for one’s concentration. So all in all, CloudMagic’s appearance, replete with pleasant animations and subtle touches, is delightful.
The app’s performance is also excellent, and reminds me why I prefer to use native apps for email. Everything is smooth and fluid and reacts quicker than a web app ever could. It’s also quite nice to have both my work and personal email in one place, something I can’t currently accomplish with web apps like Google Inbox. And for whatever it’s worth, in side-by-side comparisons, push notifications invariably appeared in CloudMagic before any of my other email programs.
On the downside, although I appreciate CloudMagic’s dedication to forcing users to focus on individual messages, I would have liked to see an option for a three-pane view similar to the desktop Outlook application. While nice to look at, the current view simply wastes too much screen space, and seems more like a blown up iPad app than a fully-fledged desktop app.
CloudMagic is also missing some basic customization options. I could not, for example, choose a default font face or size for outgoing messages. And though a helpful popup appears when you select text during composition — actually a really clever way to save screen space — there is no option to change your font. (I believe it simply uses the system default font at around 13 pt, which is too boring, and too big, for me.) A few other little things would be nice too, like click-and-drag for messages and support for Gmail’s categories, but I can live without them. Still, the omission of these fairly basic features in what purports to be a powerful email app is a bit disconcerting.
There is also one other major caveat with this app that potential buyers should be aware of: it’s less of an email client than it is a CloudMagic client. By that I mean that the app doesn’t plug directly into your email accounts; rather, it talks only to CloudMagic’s servers. CloudMagic stores your authentication information and does all the email management in the background. The upside of this design is that you get timely push notifications, better battery life, and instant access to all your accounts on all your devices without having to reenter your passwords. But many people are uncomfortable with a third party handling their email credentials, so be aware of what you’re signing up for when you buy this app.
At $20, CloudMagic for Mac is not what I would call cheap, nor is it particularly expensive for the class of applications into which it falls. After a few months of iteration, I’d say the odds are good that CloudMagic will become a really great option in the Mac email space (which is often likened to a barren wasteland). Right now, I’m not quite sure it’s worth the price of admission.
For the time being, I’m sticking with Airmail on the desktop and Spark for mobile. But you might consider keeping tabs on CloudMagic; I know I will. There’s an awful lot of potential here.
Note: Although I received a free copy of the software as part of a random selection, neither it nor any other consideration was provided in exchange for this review.
Update (Sept. 14, 2016):
Today, CloudMagic for Mac was rebranded as “Newton Mail” as part of a routine App Store update. Newton Mail appears to have a few new features, but also one major gotcha: a $50/year price tag. You’d better read the fine print before upgrading through the MAS, as you’re inheriting that mandatory annual fee as soon as you do.
The way this “upgrade” was handled is, in a word, deplorable. CloudMagic for Mac was a $20 purchase when it launched, which was (as I noted above) a bit much given its state at the time. It was also marketed as a perpetual purchase without additional fees. Now the developers have chosen to impose an annual fee just to continue to use software for which buyers already paid. Talk about a classic bait-and-switch.
In fairness, if you purchased CloudMagic for Mac, they will oh-so-magnanimously give you one year of Newton for free. Of course they could have simply launched Newton as a new app and left the perpetual version of CloudMagic alone. That would have given users some choice and respected the money early buyers already spent. But it also would have prevented them from wresting annual fees out of purchasers who bought before this “upgrade” was announced.
My advice: do not purchase or use this software or anything else from CloudMagic, Inc. They are untrustworthy, and you have no way of knowing what further changes they will make after the fact. Don’t end up like Lando.
