Mimestream

Hi all! Today, we are excited to officially launch Mimestream: a new kind of email client built specifically for Gmail. Unlike other clients that use the IMAP protocol, Mimestream uses the Gmail API for a lightweight and zippy experience. This enables integration with many Gmail-specific features, like inbox categories, labels, filters, one-click calendar invitation responses, Gmail search operators, sending via aliases, synced signatures, fetching public Google profile photos, configuring vacation responses, and much more. Compared to using Gmail in the browser, Mimestream integrates much more deeply into your Mac. You'll have the app in your dock, receive system notifications for new messages, enjoy a beautiful dark mode, be able to use trackpad swipe gestures, can share files through the app, use the system markup service to annotate images, insert images from continuity camera, and more. But most importantly: Mimestream is much better at handling multiple accounts than juggling multiple tabs. You can use the unified inbox to merge multiple accounts together, or use profiles to keep them as separate tabs, with separate working hours, and even integrate them with your macOS Focus state. Today's launch culminates a long public beta with 167,000 users. During this time, we released 220+ updates, made 2500+ improvements, added 100+ new features, and grew the company from just me to a team of 5, while remaining bootstrapped. Pricing for the app is $4.99/month or $49.99/year with a 14-day free trial. The LAUNCH code takes 40% of the first year. Prior to founding Mimestream, I worked at Apple for over 7 years. I started my career there working on Mail for the first iPad, then built the first version of Notes for macOS. Later, I managed a software engineering team working on Mail and Notes.

Longtime beta user, but like the rest of HN, I couldn't be more disappointed by the decision to choose a subscription billing model for an email client. I likely would have bought in if this were a freemium or one-time license + optional new feature upgrades were offered like other relevant software a la Sublime or JetBrains products to name a few. It was also a big letdown to, after using your app for 3 years, give us only 3 days notice of ending access to the beta. That's an uncommonly short transition window by any standard. Personally, I will be moving on to another email client that doesn't require a subscription. Bummer because what was built was nice, but the value prop is just not there in the current pricing model for me.

Congrats on the launch folks 🎉 I’ve used Mimestream as my only desktop client since September 2020 and I’ve been impressed with the quality of your work and rigorous approach running this beta for such a long period. Your app feels like one of those “good apps” that were so common back on the Mac OS X Tiger days. Apps where everything feels native but also pushes the envelope here and there to make it a really delightful experience. Mimestream hits that sweet spot 100%. I’ve just subscribed and I only hope you make enough money with this to justify the development of an iOS client so I can get rid of the Gmail app on my iPhone and stop remembering the good old Mailbox days. Congrats again and thanks for creating this little productivity jewel 🙏