14 DAY TRIAL // Orchestra Inc. has finally released Mailbox, an email application that promises to reinvent the way we communicate. Downloaders can only reserve a spot for now, but the line moves constantly, and you can watch it in real time on your iDevice.
Currently suited for Gmail only (other email platforms coming soon), Mailbox aims to completely redesign inboxes, making email lighter and faster, as well as better suited for mobile platforms.
“Quickly swipe messages to your archive or trash. Scan an entire conversation at once with chat-like organization. Snooze emails until later with the tap of a button — they’ll return to your inbox automatically so you can focus on what's important now,” reads the official description.
Demand for the application has been off the charts. Which is why even if you download Mailbox today, you won’t be able to use it until the people sitting “in line” in front of you get their accounts approved.
It doesn’t look very promising at the moment. We’ve just downloaded the app and there’s half a million people in front of us waiting for approval.
The countdown shed a single digit in about 10 seconds, which means that we’ll probably change our iPhones before we get to use the app. Unless they speed up the process in the future, that is.
For people asking why Orchestra was forced to implement this reservation system, the company says, “Mailbox checks email from the cloud in order to deliver it as fast as possible to the phone, support push notifications, and facilitate email snoozing.”
“The IMAP protocol is nearly 30 years old and a part of reinventing the inbox is building a secure, modern API that's better suited for mobile devices.”
“In order to provide a robust, world-class email experience, we are filling reservations on a first-come, first-served basis. We are working as hard as we can to get Mailbox into everyone's hands quickly,” according to the developers.