Just got a nice dose of realism from watching The Social Dilemma, and I’m feeling it would be a great idea to end my relationship with Gmail to switch to a platform that is not collecting my information…
In the past, I had signed up for and tested a few different platforms, but none felt as natural and usable as Gmail as far as the convenience is concerned.
Some of my favorite features that keep stuck with Gmail for the extreme, life-changing convenience over other platforms include:
- Unsubscribe feature (they have this on Gmail app, so useful!)
- Sorting and labeling
- Pre-written, predictive responses (“Thanks, I’ll check it out!” is one of my favorites, haha)
- Syncing large files with a cloud / integrating with a Drive
- Ability to handle attachments without running out of space
- Smooth and thoughtful user experience (not “jerky”, like being able to drag things around and see it moving vs. a status checkbox to click makes it feel much more “usable”… whereas the other way feels like a prison, and it’s more common among less-developed platforms with less money to spend on thinking about / shaping UX)
But what I really feel a need for in addition to all of this is also:
- Ethical tech / privacy values / human-centered and humane, not business-centered with ads
…which I don’t see Gmail doing anytime soon.
As far as I know, there isn’t a platform that exists other than Gmail that has anything near these features… but would love to hear what you all are using outside of Gmail if you value a smooth UX and privacy?
(Also, Mudita, consider this a call for my wishlist for a future email platform )