Mailbird is a Handy Email Client for Windows Users: Beta Preview

There are plenty of email applications around and most users have pretty much settled for one or the other. But for those who are still on the look out for a good alternative to their existing email client, there’s Mailbird, a pretty clean and neat email application that you will no doubt enjoy using.

Mailbird has just gone into public beta, so that means you can try the application yourself and decide if you want to keep using it. Before you get started though, you must know that currently Mailbird only offers support for Gmail or Google app accounts. So if you have a Gmail account, go ahead and give Mailbird a try.

Using Mailbird

The first thing that strikes you when using Mailbird is how light and easy the application feels. Mailbird’s interface features 3 panels. The left panel displays your Gmail Inbox  and folders and is expandable. You can drag it out to see the names of the folders or you can move it back in to the default location to see only folder icons.

The middle pane is where all your conversations are listed. One of the cool features of Mailbird is that you can hover your mouse pointer over a contact in your conversation view, you will see a list of icons that will offer you the option to archive, reply, forward, mark as not important, star, mark as read, mark as spam or simply trash it. The options are intuitive and you feel right at home, completely eliminating the need for a tutorial.

The right pane of Mailbird is the workspace area, where you can preview the conversation in full and compose your replies.

Mailbird also uses several shortcuts to perform the most common actions. For example, simply press r to to reply to a conversation, f to forward a conversation, e to archive the conversation and so on. Users familiar with Gmail shortcuts should feel right at home here. And for a newbie, keyboard shortcuts don’t even need memorizing! And if you are not the kind who cares about keyboard shortcuts, right-click actions will do the job.

Mailbird settings are available at the extreme top left of the screen. You can compose a new email using the pencil icon next to the Mailbox settings and search by typing your query in the adjacent text box. At the extreme top right of the screen, there’s the additional option to label your conversations.

Yet another impressive feature in Mailbird is its App center. You can activate one of the many apps in the App Center and directly access the apps from  Mailbird. With the App Center, Mailbox becomes more than just an email client. With applications such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Asana and more, all directly accessible to you, you save time and eliminate redundant tasks. Mailbird also lets you connect to your Facebook account so you can see what’s going on in your social world.

For users who want to send email from other accounts, there’s the concept of multi-identities. You can create separate identities corresponding to a different email account and send email from Mailbird as if you sent it from that email account. this looks to be a temporary fix until the multiple accounts feature is set.

Mailbird is a very smart email app that is easy to work with, and one you’ll instantly want to use. But it does have its downsides too. It currently does not support multiple accounts and there’s no support for non- Gmail accounts but the team is already working to fix that issue. Another dampener is that email messages sent from Mailbird will carry a default signature “Sent from Mailbird. It’s free.” To lose the signature, you will have to go Pro, for a yearly payment of $12, but with the app yet to go fully functional, you may not be too keen on it yet.

Whether you use the default mail app in Windows 8, or Microsoft Outlook, or other email clients, Mailbird is one you must definitely try. It’s free to use, feature-rich, very intuitive, clutter free, darn quick, offers good customizations, and has more awesome features in the works.

Check out Mailbird here.