Mimestream: The stylish Gmail client for Mac by ex-Apple engineer

After an extensive testing phase spanning over two years, Neil Jhaveri, a former Apple engineer, has officially released his email application for Mac called Mimestream. Jhaveri, who had a significant tenure at Apple for over seven years, notably contributing to the development of the Mail app for the first iPad and the initial Notes app for macOS, eventually led teams dedicated to enhancing Apple's Mail app. Departing from Apple in 2017, he founded Mimestream in 2019.

Mimestream, which currently exclusively supports Gmail, utilizes Gmail's API for seamless integration. While the app's compatibility is currently limited to Gmail accounts, Jhaveri and his team aim to expand its reach in the future. Despite being a relatively small operation, with only five individuals involved, Mimestream has garnered attention during its beta phase, attracting over 167,000 users eager to experience its capabilities. Jhaveri emphasized that the company remains self-funded, maintaining its independence as they continue to refine and advance Mimestream's functionalities.-

Drawing from his experience with Apple's Mail app, Neil Jhaveri has incorporated design elements in Mimestream that resemble the default Mac application. These include familiar features such as the utilization of blue dots to denote unread emails, a three-column layout, and action buttons conveniently placed in the top bar. As a native app, Mimestream seamlessly integrates with the macOS, ensuring a cohesive user experience. The app embraces trackpad gestures, offers support for dark themes, allows users to link email profiles to Focus Filters, and provides customizable keyboard shortcuts.

Mimestream is powered by Gmail API

Mimestream, using the Gmail API’s capabilities, enables easy importation of various elements such as signatures, server-side filters, templates, labels, and vacation responses. Additionally, the app extends support for Gmail aliases, mentions, code blocks, Markdown substitutions, undo send functionality, as well as the ability to send and archive emails. This deep integration with Gmail's API enhances Mimestream's overall experience, bringing it closer to the functionality and familiarity of Gmail's web interface.

With the new launch, Mimestream will also support profiles like “Work” and “Personal” so that you can separate different accounts. You can also assign different colors to accounts to differentiate between emails in the unified view. Plus, you can set a notification schedule so that you aren’t disturbed by unnecessary notifications.

The app also features a menu bar extra — when you click on the menu bar icon, you can quickly check for any unread messages without opening the app.

You can use Mimestream for free with a 14-day trial. After that, you have to pay either $4.99/month or  $49.99/year. However, the startup is offering the annual plan at a discounted launch price of $29.99 for the first year until June 9. Mimestream is going up against other email clients like Boxy, Edison Mail, and former Google exec’s app Shortwave. It is relying on the simple and familiar interface for Mac users and tight integration with Gmail to stand out from the competition.

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