Show HN: Swift Mail, a native macOS app for JMAP mail

[knr2345]

Hello HN! I'm excited to share Swift Mail, a native macOS email client purpose-built for the JMAP mail standard.

Primarily constructed with SwiftUI with occasional AppKit elements, Swift Mail combines the speed and efficiency of a modern mail standard with desktop-centric features such as system notifications, keyboard shortcuts, quick look, multiple windows, state restoration, dark mode, and more.

Swift Mail distinguishes itself from other email clients with its steadfast commitment to the JMAP standard over the traditional IMAP implementation, facilitating seamless alignment with modern mail features. It supports various innovative Fastmail features, such as multiple sending identities, the ability to send or reply on-the-fly from wildcard (*) aliases, and the ability to swiftly transition between (true) label and folder organization schemes.

Swift Mail prioritizes user privacy and does not collect any user data or function through intermediary servers. Instead, it directly connects to the JMAP server with the user's provided account credentials, processing and storing all data locally on the user's device.

Currently, Swift Mail is available directly via the Mac App Store with support extending back to Monterey. I’m also running a developer build on visionOS (if you have hardware and are interested in testing a beta release, please reach out to beta at swiftmail dot io).

A sincere thank you to everyone who has contributed their valuable insights or participated in beta testing via TestFlight thus far.

Looking forward to your feedback!

- Karl

[Towaway69]

Great job in building a good looking JMAP client, I use Mail to connect to my Fastmail account, ie IMAP.

It's a bit disappointing that JMAP isn't more widely supported but the last time I looked, Fastmail itself wasn't really maintaining the standard they invented.

I did some implementation to send emails over JMAP and it was hard to find good examples to follow. Perhaps that is changing.

Is there anyone from Fastmail here that can give a brief outlook for JMAP?

[knr2345]

Thank you!

There are quite a few mail-adjacent JMAP specs in the pipeline according to https://jmap.io/spec.html. I've enjoyed working with JMAP as a protocol, so I hope to see its continued growth as well.

[solarkraft]

That's so cool, I wish JMAP was real.

(By that I mean that there's virtually no way to use it besides using Fastmail)

[Mailtemi]

As a server (https://stalw.art/) has very solid JMAP support. James (https://james.apache.org) has good support too. Only the filter part of the API lacks some features.

[knr2345]

Thanks. I've enjoyed working with it thus far.

[indemnity]

If you glance quickly you could mistake this for another native SwiftUI+AppKit mail client that supports mainly GMail ;)

That said, it is hard not to have quite similar looking apps with SwiftUI on macOS.

[achairapart]

Yes, at first I thought it was the same app with a new name or even a ripoff!

Then I realized they just share the same framework, along with many other apps I guess:

https://github.com/steventroughtonsmith/advancedcatalystexam...

[leejoramo]

Very interesting. I have been hoping to see direct support for JMAP in a native app.

I have been reliant on Fastmail web app. I will put this on my list to review when I have spare time.

[hcarrega]

Using your apps from sometime and still love it

[knr2345]

Great to hear, thank you!

[smcleod]

Looks pleasant, but $40AUD/year for a mail client seems insanely expensive. That kind of money even once off seems like a lot!

[onderweg]

Looks interesting, but... yet another subscription. I'm willing to pay for good apps, but I'm not willing to keep stacking subscriptions.

[smartis2812]

Same here. Especially something I use on daily bases.