This is the second software recommendation in my blog, and sorry it’s a bit late, since I have been trying to get Ubuntu to work on my laptop these days. Today I am going to share with you a good email application for Android, named Mail.ru. I am not confident enough to say that this is the best email app for Android, but at least I consider it as the most comfortable to use, and of course, if you have any better choice, make sure to tell me, I am always in need for a nice email client.
As you can tell, the name of that application, mail.ru, is a domain name. And that domain is actually a very popular email service provider in Russia. But don’t worry, this Android app is in English, or at least could function in English, with full translation, which means you do not see a single word in Russian in the user interface.
To get this software, just check out Play Store, it is very popular there and must be easy to find. I suppose you have seen it many times in the Google recommendations. I know that some of the Android phones, whose system has been heavily modified by the manufacturers, do not have Google service framework installed, let alone play store. In that case, you’d better install those stuff yourself, and that will give you a completely different user experience, more like the stock Android version, which is Google’s original intention for you to have.
What Mail.ru attracts me most is its Internet proxy. As you may know, Google service is blocked in China mainly due to they refuse to cope with respective Chinese laws (or can I put it this way?), one of which is that any ISP willing to offer their service in China must store all relevant data on servers physically in China. Hence, Gmail is not available and the only way to access it for us is to use VPN, connect to Internet via another gateway. Mail.ru offers a built-in proxy configuration, so we do not have to log into our VPN first to use Gmail. This is a very important feature, since Gmail is, in my opinion, the most reliable email provider on the earth, and my Gmail account is the primary contact account in many places.
Well, I know that outside China Gmail is accessed freely, and such a feature is of no meaning at all for many. So I will now introduce another very important advantage for this app – speed. If you remember what I said in my first software recommendation of Mailbird, just consider this software as two times faster than it. It is in terms of new mail retrieval of course, generally if you run a test to send yourself an email, basically you receive the new mail notification as soon as your mail is marked as sent, no matter you are refreshing it manually or not (in most cases you don’t have to run refreshments) I don’t understand what kind of code they implemented into this app or its background process, but it performs like that.
Some other features that many will consider as pro, this app supports a wide range of IMAP accounts and in most situations you don’t have to run the settings manually. The UI is friendly and colorful and contain various kinds of apps just like Mailbird. Avatars, signatures and identities are fully customizable. It also offers password protected folders, but I don’t think it is really meaningful, since the main safeguard for my mobile is of course the lock screen.
There is no serious drawback for this app, the only think I am a bit unsatisfied with is that Mail.ru has a start screen which displays its logo. That screen lasts for quite a long time, which sometimes makes me anxious. Despite that, however, this app runs smoothly and effortlessly. My phone’s hardware is just acceptable (not like my PC which is pro standard), but it runs the app with no difficulty.
This is a free application, so feel free to download and give it a try.