[HN Gopher] Show HN: Open-source superhuman like email client
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: Open-source superhuman like email client
Hey Hacker news, Over the last couple months, I've been hacking
with a friend on an email client for gmail that is similar to
superhuman. A little backstory, we think that superhuman, in it's
current implementation is vim-like. We hope to mostly match the
performance and usability there and expand it into something more
vscode-like. Looking for feedback and suggestions!
Author : ElasticBottle
Score : 59 points
Date : 2023-12-23 18:10 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| dinkleberg wrote:
| The banner in your readme says excalidraw but links to your site.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| Was using their readme as a basis and it seems like I forgot to
| update one link which is affecting like half the folks :')
|
| Thanks for pointing it out! Fix is on the way out!
| riedel wrote:
| Would be quit thrilled to see decent powerful alternative to
| thunderbird. Will it actually support any open protocols like
| IMAP or JMAP? If you say vim-like how is the relation to mutt? (
| Would really love to see a web app version of mutt actually)
| riordan wrote:
| Likewise; this ticks so many boxes for me, but as a hippy-dippy
| non-gmail user I too have to second the IMAP/JMAP ask.
|
| Gmail absolutely hits that sweet spot of API capabilities and
| where the users are, so I can't fault the project creators (or
| most every email client business these days) for building first
| (or exclusively) for it.
|
| That said, seeing Outlook as coming soon on their login page is
| reassuring that they're building in a way that won't tie them
| to Gmail forever. And while few email providers outside of
| Fastmail are offering JMAP support, as an API it's much closer
| to the degree of functionality expected by anyone building on
| top of Gmail's API today. A great new client that gives a big
| section of the public a better way to "do email" might be what
| it takes for more services to start offering JMAP.
|
| So hats off to y'all and fingers crossed on incorporating open
| standards.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| Hey Riordan, curious to know specifically what you're looking
| for?
|
| But right on about Gmail, it's much easier for us to
| prototype and test than some of the other clients.
|
| Also really appreciate the kind words! Means a lot to us at
| this early stage. Hopefully you do join the email list or
| discord so we can keep you posted on our progress!
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| hey Riedel, that's something we plan to look into (after we
| nail gmail and add outlook) as I personally have a mailbox on
| IMAP too.
|
| Do join our discord or mailing list so that we can keep you
| posted about it if you're interested!
|
| I've also never heard of Mutt sadly :') but couple of you
| mention it already so it's definitely on my list of things to
| try today! What is your experiences with Mutt so far? How does
| it stack up with other more mainstream clients?
| layer8 wrote:
| Mutt is the best TUI power-user choice (besides Emacs I
| guess). I've been using Mutt for over two decades. The one
| drawback is that there is no straightforward way to reply in
| HTML format to HTML mails.
| FergusArgyll wrote:
| are there docs? how do I build it myself?
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| Yeap.
|
| https://github.com/curdinc/skylar-email/blob/main/CONTRIBUTI...
|
| should point you in the right direction. Feel free to ping back
| here, on github, or on Discord.
| latexr wrote:
| > we think that superhuman, in it's current implementation is
| vim-like.
|
| What does this mean? Superhuman has AI integration, an expensive
| subscription model, is built with Electron1, is backed by VC
| money, and a bunch of other things to arguably dislike and
| actively avoid. It seems like the polar opposite of vim.
|
| > and expand it into something more vscode-like.
|
| Again, what does this mean? Are you going to add even more
| telemetry to something that's supposed to be private?
|
| I'm really struggling to see how the comparison applies. You do
| know vim isn't dead? People still use and love it, and with good
| reason.
|
| 1 If I recall correctly.
| iaresee wrote:
| > What does this mean?
|
| I think it means its focused on hands-on-keyboard interaction
| with your email. Everything is acceessible via keyboard
| shortcuts and there's no need to reach for your mouse with
| Superhuman.
| wormius wrote:
| Pine.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| porcu
| layer8 wrote:
| Mutt
| Retr0id wrote:
| I can't speak to the rest of the comparison, but regarding
|
| > You do know vim isn't dead? People still use and love it, and
| with good reason.
|
| I interpret their sentiment as "if you prefer vscode to vim,
| you'll prefer us to superhuman". Whether that's true is another
| question, but it seems like that's what they're going for.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| Vim-like primarily in its mouse-free UX, not its other
| properties.
| dotancohen wrote:
| How does this client compare to the leading open source email
| client, Thunderbird? Can this client reply to emails with a
| custom From address, as catch-all domain users need? Can this
| client infer which custom From address to use from the mail being
| replied to?
| simbolit wrote:
| This only works with gmail, with outlook coming soon.
|
| So it is not comparable at all.
|
| Thunderbird is an email client, this is an interface to
| proprietary email services.
| dotancohen wrote:
| I see, thank you.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| > Can this client reply to emails with a custom From address,
| as catch-all domain users need?
|
| Sadly it does not support either.
|
| we're currently looking towards gmail(current) => outlook =>
| protocol layer for now. However, will definitely keep note of
| it.
|
| > How does this client compare to the leading open source email
| client, Thunderbird?
|
| Took a shot at this here: https://github.com/curdinc/skylar-
| email/issues/61. I'd be glad to elaborate more as needed.
|
| I'd love to know about your thunderbird experience.
| josephcsible wrote:
| > All third party components incorporated into the
| skylarinbox.com Software are licensed under the original license
| provided by the owner of the applicable component.
|
| Can you elaborate on what components and licenses these are?
| liendolucas wrote:
| Open-source superhuman email client? I don't know... Maybe the
| author is not aware of mutt: http://www.mutt.org/ (or neomutt:
| https://neomutt.org/). Which in my opinion is way way closer to
| "superhuman".
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| I am actually not aware of mutt, but now that two others have
| mentioned it, I will definitely take a look!
|
| Thanks!
|
| do you use it? What do you use it most for?
| bitzun wrote:
| Mutt is very well known. People are very opinionated about
| the way they use email. If you want to build an email client,
| I would go familiarize yourself with the massively popular
| mail clients like mutt, Thunderbird, Outlook. A lot of effort
| has been spent learning how to do email.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| Yeap, have used thunderbird an outlook.
|
| Email client are a lot like pokemons, trying to collect
| them all!
|
| What do you use today? And how do you find it?
| satvikpendem wrote:
| All that text and not a single screenshot. What does it
| actually look and feel like to use?
| liendolucas wrote:
| If you ever used vim, then that is what mutt is to email. You
| need to learn it and configure it, which can take some time,
| same as emacs or vim.
| palata wrote:
| Or Aerc! https://aerc-mail.org/
| liendolucas wrote:
| I saw it a couple of times popping up on HN but never tried
| it (and forgot its name). It looks neat. Definetly deserves
| to be tried out!
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| damn, this looks pretty cool, I might use my mouse a little
| too much for this but will give this a spin alongside mutt
| and see how they compare!
|
| Do you daily drive Aerc? How's the experience been?
| sampli wrote:
| Hey.com is one of my favorite "new design" email clients. The OTP
| feature in Skylar seems cool, maybe they can steal it ;)
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| Stealing is the greatest form of flattery!
|
| What do you love most about hey.com? Maybe we could steal you
| over ;)
| remram wrote:
| Is superhuman a product name? I'm confused by this post.
| jjice wrote:
| Yeah, it's a fairly new (few years) email client that some
| people swear by. I believe they have a focus on being keyboard
| oriented.
| FanaHOVA wrote:
| It's 8 years old, not sure I'd call it fairly new :)
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| true, really depends on your perspective.
|
| I like to think that my 8 year old tortoise is fairly new.
|
| But I also think that my 8 year old shirt is fairly old
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| What's your take on the keyboard-oriented approach?
| sergiosgc wrote:
| An email client _for gmail_ is not an email client. It 's a Gmail
| client.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| fair enough, outlook will be coming soon.
|
| Would love to pick your brain on what would make for a great
| email client
| baobun wrote:
| Actual email support. IMAP/JMAP and SMTP.
|
| IMO it's misleading to call it an email client when it does
| not do actual email. Making your Gmail client also-an-
| Outlook-client does not make it an email client.
| palata wrote:
| > Email has been around since 1971 (according to Google GPT).
|
| So now LLMs are considered trustworthy references? Is it really
| that hard to read something like
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email#History?
|
| Spoiler: it seems wrong.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| spoiler: it was a joke
| scrapcode wrote:
| The irony of posting a Wikipedia source in the same comment.
|
| Not that I disagree with your sentiment, but when I was in
| school Wiki sources were forbidden across the board.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| fair enough though, and ya, we were never allowed to cite
| wiki sources either. I'll make a note for future docs to be
| more serious
| ale42 wrote:
| Given the e-mail client is basically the program that I leave
| open and use all the time, seeing an Electron app makes me think
| twice or more about even trying it. Electron is very heavy on
| system resources (battery power included).
|
| And as several people pointed out: generic IMAP/SMTP support!
| Personally I don't use Outlook nor gmail, my mailbox is only
| accessible through IMAP.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| Fair enough, if we ever do a dedicated client, we would
| hopefully invest in something more efficient. Likely going to
| stay on browser for a while more though, since most people
| already have their browsers opens, having a tab open feels
| lightweight enough especially compared to an electron app.
|
| Yeap, we hear you folks on the IMAP/SMTP support! Feel free to
| sign up on the email list or join our discord to keep up to
| date with developments!
|
| Out of curiosity, What client do you use today? How's the
| experience been for the workflow that you use it for?
| baobun wrote:
| I think there may be a significant overlap between
| individuals with IMAP requirements and individuals who can't
| or won't communicate over Discord. Any non-SMS-gated
| communication channel like Matrix or IRC would open you up to
| that crowd beyond this HN thread.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| > Looking for feedback and suggestions!
|
| I'm not really sure what makes skylar-email different than my
| current email client.
|
| Perhaps create a walkthrough / demo with screenshots that
| highlight different features?
|
| Also, can you explain the basic requirements? I assume an imap
| email server? Does it run on Windows / MacOS, or do I need to
| figure out how to host it?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-12-23 23:01 UTC)