Is the Mail application really needed?

[Layla Grace]

This may sound a little strange but is it really necessary to use the Mail application for email? For checking my email I always just go to gmail.com or yahoo.com and sign in and check my email from there. Even when I had my Windows computer I didn't use outlook. So what is the purpose of having an email client like Mail?

What does it do that is better than just going to gmail.com or yahoo.com?

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

You do not have to use an Email client such as Outlook to view web based mail. If your ISP offers a personal email account then you would have to use Outlook or some such Client. But even some ISP's have Web based email as well.

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

Personally I don't use mail clients like that, preferring gmail online.

The benefit of such email clients is that you can keep your emails on your computer and write responses or new emails without being connected to the online world, waiting to send them once you reconnect.

You can even use gmail through such mail clients, but as I say I go for using it in a web browser.

[Melfster]

Well it just depends on your needs. For instance if your on a laptop and are not online you can quickly compose and email and send it when u are on online.

[Smenus]

Firstly, not everyone has webmail, and some people don't like webmail interfaces, myself included.

Secondly, it does add a few nice features. Stationary (useful for the occasional important email), proper folders (compared to Gmail, no idea about Hotmail and Yahoo), and plugins are but a few.

Clearly, different people have different feelings on the subject, so I may be flamed. I however think that Mail is a nice app, and allows me to handle my IMAP email from Uni perfectly, with just enough features for me.

Edit: Beaten to the punch, many times over! Why won't it let me delete this post?!

[giga Veteran]

One is not always near an internet connection. Having all your mail locally available is very nifty.

But clients work especially well when handling more than one email address. I have my personal address, my school address, and my work address--all handled through one client.

[Virtual Epiphany]

you mean besides the fact that not everybody uses email services that provide web-based front ends? Personally, I hate gmail's UI. I hate the concept of the "ALL MAIL" folder, and the inability to create sub folders. I also require the ability to have very customized filters which most web based can't provide. Lastly, I am not all that comfortable with storing my mail on public servers. I have my accounts set to remove the message from the server after downloading.

However, if I was a soccer mom type user than I suspect that hotmail/yahoo would be fine (without all the douchey ads of-course).

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

But clients work especially well when handling more than one email address. I have my personal address, my school address, and my work address--all handled through one client.

You can of course do this through gmail too, and set it up so that you send and reply from any of the addresses you have. So you can send a message from your work email in gmail and it'll look to the receiver like it came from your work address, etcetera

[Budious]

We have email applications given the fact that it predates web browsers by about 20 years. The Internet was around long before it was filed with web pages. The benefit would be offline access and archival with an application, but modern web interfaces are full service as well.

[giga Veteran]

You can of course do this through gmail too, and set it up so that you send and reply from any of the addresses you have. So you can send a message from your work email in gmail and it'll look to the receiver like it came from your work address, etcetera

Tried it--didn't work well and was very clumsy. Organization of the different accounts wasn't very good either when compared to Mail.

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

Tried it--didn't work well and was very clumsy. Organization of the different accounts wasn't very good either when compared to Mail.

Fair enough. I have my issues with it too but they always seem to be 'in development'. Maybe one day they'll get it right.

[LunarFalcon]

I e-mail a lot of links to friends with articles I think they would like or pictures I want to show them, and I love being able to use my browser to send the link and have the e-mail client automatically pull up a new message with the link already in there. Not being able to do this in webmail interfaces is always something I didn't like.

[Layla Grace]

Thank you for all your responses. I'm sorry if my post sounded like I was dogging email clients which I wasn't I just couldn't figure out a better way to phrase my post.

I think I might use Mail just so I can login to all my email accounts at once. How many accounts can Mail handle? I think I would need 3.

How does Mail deal with spam/junk emails? My gmail address gets a TON of spam. It does all for the most part except for an occasional 1 or 2 all go into the spam folder. Will it do the same using Mail?

[General Disarray]

gmail still filters the spam and it appears under a spam folder in mail

or mail can filter spam if you want, or both can at the same time (i think)

the obvious benefit for me of using mail is that i don't need to have a webpage open all the time to check mail. On windows with msn messenger using hotmail i used their web client however because msn notified you instantly.

[Cadium]

Apple Mail supports multiple e-mail accounts, so 3 e-mail accounts should not be an issue. In regards to how Mail deals with junk e-mail messages, it can filter them on its own (client-side) or you can choose to let the e-mail server handle it on its own (Gmail does a good job at this, so I would recommend disabling Junk mail sorting for your Gmail account under your Mail preferences).

[John S. Veteran]

I have three accounts set up in Mail, one of them being my Gmail. It's much nicer to have everything in one place, Gmail still filters the 300+ spams each day and Mail filters out a further 4 or 5 a day.

[osirisX]

I use GMail with Mail for 2 reasons:

1. The UI of Mail is much nicer.

2. I like being notified when email is sent to me (Dock Badge).

[what]

I have 3 Gmail accounts and it's a pain to log in to each of them separately. I also use Mail as my RSS feed reader so all the stuff I need to read up on whenever I log on is in one place.

[Huleboeren]

I use GMAIL webinterface + Gmail Mobile java thingy

Two accounts

One for private stuff

One for public stuff like neowin, newsletter, that kinda crap..

The private-stuff-account automatically gets forwarded to my public-stuff account AND gets labeled "Private Mail". So I only have to visit my public-stuff account..

I can also send mails from my private-stuff account via my public-stuff account..

I see no need for email applications..

GMAIL is powerful and has plenty more features than I need.

I dont have to backup my email application mails if I format my computer or get a new one. Its all in one place, safe and sound @ google :p

If im not near a computer I use the google mobile mail.

<3 GOOGLE <3

POP3 and IMAP is for losers :laugh: :ninja:

[instant.human]

i can only speak for myself here and i dont like web based mail, doesnt feel like home and since i write some personal emails from time to time, i want to feel calm and ... yea, like home. :p

plus, i have one personal email adress, one for work and one for general purposes, which i can manage in mail all-in-one.

[PyX]

I have 3 emails accounts, and hate to enter my password each time.

Now with one click on the dock icon, I can see all my new messages. And because I'm at university now, I receive like 1 email per day from them. I don't see myself typing that same password each day.

[FiB3R]

I have 8 web mail accounts :/

[PyX]

8? Don't you think you're abusing the Web a little? :|

[DigitalE]

I prefer Gmail's web interface to using a desktop client. I like the look, and it's just so simple and easy.

[General Disarray]

I dont have to backup my email application mails if I format my computer or get a new one. Its all in one place, safe and sound @ google :p

...

POP3 and IMAP is for losers :laugh: :ninja:

well you obviously don't know how IMAP works, if you formatted your computer your IMAP client would just connect and download all the mail as it remains on google's server therefore backup is not a big issue (infact depending on weather you have downloaded all mails or just headers you have more backups than you would have just using gmail...)