HEY Email

Might change my rating but so far I hate the design

The iPad app works like the iOS app. Which is fine, except without keyboard shortcuts it’s not very useful. Better to use it in the browser on iPad. The mobile apps have also been buggy lately when taking actions on email (not returning to the previous screen automatically, etc)

Update: **Another** year with no significant updates or improvements. The product just has not gotten better at all, and does not justify the recurring subscription. I was on the waitlist and joined Hey when it launched. It was an incredibly promising concept and felt like the refreshing change I needed in email. Unfortunately, there have been almost zero improvements to the service or the app in nearly an entire year (except for an email they sent us all touting some new calendar functionality coming “next year”). The number one biggest issue with Hey is that neither their iOS nor Mac app is native. It’s just a weird wrapper around a webpage with some (bad) keyboard shortcuts mapped to it. Feature discovery is low. It’s difficult to get back and fourth between different views / folders / messages. And, because the apps aren’t native, they don’t do the most basic things you’d expect from a native app, like remembering your scroll position. Part of me wants to be forgiving of this… it’s costly to ship a native product to every platform. But after years, I’d expect significant improvements to the web-based experience so it feels more native, or a jump to native. If they opened up an API, I’d make a native client in heartbeat… Second big issue: search. It’s buggy, unreliable, rarely provides the results you’re looking for, and oftentimes the UI just completely freaks out and suddenly you’ve got no idea what you’re looking at. Again, if this was a native app, maybe this wouldn’t be an issue, but since it’s a webpage inside an app… it’s a mess. Third: The Screener. This was the feature that got me to switch to Hey in the first place! What a great idea! Except that they’ve completely abandoned it, haven’t made a single improvement to it, added any of the tools myself or other customers ask for, and don’t seem to be phased by it’s rigidity and difficulty to use. I enrolled in the Spam Corps program thinking it might improve things… it hasn’t. Then there’s a plethora of little annoyances and issues throughout the app / service that make it almost painful to use. Why is everything just shoved into the “Hey” junk drawer / hamburger menu? I have to scroll through an asinine list to get to my “Clips” (another of their flagship features), which would be super useful… if I didn’t have to dig through endless UI just to get to them. Why can’t I set a specific TIME to “Bubble up” a message? Bizarrely, the only options are today at 6pm… or just pick another day. I could go

A “disposable” email address would most likely be in my thought to prevent giving your real email. However, it would be just as easy to create an alternate Gmail account or yahoo account, etc. I found it very interesting that one of the great reviews spoke about how such a polished and perfect app on its first try seems to have come from the gods. Well, if you look at the information that it collects it collects as much information as Google it shares your contacts the fact you can log into it directly with your Google. Login tells me that there’s nothing private about it. the reason Google and Facebook have no government oversight seems so obvious. Why would the government spend billions of dollars to develop technology to track you “for the deep state. The deep state is in fact, Google, Facebook, etc. why create the infrastructure to get the information when everyone already, practically pays them to take it. If you can remember back when Google and Facebook first started, then you can remember that is the same time you started getting barcode for stores to get the discounts. For those of you who think your phone is listening to you or using your camera, odds are it might be. That would be because your employer can buy a product called G suite from Google and if you ever login to your personal email on a work computer or phone from that point on they have access to your personal emails. They will say it is to prevent sales of company secrets however, it also monitors if you send a job application if you interact with competitors, many nudes you may have ever sent… however, after a lot of research, the correlation with the barcodes or typing in your phone number, CVS or Walgreens is to simply connect you to your purchases, and all that information is owned by Facebook. It did not occur to the stores until much later that they could also use the information. So if you were looking for a disposable email, that is absolutely tracked – read- saved not obviously owned by Google yet you can sign in using your login then HEY might just be for you.

Don’t do it.

I echo the comments of some other posters. This is, perhaps, the best email system since Gmail and I have absolutely no problem paying for the service. It takes about a week to get used to the work-flow, but after that, the program is intuitive and customer support has been great whenever I’ve needed anything (only once so far!). They also have handy guides for switching from Gmail and/or other services if you’re worried. Definitely give it a try.

I canceled my subscription while planning a trip to a location where internet would be spotty when I got there & while traveling. I feel uncomfortable not knowing if I can access emails related to travel on a plane with no internet. I love HEY but I’ve been stung once and now print emails or save as a PDF. But HEY Calendar schedules might also suffer from this. I literally do not want to test and validate that I’ll need internet to see an itinerary or events in general. This isn’t a feature that hasn’t been implemented, it’s a flaw.

I really liked Hey. I found the interface and organization well conceived. Then, somehow, I lost my password. Oh oooh. The bucket of codes I was required to copy at install didn’t, work. Not one. Support seemed indifferent and eventually said they could reimplement but I would be a number of days without email. I guess they don’t get how email is used? So, I contacted all my accounts and contacts that I had moved to Hey returned them to a responsible provider and then just let the subscription expire as they wouldn’t provide refund without original mail which I couldn’t provide because… well, you know. Kind of a small time operation supporting a big time app.

Hey Mail promises a revolution in email management, but falls short on delivering any real value for the price tag. UX is clunky and cartoonish. Save $$ and stick with a more user-friendly email solution.

I realized you can’t use existing email accounts. It’s for Hey accounts only. Nice feature set but this isn’t for me.