While Android has a fairly competent default email app in Gmail, there is a market for alternative email apps - especially if you don't use Gmail as your default email service. Third-party email apps offer some appealing features like automatic sorting, a nice conversation view, and advanced text formatting options, among others. Automatic sorting in particular is becoming an essential feature as many people receive a large number of emails. If an app can send these mails directly to relevant folders, then it saves people a lot of time. We looked at a lot of free email apps on Android and picked these as the best of them.
Mailbox
One of our favourite email apps on iOS, Mailbox is just as good on Android. It has nice swipe gestures for actions such as archive, delete, reminders and sorting. The best feature is auto-swipe, which automatically sends emails to folders. This works great for iCloud and Gmail, but other email services aren't supported yet.
Supports: Gmail, iCloud
Aqua Mail
Aqua Mail isn't as pretty as some other email apps, but its advanced formatting options and easy to use interface make it worth checking out. It lets you change the font, text colour and size apart from basic formatting options such as bold and italics. It has some of Mailbox's swipe gestures and supports all popular email services.
Supports: Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, FastMail, Apple mail services, GMX, AOL, Google Apps, Yahoo BizMail, Office 365, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and Microsoft Exchange Web Services
Inbox by Gmail
If you use Gmail, then Inbox is among the best email apps you can use. It automatically groups similar emails and highlights important information from your mails in neat cards. For instance, if you have a few flight tickets in your inbox, Inbox shows a neat card with your upcoming trip at the top. This app doesn't support any other email services, but works perfectly with Gmail. It's still invitation only so you'll have to request an invite from Google or a friend who uses Inbox by Gmail to start using this app.
Supports: Gmail
CloudMagic
CloudMagic is an email app you should use if you need any of its integrations. It supports services such as Pocket, Trello and Evernote and lets you perform actions such as save articles or make quick notes right from CloudMagic itself. While the free version is good enough, a pro subscription (Rs. 2,800/year) lets you download attachments in the background or add unlimited accounts.
Supports: Gmail, Exchange, Yahoo, Outlook, iCloud, Google Apps, Office 365 and IMAP
Boxer
If you rely on quick responses and need an integrated to-do list, then Boxer is a good app for you. It lets you "like" emails, which is like a quick response to emails and even allows you to add emails to a built-in to-do list. This will help people get things done quickly. Boxer supports just one account for free, but if you text 10 contacts about the app, you can get the pro version (Rs. 620) for free.
Supports: Gmail, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, iCloud, Office 365, IMAP & POP3
WeMail
WeMail is a good app for those focused on productivity. It has a button that lets you quickly compose a voice message, apart from the standard compose email button. It's a beautiful app that sorts mails by sender and has a chat-like view for email threads, both of which make it easy to manage conversations. It also lets you filter emails by photos and documents.
Supports: Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and AOL
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook supports most popular email services and is a great email client to have on your phone. You can create a calendar entry and send event invitations easily through the app. Also in its arsenal are nice quick filters that let you find unread emails or those with attachments. It also allows you to snooze emails for a later date, which is a handy feature. The app is still in beta so some essential features like ability to change account settings like password are missing, but Microsoft has been pushing regular updates to the app, so we expect these to be added pretty soon.
Supports: Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com (including Hotmail, MSN), Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud
These are our favourite email apps on Android but if you want to try some more, there are two more worth mentioning. Type Mail has a row of tabs at the bottom that let you flip through your task list, emails with attachments, and your inbox. MailWise is among the most beautiful email apps on Android and it supports Mailbox-like gestures as well.
Is your preferred Android email app on this list? Let us know via the comments.
Also see
The Best Free Dialer Apps for Android
The Best Free Alternatives to the SMS App on Your Android Phone
The Best Free Launcher Apps for Android
The Best Free Browsers for Android
The Best Free Browsers for iPhone and iPad
The Best Free Web Browsers for Windows
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