What you need to know

  • There's a new Mac email app in town and it's designed for Gmail.
  • The app is developed by a former Apple engineer.
  • The app is native and written in Swift using AppKit and SwiftUI.

Apple's Mail app does support Gmail but the experience can be clunky at best. There are also plenty of third-party email apps out there that support Gmail, but many of them try to over-complicate matters by adding their own features. Mimestream is a new email app that tries to bridge the gap – it looks similar to Mail, but is built especially for Gmail.

Unlike most other Gmail apps, Mimestream connects directly to Google's servers as well – your data doesn't go anywhere other than your computer, and Google. That's a win for privacy-focused users right there.

Mimestream follows the model of a traditional e-mail client: a cache of your recent messages are stored on your device, and the originals remain on the Gmail server. Mimestream communicates directly from your device to Google's APIs, without using an intermediary server. In addition, your account's access tokens stay on your device.

The app itself is built using AppKit and SwiftUI and runs as a native Mac app. It's actually being developed by Neil Jhaveri, a former Apple engineer who worked on the Mail app that lives in macOS. That might be why Mimestream looks similar. But with native Gmail features like labels, advanced search, and even synced aliases this is definitely not Mail.

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New features are planned for the future as well, with Google Drive support on the list. Right now Mimestream is Mac-only, but an iPhone and iPad version of the app is planned.

Mimestream is free right now while it's in beta form, but it'll be a paid app once development is complete. I'd already heard some good things about Mimestream before MacRumors reminded me about it – and I can't wait to check it out. Especially once there are some mobile apps to go with it.

Download Mimestream now and try it for yourself.