{"id":5108,"date":"2023-05-02T15:46:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T15:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/?p=5108"},"modified":"2023-05-02T20:40:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T20:40:32","slug":"5-2-2023-try-these-email-apps-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/2023\/05\/02\/5-2-2023-try-these-email-apps-2\/","title":{"rendered":"5\/2\/2023: Try these email apps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Alternative email apps: A field guide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Plus: Google Authenticator’s upgrade, two neat AI tools, and free money for Prime members.<\/h3>\n\n\n
<\/div>
Jared Newman<\/div>
|<\/div>
May 2, 2023<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you’re struggling to stay on top of your email, perhaps what you need is a new app to shake things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not saying you should switch email providers and give up your existing email address. But using an alternative app with your existing email service can help you manage, find, and respond to emails more efficiently. As a bonus, you might also get an inbox that’s uncluttered by annoying ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this week’s feature column, I’ve written a guide to how these third-party email apps work, along with a list of notable examples to check out.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

Read the full column with a free trial<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Paid subscribers<\/a> get an exclusive feature column every week, plus extra deals, searchable newsletter archives, a growing list of guides<\/a>, and access to Advisorator’s Slack group<\/a>. Check it out with a four-week free trial:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tStart your trial<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n

Need to know<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Google Authenticator starts syncing:<\/strong> Google has addressed a big weakness in its Authenticator app by syncing two-factor codes<\/a> across devices. This will let users access their codes on a new device by signing into their Google accounts, even if they lose the phone where Authenticator was originally installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There been some uproar about the launch because the codes aren’t end-to-end encrypted<\/a> (yet). In theory that means someone could hack into Google’s servers and steal users’ codes. But that’s a pretty remote possibility, far outweighed by the benefit of being less likely to lose your codes entirely. If this convenience gets more people to use a two-factor authentication app instead of text messages<\/a> in the first place, it’s a win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halo, goodbye:<\/strong> Amazon is shutting down its fitness gadget business<\/a>, discontinuing the Halo Band and Halo View wearables along with the Halo Rise sleep-tracking lamp, which only launched six months ago. All three devices will stop working on August 1, and anyone who bought one in the last year will get a refund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I remarked on Mastodon last week<\/a>, Amazon is becoming to hardware what Google is to software, flooding the zone with experimental new gadgets only to abandon them when they fail to resonate. I wrote about this phenomenon<\/a> a couple years ago, and of the four products pictured atop that story, two have since been discontinued and one has yet to ship. The other is Amazon’s Astro robot, a rudderless and expensive product<\/a> that I wouldn’t bet on surviving the long haul either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Tip of the moment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned in this week’s feature column, intelligent email sorting is one of the main reasons to consider some alternative email apps. But if you’re a Gmail user, this capability is already built in. It’s called “Categories,” and it automatically sorts promotional emails and other low-priority messages into separate tabs in your inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make sure you’re using this feature, click Gmail’s \u2699\ufe0f gear icon, then select “See all settings,” and click the “Inbox” section. From here you’ll see a list of Categories to enable or disable, including Promotions, Social, Updates, and Forums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As my pal JR Raphael has pointed out<\/a>, you also can use Categories as a quick filtering system. Just drag an email from your inbox into any Category tab, then confirm that you want to categorize all future messages this way. By doing this, you can even repurpose any Category as place for emails from specific senders. (Using this trick, I’ve turned Gmail’s “Social” tab into a place to read all the newsletters I’ve signed up for.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Now try this<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft’s poster maker:<\/strong> After months of private testing, Microsoft Designer<\/a> is now available to anyone. It’s the latest product of the company’s AI obsession, letting you create flyers, posters, and presentations using simple text prompts. Just type out what you’re looking for, and Designer will generate some templates. From there you can tweak the design and add new elements, including AI-generated artwork. Give it a try<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk to your PDFs:<\/strong> Elsewhere in the AI realm, ChatPDF<\/a> lets you upload a PDF file, then ask questions about the document in a chat-style interface. This one comes recommended by Chris H.<\/strong> in Advisorator’s Slack space<\/a>, and could come in handy if you need some quick takeaways from a lengthy document. The free version lets you view up to three PDFs per day, with a maximum 120 pages and 10 MB file size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Around the web<\/h2>\n\n\n\n