Why was the account overview screen useful?

[Jarda_S]

I have more than 3 boxes, so fast switching is little difficult. Integrated inbox is not usable for me because I have few mailboxes for special purpose like spamtrash, one is for logs. In integrated mailbox i see hundreds of unimportant emails.

Second whay integrated mailbox is wrong for me is that when I have office time I need check two mailboxes, when I have personal time, i need to check other two mailboxes…

Please, re-add account overview screen as option - Everyone who need it can use it, others (especially ppl with single/two maiboxes) stay on current layout.

[Pennny]

First off, I want to say thanks for the work you do and I do like the cleaner/modern looking interface, the old one was practical but looked a bit old now.

Like most here I have multiple mailboxes so the with the overview it was very easy to check over all my accounts.

I like to keep my inboxes as empty as I can so I will move any emails I want to keep into subfolders and star it for quick access if required, but with the new design I can no longer see how many emails in my mailbox that are stared or quickly access them with a single touch. I would have to go into each subfolder and sort by stared to find them.

A couple of other features that were handy but not always used were the mail box size, it was good to know if I needed a clear out, and the delete/recreate options as sometimes things would get stuck trying to update the mailbox and the only way to sort it was to clear it out and redownload.

I also agree that moving the toolbar to the top of the screen makes one handed use a lot harder.

[andrewb]

Great to see someone (@pmontra) who uses K9 exactly as I do (POP3, leave messages on server, thunderbird as main client on Desktop). All the same reasons for using this setup.

I introduced non-techie family members to K9 & they loved it for the simple layout & ease of integrating multiple accounts, but at the same time keeping the separation (i.e. not wanting unified inbox). Now I’ll probably have to remotely talk them through side-loading a copy of 5.6.

All round allows more efficient use of time: can easily select which accounts to deal with. My favorite action from the ‘overview screen’ is to clear all local messages with the ‘Clear Messages’ action after a long-press on an account. Cleans everything up once home & downloaded all my emails with Thunderbird.

V5.6 safely installed & auto-update turned off. Happy again!

[BulldogBiteMUC]

Also a thank you from me for the time I was able to use K9 so far.

Good points made from all of the above writers.
Thanks @andrewb for his post - you saved me (english is not my native language) from having to type an elaborate post. All you said is true for me.

I wanted to delete all not important mails this morning on the train only to discover, that (if I didn´t miss something) I have to go into each account, into the “Papierkorb” folder, mark the mails and then I can permanently delete them so that I don´t have to do it again at my desktop PC in the evening.
Before, I would just tap on the account, choose “Papierkorb löschen” and the deed was done.

For the time being I´ll have to see how I can downgrade to the older version.
At this stage the current K9 is too time-devouring for me.

[Alex]

Well, at first I want to thank you for your time and passion to “revive” K9.
Unfortunately - and understandably annoying after having invested that much time and passion in this app - one or two key features for the users here are gone and they protest.
As I would estimate, for everyone here, about 8 - 10 “angry” K9 users will not make an account and tell here, they will switch to another program or they downgrade after having read the instruction you kindly wrote.

Reasons…well, the overview of all my accounts at one glance was the key feature for me to stick to K9.
I check my mails the first time at about 6 in the morning, work related of course. Having my 12 accounts at hand is simply great and make this a fast look.
Having to tip around is simply what you don´t want. Of course it works, too, but using (or having to use) a smartphone for business reasons make the smartphone and also K9 simply a much needed tool… less enjoyable but very essential; you want to get work quickly done right.

Most users complaining use the overview screen multiple times a day - that multiplies the time you need.
For them - and the ones who don´t make an account - this simple overview was the reason to use K9.
For me too. The simple stripe on the bottom did really everything you need. And, as said before, you check (=read) many times more mail than you write.

There are many Mail clients available in app stores, K9 was chosen for the features that make the difference to others.
Now there is an update - in my case overnight - which crushes the routine, that´s like taking away the tool you need without permission or without warning.

The best way would have been IMHO to make - as someone also said before - “K10”, so users could try parallel to K9 still running. At least, some warning before changing…

Of course, the feelings are like something is taken away from us that we want, need, explicitely chosen to use.

Implementing - if possible - the overview in the new version - or as a skin, something like that, would be great, as every user appreciated that someone cared again for K9, despite that “lost-overview-thing”.

Greetings from Munich

[RTK]

This answer (first one) perfectly explains how I used the old start screen, too. I don’t want a unified inbox because each account has different purposes and I want to check different combinations of accounts at different times, e.g., work1 (job 1, check often), work 2 (job 2 check often), personal1 (close friends and relatives, no spam, check often) personal 2 (personal business some spam check occasionally), personal 3(mostly spam check infrequently), etc… This makes me click far too many times to accomplish the same activity. Notifications aren’t good enough because they really disappear under a variety of circumstances. Maybe a better question would be why would anyone want the program to open into just one arbitrary account?

Also, the old screen meant I could refresh all accounts with 1 click instead of three clicks and a swipe down, which really adds up when I check 20 times per day during work.

Would it be easier to bring back the screen as an option instead of reading so many responses? Lol. Anyway, thank you for your hard work on the update. Of course we all first discuss the changes we don’t like, e.g, this issue, the buttons were moved to the top and are now hard to reach, the changes were made without warning, etc… but we do appreciate you taking the time to update the program. Just a handful of fixes, and beloved k9 could once again be the hands down best mail app for Android. This fix is the most critical of the bunch.

[mailnissen]

Unified email accounts is great, tried to use it, but have some accounts (mainly email accounts for server-reports etc), that will fill/clog the unified email account.

I could install a separate email app for these email accounts, but K-9 has solved it as a single solution email app for all my needs.

The easy filtering for unread, starred messages as many have pointed out before med, but also the ability to quickly navigate to a specific folder of an email account is frequently used, directly from the start screen of K-9. I sort a lot of incoming mails directly to sub-folders at the server level; I haven’t found an email app for Android that let med navigate to a specific folder so quickly.

[jimimaseye]

Account Summary Screen shows List of accounts, in one view, with sum of Unread and starred messages. From here a single tap to the account allows access accordingly. If there are no changes to message count it will be visible without the need of a single tap (simply unlocking the screen to the K9 app).

People may have multiple accounts (I have over 10, others have more), and to swipe-tap drop down-select, on each account to just see if there is anything is very resource heavy (consider a resource being time, and finger pressing).

The option for UNIFIED mailbox is not an option given these mailboxes may all be different providers and serve different purposes; some may be personal mailboxes, some may be notification mailboxes that receive MANY emails that, at time of reading, may not me relevant at that time of day (and simply clog the view).

Further more, a single button tap to force refresh the accounts on the list is beneficial as well as the mailbox storage size (I use this feature a lot). And yes personally I view and remember the counts against the different accounts which helps determine where there are updates.

Also, a single tap to go to either the INBOX - all, unread or starred, or to the folder list of such account (by choice) from the summary screen is a major part of my use.

And now my beef:

To counter the question of “why should you bring it back”, I would like to ask “why did you take it away”? What purpose did it serve? What customer research/enquiry did you make that concluded it was surplus to requirements and the alternative (to make the app the same as all other stock mail apps) is better?

The Account List with One-Tap entry was the USP (Unique Selling Point) of this app that made it stand out and attractive. Now it is the same as all other apps (including Gmail which also allows multiple 3rd party accounts) and therefore no longer makes it standout and doesnt sell itself with any benefits over the rest. And given most phones already have GMail app (forced) loaded - there is no longer any need to have this 2nd app.

One other thing: I know you said people simply saying “bring it back” is not sufficient to convince you to bring it back (and you actually want reasoning). Well, if a thousand people want to ‘bring it back’ they must have their reasons and the chorus of voices really should be enough to tell you that they have their reasons and having them all say why (the same reason) doesn’t validate or invalidate why the request should/shouldn’t be made - they wouldnt just ask for it if it was not important. Clearly by quantity of disgruntled users that has made their opinion known, it can be implied that SOMETHING is no longer sufficient for them. It’s true that the app is offered for free and people can take or leave whatever has been offered (no refunds apply) BUT there must be a reason you offer it and I can only conclude you do so for the users’ benefit and the pride of overseeing such work. So, surely, shouldnt the users comments/displeasure be heard (in threat of them leaving)?

For now I remain at 5.6 but the faff of ignoring automatic updates will eventually get the better and it is only a matter of time (sooner, I suspect) before I do eventually go to the Darkside of using Gmail or stock mail app.

[Mdh]

Ich verwalte 10 Accounts und habe es sehr geschätzt, dass ich quasi alle wichtigen Ordner dieser Accounts (Posteingang, gesendete, Entwürfe, unbekannt, …) an einer Stelle, nämlich unter “Alle Nachrichten” (nicht zu verwechseln mit “Gemeinsamer Posteingang”), zusammenführen konnte. Somit sah ich auf einen Blick, ob und was sich insgesamt getan hat (ja, auch Spam und dergleichen). Das ist es, was mir am meisten fehlt. Wenn Sie dieses Feature problemlos reaktivieren könnten, dann hätten Sie zumindest mich gerettet

[Kije]

Here are my reasons, and thank you for asking…

1. I can poll all my email accounts on demand rather than wait for the next auto poll. All my accounts are pop3 accounts and I have more than a dozen of them.

2. I can see all my sent mail, across all my accounts, on a single screen. This was a major feature of K9 for me. That this showed all sent intermingled with all received was a minor inconvenience, though useful sometimes.

Regards, and Thank you for your commitment to this app.

Liam

[ThomasRah]

It’s a bit difficult to explain in detail why exactly I want the overview screen back, mainly because it’s a thing that corresponds to my mental model of how I handle mail, something that is mostly subconscious but you can definitely feel when it’s “wrong”.
Just like with real mail, I tend to sort them by persona (personal, work, spam etc.) before actually opening the envelopes. The overview screen did a great job of doing exactly that as a first action after opening the app and gave a satisfying sense of stepping back after being done.
Much like the manual act of going the the physical mailbox, I often opened K9 just for a quick glance whether there are new mails, which was literally 1 tap for opening the app and you were done. (I actively disable mail notifications for various reasons. Don’t expect them to be enabled for any non-optional functionality.) As others have shown, the new way requires not just more taps for the same action, but a LOT more finger movement, because I have to hit the top left button. Previously, this action could be performed one-handed - the new way requires a second hand because the top corners of any modern smartphone are hopelessly out of reach for anyone with anatomically normal hands. There’s also no side-swipe gesture to open the menu, which I would have understood if the old way of selecting mails would still be there, but that’s gone, too.

Of course there’s also the argument of being used to doing things in a certain way. Old habits die hard and K9 had this screen for a long time.

Suggestion: much like the combined inbox is a toggle-able option in the settings, why not add the overview screen back as an option? That would nicely integrate into the new UI and wouldn’t even be visible for those who don’t want it. I’m not saying you should revert the entire UI, just provide an option for those who want it. Make the new way default for new installations if you want, but don’t take something loved away from users without either warning them or providing an equal alternative. Moving the main screen 2 taps deep into the menu is not an equal alternative in my opinion.
The ability to choose which screen should be the default view would come in handy, too.

I’ll close with a comparison: if you were a Sonic fan, you’d surely disagree when someone says that Super Mario is “basically the same”, no? It feels like this when you’re switching the default screen from the overview to a unified inbox.

[Dave_Nolder]

For all the reasons listed above with the exceptions of notifications - I have distinct notifications for each account.
I want to keep my business, archery club and personal emails separate. The account overview allowed me to manage all my emails at a glance and with minimal input. I do not use unified mailboxes and do not want to be forced to do so.
Could you as a developer, explain your thinking on removing the account overview?

[DeletedUser]

I use K9 for multiple accounts. They are not all equal in importance. I keep my unread messages at zero.

I hate the unified inbox because it fills with unimportant stuff from the accounts used for signing up in forums, shopping sites, etc.

I want to see at a glance which accounts have new messages. Then I can decide the order to read them.

I signed up here just to ask for the account overview screen back. As others have the overview screen was a major reason I use K9.

Spend less time on pretty interfaces and keep the useful features like the account overview. I don’t need pretty, I need useful.

Going back to 5.6, will watch for an update bringing back account overview.

[genel]

I’m one that kept my new mail count at zero. I started each morning by going to the overview screen, refreshing my mailboxes (I have two). Then I would touch the circle by the unified inbox, scroll to the bottom and go through the new email. I do look at my email at other times, looking for specific messages so not all the messages since yesterday would be “new”.

(If I was consistently getting more than I could go through in half an hour, I unsubscribed from some stuff.)

I have not figured out how to do this with the new UI. So far I have tried going to the unified inbox and sorting by read/unread, the produces a good list but I can’t scroll through it. The order seems to be based on the date/time not the display order.

I miss the account overview screen because it allowed this functionality. If there was another way to do the same thing, I could probably adapt.

[cketti]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to explain their email workflow.

The posts in the last couple of hours seem to only repeat points that have already been made. And there were many off-topic comments. So I closed the topic.

We did remove quite a few posts that didn’t even attempt to answer the question of this thread. Some posts contain a lot of “why I don’t like the new version”. But if the commenters also provided some information on why they liked the account overview screen we kept the posts.

[cketti]

Some people seem to have misunderstood my closing of the thread. I closed it because it looked like every popular use case of the account overview screen has been mentioned. There’s nothing more to learn if new posts just repeat what previous posters have written. The goal of this thread was to learn how the account overview was used, not to hear from every single person who used the account overview.

As for whether or not the account overview will come back: that’s not decided yet. @ByteHamster and I have done some brainstorming and might have found a way to integrate it without too much effort. We’ll see how that goes.