Dropbox has announced an acquisition, Mailbox. We understand that some may not be as familiar with Mailbox given, at present, it is available only for iOS users. The Mailbox app launched for the iPhone a short while back and it seems to be all the rage in the iOS world. We have yet to see if the hype that surrounded Mailbox will turn into anything other than people wanting something they could not immediately get.
Anyway, so Dropbox acquired an app that is not even available for Android. Based on that one may wonder why the post on an Android blog. Well, maybe in the hopes that Mailbox would eventually be released in the Google Play Store. This part involves a bit of speculation because at the moment we have yet to see solid plans from Dropbox or Mailbox.
At present the Mailbox team has said they want to put Mailbox in the hands of everyone that wants it. Going on to say that includes “support for more email providers and mobile devices.” Granted, that more mobile devices mention could also be nothing more than the numerous iOS users still waiting to gain access.
While we are generally happy with the official Gmail app that is available for Android users, Mailbox does have an interesting approach to email. Some of the features include being able to swipe messages to archive or delete and even be able to snooze emails until a later time. Basically, the Mailbox team aims to have you remain at inbox zero and from what we have seen, it looks like they have an interesting perspective.
So far what we have heard from the Dropbox team includes that they have fallen in love with Mailbox due to it being “simple, delightful, and beautifully engineered.” As for the Mailbox team, they have said they believe the product needs to grow fast and that “rather than grow Mailbox on our own, we’ve decided to join forces with Dropbox and build it out together.”
[via SlashGear]
Mailbox is so awesome! Having switched to android, I sorely miss it. The Gmail app just isn’t quite as nice.
The Gmail app has allowed swiping to archive/delete for a while now. At least on Android 4.1.2
It’s not at all the same. The Mailbox implementation gives a lot of choice and power to swiping. You can archived, deleted, sort and defer all with swiping gestures and without configuring between them ahead of time. Gmail would be wise to appropriate Mailbox’s methods.