There's been an obsession with killing email in recent years, and for good reason. Our inboxes have become an unwieldy place, often cluttered with messages that aren't very relevant which makes it challenging to cut through the noise.
Major email providers like Google, as well as lesser-known services like $30-per-month Superhuman, have done a lot to improve our inboxes over time. Google has added features that make its email smarter by helping to complete your sentences, and there are an array of filters, notification settings, and tabs available to keep your inbox feel organized.
But office communications software provider Basecamp is taking a different approach with Hey, the new email service it debuted in June. It's not trying to subdue or oversimplify your inbox by making it as easy as possible to get to inbox zero. Rather, it's turning the inbox into what it was always meant to be: a hub for all of your most important messages, alerts, and other information. It's not running from the fact that your inbox is constantly flooded — it's embracing it.
Hey costs $99-per-year and launched on June 16 as an invite-only service, but the company has since expanded it to the general public. It blocks email tracking software and doesn't sell ads, instead relying on subscriptions.
The service appears to be catching on. It broke into the iPhone's top 100 productivity apps by daily downloads the day after its launch, according to data from App Annie, and later ranked 99th by daily downloads in the Google Play Store's Communications app category. The app also garnered much attention after its creators raised concerns to Apple after Apple's initial decision to reject app updates from Hey, citing a rule that requires app makers to use Apple's in-app payment system.
Apple eventually approved the app's updates after threatening to remove it from the App Store.
There's no shortage of email apps available for iPhone and Android users, but what makes Hey interesting is that it's not just layering additional features on top of your existing email account. It's meant to be a completely fresh start, and in my personal experience it's helped me make sense of my inbox rather than just racing to clear it out.
"It's well overdue that we get better tools to defend ourselves and our attention and our love affair with email," David Heinemeier Hansson, Basecamp's cofounder and CTO, said in a previous interview with Business Insider's Rosalie Chan.
Here's a closer look at Hey and what it's been like to use it.