Google continues its shopping spree and buys Sparrow, a mail client for Mac and the iPhone. The Sparrow team will work on Gmail. Sparrow, one of the most popular email clients for Mac and iOS devices, has just been acquired by Google. The company will be joining Google’s Gmail team, presumable in order to integrate Sparrow into Google’s web services.
We love using Gmail.com for its many features, but if you want offline access and a more 'desktop-like' experience, you can get your Gmail messages delivered to a desktop client, like Outlook or Apple Mail. Here's how.
Every mail client is a little bit different, so we can't show you every way to set up Gmail, but in general, it should be pretty similar. Some programs will set up Gmail automatically with just your username and your password, while others will require you to set them up manually. If you have a Google Apps account (that is, if you're using Gmail but your email is not an @gmail.com email address), you'll also have to do it manually. Here are a few examples using the most popular email clients.
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Initial Setup (for All Clients)
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Before you do anything, you'll need to enable IMAP in Gmail, which will let you access your accounts on the desktop. To do this, head into Gmail's Settings and go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Scroll down to the IMAP section and enable IMAP. Then save your changes, and open up your desktop email client of choice to set it up using the following instructions.
Set Up Gmail in Microsoft Outlook
To set up Gmail in Microsoft Outlook (we'll be using Outlook 2010 for this demonstration), open up Outlook and run through the following steps:
- Head to File > Account Settings > Account Settings. Click the New button to create a new account.
- Click on the 'Manually configure server settings' radio button at the bottom of the new account window. Then, hit Next.
- Choose Internet Email at the next screen and hit Next.
- Type in your name and Gmail address under 'User Information. Change your Account Type from POP3 to IMAP, and add
imap.gmail.com
as your Incoming Mail Server. Type insmtp.gmail.com
as your Outgoing Mail Server. - Type in your full Gmail address (i.e. [email protected]) and password under Logon Information.
- Hit the More Settings button and go to the Advanced tab. Under Incoming Server, type 993 and set your encryption from 'None' to 'SSL'. Under Outgoing Server, type 587 and set your encryption to TLS.
- Head to the Outgoing Server tab of the same window and check the box that says 'My outgoing server requires authentication'. Hit OK, and hit Next to complete your account setup.
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If all goes well, Outlook should send a test message, and let you know that your account was successfully set up! Check out the video above to see this process in action.
Set Up Gmail in Apple Mail
To add a new account in Apple Mail:
- Head to Mail > Preferences in the menu bar and go to the Accounts tab. Hit the plus sign in the bottom left corner to add a new account.
- Type in your Name, full Gmail address, and password and hit Continue. If you're using an @gmail.com address, you're probably done—Mail should fill in the rest of the settings for you. If you're using a Google Apps account, you'll need to do a few more things.
- On the next window, choose IMAP as your Account Type, type in a description (something like 'Gmail'), and type
imap.gmail.com
. Change your username to your full Gmail address and type in your password. Click Continue. - On the next screen, type a description, type
smtp.gmail.com
as your Outgoing Mail Server, and check the Use Authentication. Click Continue, and click Continue on the next screen as well. Hit Create to take the account online.
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When you're done, Mail should start downloading all your messages to your inbox, and you'll be ready to read all your email right from the desktop. Check out the video above to see this process in action. Note that Mail doesn't automatically use Gmail's Sent, Spam, or Trash folders—it'll create its own, which can be annoying. To fix this, just select Gmail's Sent Mail folder, then go to Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For > Sent in the menu bar. Repeat this process for Trash and Junk, too, to make sure all your folders sync up.
Set Up Gmail in Mozilla Thunderbird
Setup in Mozilla Thunderbird is pretty much the same as in Apple Mail. To add Gmail to Thunderbird:
- Head to Tools > Accounts, and at the bottom of the window that pops up, click the Account Actions drop-down. Hit 'Add Mail Account'.
- Type in your name, email address, and password and click Continue. Thunderbird will try to set up the account automatically. If it fails to do so, hit the 'Manual Setup' button.
- In the sidebar, find the account you just created and click on Server Settings. Type in
imap.gmail.com
for your Server Name, type 993 for your port, and make sure your username is your entire Gmail address. Under Connection Security, pick SSL/TLS and pick Normal Password as your Authentication Method. - Hit OK to finish the account creation process.
Once Thunderbird imports your account, you'll be able to send and receive mail right from your desktop.
Email Client For Mac
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If you're using a mail client different from one of the above, the setup shouldn't be too different—just make sure you're typing in your full Gmail address as your username, and that you're using the correct ports and encryption types as described above in the account settings.
Best Mac Email Clients
Emailable Tech Support is a tri-weekly series of easy-to-share guides for the less tech savvy people in your life. Got a beginner tech support question you constantly answer? Postgresql client mac cli. Let us know at [email protected]. Remember, when you're just starting out computing, there's very little that's too basic to learn.
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You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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Every Mac comes with a free email application, appropriately named Mail. Using the native Mail application is fine for most people, especially for those who only use iCloud, but things get trickier when you’re dealing with multiple email accounts.
For Gmail users in particular, more thorough solutions are available, many which are free. Here’s a look at five Mail alternatives and why they might work for you.
AirMail ($10)
Marketed as being a “lighting-fast email client for Mac,” AirMail is also the most beautiful application on the list. Offering Split Screen support for OS X El Capitan, the application looks and feels like it’s an Apple creation. It also features some options not available on the native Mac application, which consistently makes AirMail one of the best overall apps for OS XThe Best Mac Apps to Install on Your MacBook or iMacThe Best Mac Apps to Install on Your MacBook or iMacLooking for the best apps for your MacBook or iMac? Here's our comprehensive list of the best apps for macOS.Read More.
Chief among this is the ability to compose in Markdown or HTML. As you type on the left, the result is shown on the right side of the screen. Being able to view the formats side-by-side means you can make sure to remove broken links or weird-looking text before sending.
In AirMail, received messages may be organized by task. You can mark each email as To Do, Memo, or Done. The first are for items that require some action or a follow-up. A Memo is for items you need to memorize or store for later, and you can mark completed emails as Done. You can also Snooze messages, allowing you to move them to the side for viewing at a later time or date.
The application offers support for Google, iCloud, Exchange, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, IMAP, and POP. It also works with many third-party integrations, including Dropbox, Google Drive, OmniFocus, Things, and many more.
AirMail is available in the Mac App Store. You can also download a beta version for free from the developer’s website. An AirMail for iPhone app is coming soon.
Mail Pilot 2 ($20)
Like AirMail, Mail Pilot 2 turns mail into a to-do list, allowing you to focus on what’s most important. Unique to Mail Pilot 2 is a relatively new feature called Dash.
With Dash, your daily life is summarized on a dashboard to help you become more productive. It includes the number of messages that you have received in the past 24 hours, plus those that are completed, set aside, due, and late. Dash also summarizes the average time it takes for you to reply to emails and more. Another handy feature provides links to files that you’ve recently sent or received, which is very nice.
The application supports all standard IMAP accounts, including Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, Rackspace, Outlook.com, and Google Apps. Mail Pilot 2 is available in the Mac App Store. A $9.99 iOS version is available from the App Store.
Best Google Mail Client For Mac
Do you want to learn more about Mail Pilot? Be sure to take a look at our original reviewTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XLike the mobile version of the app, Mail Pilot for Mac is very useful for managing important email like a to-do list.Read More.
![Free email clients for mac Free email clients for mac](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126168854/737770093.jpg)
Postbox ($10)
Postbox is one of the oldest email clientsPostbox: An Alternative Email Client For MacPostbox: An Alternative Email Client For MacPostbox is an email management application for Windows and Mac powered by the Mozilla platform.Read More on our list, but it’s also a very stable product. Postbox’s goal is to remove some of the chaos associated with mail, by offering robust tools to make the process more efficient.
One of Postbox’s nicest features is the ability to group messages by topic. This allows you to break work into smaller, more manageable chunks. Grouping by subject is particularly useful when you have more than one email account. Postbox also enables you to create Pre-Made Responses, which you can reuse as often as needed.
Postbox works with most email providers including Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and iCloud. It also supports POP3, IMAP, and SMTP protocols. It is available from the Postbox website. A 30-day free trial is also available, so you can try before you buy.
CloudMagic (free)
This mail client only recently arrived on OS X after finding success on iOS and AndroidTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XLike the mobile version of the app, Mail Pilot for Mac is very useful for managing important email like a to-do list.Read More. Dubbed “simple, beautiful & blazing fast” by its creators, the application features a transparent user interface, free of fancy buttons or slides.
This approach works well, especially if you have to go through a lot of emails each day or have multiple accounts. We especially like the application’s shortcut buttons, which allow you to move quickly to the next or previous email.
CloudMagic offers support for Gmail, Exchange, Google Apps, Yahoo, Outlook, iCloud, and all IMAP accounts. It’s available in the Mac App Store. CloudMagic for iOS and CloudMagic for Android are also available. Both are free.
Nylas N1 (free)
Two of most popular third-party mail clients in recent years were Sparrow and Mailbox. After each was purchased by Google and Dropbox respectively, both were eventually shutdown, leaving millions of users in the lurch. By contrast, Nylas N1 is open-source and published on GitHub, meaning it will never be bought and axed.
Nylas N1 is the closest thing you’ll see to a next-generation mail program. It features a clean user interface, supports Gmail keyboard shortcuts, and best of all, because it is open-source, has a community to back it up. However, because it’s so new, you may run into some problems, at least in the short-run. For example, N1 doesn’t currently offer a unified inbox and the formatting isn’t quite right.
Why is N1 on our list? Because it’s been designed for easy modification. Best of all, it can run on multiple platforms including OS X, Windows, and Linux. Better still — it’s free. N1 is compatible with many providers, including Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, and more. Currently, there is no N1 app for iOS.
You’ve Got Mail Options
![Email Email](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126168854/323049125.png)
Free Mail Client For Mac
If you’re happy with Apple’s default email client, keep it. For those looking for different ways to organize your mail or rather use something that plays nicer with Gmail, consider one of our alternatives. The most feature-rich solutions on the list are AirMail and Mail Pilot 2. The ones most likely to push mail into new areas in the next year are CloudMagic and Nylas N1. Looking for a reliable, stable solution? Consider Postmate.
Are you looking for more ways to customize your email experience on a Mac? Check out these hidden El Capitan features you probably don’t know about11 Hidden OS X El Capitan Features You Might Not Know About11 Hidden OS X El Capitan Features You Might Not Know AboutThink you've found all the new features in El Capitan? Think again! There is a bounty of handy features that haven't gotten a lot of press.Read More, or take your email writing to the next level with these tools5 Tools That Can Help You Write Better Emails5 Tools That Can Help You Write Better EmailsEveryone is still trying to solve the email problem. So, let's also talk about the most basic habit of all – the art of writing better emails. With the help of some cool tools.Read More.
Which email client for Mac do you use? Let us know in the comments below.
Explore more about: Apple Mail, Desktop Email Client, OS X El Capitan.
Yahoo Mail Client For Mac
- Hi! The article's great, although I think you should have put free email clients first.I would also like to suggest Hiri (www.hiri.com), an email client that helps you master the art of email. It's an innovation like no other client, and as a standalone app for Windows, OS X, and Linux, Hiri works perfectly!It's also free for personal use!
- Nylas N1 is not free anymore despite marketing shit they spread
- CloudMagic costs $19.99 to download. What do you people think 'free' means?The answer is not 'approximately twenty dollars,' despite what you may have heard.
- I really like Spark but for the love of god I wish they would go ahead and release a mac version already!!! Their iPhone and iPad version is good but I'm struggling to find an email client for the mac until further notice..
- Jessica, I hope you may have found out that there is now a Mac version for Spark. It only supports IMAP though. I'm using Spark for iCloud since Apple Mail has become a complete hot mess on the computer (still works on iOS) and Apple Mail for my POP email accounts.
- Does Pegasus Mail work on a Mac?
- I might be wrong about this but CloudMagic keeps your user credentials in the cloud on their servers.Can anyone confirm this either way please?
- Yes they do.
- Airmail is a disaster as of March 2016. Unstable and unfit for purpose.
- Whats wrong with Airmail as of March 2016?
- I agree. It seems to be more and more unstable. I had really high hopes for AirMail, but I'm out!
- Airmail works perfectly fine. Still the best OSX email client. I wonder what issues you had with it.
- The search is awful.. and doesn´t have an undo send option.
- No MailMate mentioned? Really?
- I second this, it is quite good..
- Thunderbird ain't bad but its getting old. Anyone know which other client supports multiple identities (besides Postbox that is)?
- For those using gmail with one of these native apps, what are you finding that missing compared to the gmail website client? I've tried various real clients over the years but gmails's search is awesome as is and haven't really found something lacking from the web client.
- Have you tried http://mailplaneapp.com? Its a wrapper but pretty good if you're running OSX.
- Came to say the same thing as Peter, above. Cloudmagic is twenty dollars!
- What about Mozilla Thunderbird. It's also free and good.
- +1
- +1
- Airmail is absolutely the best OS X mail client out there. I am also beta testing Airmail's iOS app and that is going to beat the pants off everything else.
- Cloudmagic is nice, bit it's not free.