PostfachMail search that finds the message.
You know the message is there. A search that waits for the server, forgets last year's mail, or answers differently on each device is what makes people give up looking. Postfach has read every word of your mail already: a search runs on your device, offline, in a fraction of a second.
Search that has already read everything.
Every message that reaches your device is indexed, the text of the message, its sender and recipients, its subject, and the names of its attachments. A search asks that index, not your mail server, so it works on a train without a connection and nobody but you sees what you looked for.
In our measurements a search through 30,000 messages takes about 25 milliseconds.
- Whole words and the beginnings of words:
invfinds invoice - Accents and capitals do not matter:
zurichfinds Zürich - Japanese and Chinese mail too, which is written without spaces between the words
- The words you looked for are marked in the results, in the subject, the sender, and the preview
- Results newest first, or the best matches first
Narrow it down as you type.
Start with a word that says where to look: from:, to:, subject:, or file: for the name of an attachment. As you type, Postfach suggests the addresses you have mail from and to, and the fields the word could be in. On the Mac the arrow keys walk the suggestions and Return takes one.
- A filter for unread, flagged, or with attachments, in the list and in a search
- On the Mac: ⌥⌘F to search, ⌥⌘U, ⌥⌘L, and ⌥⌘A for the filters
- Conversations gathered under the message you open from a result
Where you are first, and further when you ask.
A search begins in the folder on screen: the inbox you are reading, a folder of your own, Junk, the Archive. One click above the results widens it to Sent in every account, or to All Mailboxes. All Mailboxes leaves Junk out, and the Archive too, so what you are working on is not buried under ten years of old threads; one click on Include Archive brings them into the results.
- The choice of where to look sits right above the results
- Include Archive stays on until you quit Postfach
- On the iPhone and the iPad, the same button under the search field
- Empty the field or open another folder, and the next search begins there
And inside the message you opened.
A long message, or a conversation of forty, and you need the one line with the number in it. ⌘F opens a find bar over the message: every match is marked, the first is selected, and the count says where you are, “3 of 12”, over every message of the conversation, the folded ones too.
- ⌘G to the next match, ⇧⌘G to the one before, and round again at the end
- ⌘E looks for the text you have selected
- Match Case, for when capitals matter
- On the iPhone and the iPad: Find in Message in the message's menu, and the same keys with a keyboard
A search you keep: smart folders.
Some searches you run every week: the invoices, what is still unread from one client, everything with an attachment. A smart folder keeps such a search as a list in the sidebar, over every account or just one. It lists the messages that meet its conditions now and counts the unread ones beside its name. Nothing is moved, on your device or on your mail server: every message stays in its folder, and its row says which.
- After a search, Save as Smart Folder… keeps it: its words, its filter, and where it looked
- Or make one in Settings › Smart Folders: words in the sender, the recipients, the subject, the text, or an attachment's name, all of them or any
- Unread, flagged, with attachments; received in the last 7, 30, 90, or 365 days; in every mailbox, the inboxes, Sent, or the Archives; a search kept from inside a folder stays in that folder
- Archive, flag, or delete in the list: it is the message itself, in its own folder
- Junk and Trash are never in a smart folder
And the small things.
Offline, for real
Search, read, and file without a connection. Archiving, flagging, and deleting wait on your device and reach the server when it is back, in the order you did them.
From a result to its conversation
Open a result and its whole conversation is there, the message you found open among the others, and ⌘F finds the word inside it.
Nothing leaves the device
The index is built on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad and stays there. No server of ours ever sees a word of your mail, or what you searched for.
Get Postfach.
The search, on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. From the App Store, one purchase for all three.
