AOL Launches Alto Mail, a New Email Mobile App Alternative

The average user may be happy with a standard email app like Google’s Inbox or Yahoo’s native iPhone app, but power users with multiple accounts between work and play often turn to third-party apps that offer multi-client support. AOL recently jumped into the game with a unique mobile app offering for iOs and Android, Alto Mail — and as the names suggests, the sleek Inbox alternative sports a variety of simple but well-composed features that should appeal to any San Francisco iPhone app developer.

“Spend less time digging, more time living,” reads the tagline at the new mobile app’s website. Rather than organize your emails and calendar from a to-do list perspective, Alto Mail iPhone and Android app developers employ a system that surfaces mail based on contents over action items. Perhaps the most compelling feature is the separation of attachments from content, allowing users to scroll through images in a “gallery” setting the way you might in a mobile app like WhatsApp, WeChat, and anywhere else photos are received in the context of text content.

Also helpful among Alto Mail iPhone and Android app features are automated scanning for travel and shipment details and calendar-based integration with a clean, helpful dashboard screen. While this isn’t too different from the Inbox system of cards and reminders that Google Inbox users might be familiar with, Alto Mail brings a refreshing minimalist approach to surfacing notifications by not assuming your preferred time management system, as Google is known for. While convenient, those of us who prefer separate apps for to-do lists, calendars, and collaboration tools like Evernote will enjoy the openness of the Alto Mail platform.

For a fresh start, Alto Mail seems to be getting a lot “right” for users looking to an alternative mail app that doesn’t try to do too much. While iPhone app developers might want to hold out for improved search functionality and Gmail alias support before making the switch from Inbox or another native email app, Alto Mail could emerge as a strong contender in the battle for the inbox.