HEY a Privacy Driven Email

When i first saw the new email by basecamp i was excited. Now after using it for a few months I am still as excited.

I have been using gmail for years — ever since their beta. I still like gmail but it’s true; mail has somehow been transformed into a daily routing of archiving mails that you dont really care about. Even if you are like me, pressing that unsubscribe button every time you get a chance — i still feel like my emails is a daily struggle.

HEY mail does so many things right. In this post i have listed the 3 things i like the most.

Privacy

Somewhere down the road tracking became a big a big part of emails. Companies track whatever you do. If you read their mail, if you dont, what links you clicked and when. The list goes on.

With HEY, I can sleep with peace in mind and know that HEY tries to combat greedy companies. Unfurtunetly it’s impossible to remove all tracking — but HEY tries it’s best.

HEY actively blocks tracking and have several layers of defense against tracking. They have taken the time to identify all major spy-pixel patterns and strips those directly when you receive the email. Then they strip everything that smells like spy pixels (example is 1x1 images, trackers in code etc). On top of this, all images in emails are routed through HEY servers meaning that your IP address and location will never be leaked.

In their own words they estimate that they block about 98% of all tracking.

The Screener

One of the things I like the most is the screener. It’s where i allow people to contact me. This i a huge gamechanger to email. Here i can actually make a choice if want to allow an email or contact to ever contact me again. This basically means that i can unsubscribe or subscribe to stuff I like proactivly.

When I choose Yes, I can select what category of mail i received.

The best thing is that only emails that goes into the Imbox will trigger a push notification — meaning only emails you actually care about. The other emails you can check on demand and is silenced out.

Silent by Default

Notifications is only enabled if you choose to and this is really great because mails should not steal time. I think this is a really important part of taking back control of your digital life. So many things on your phone and computer is competing for your attendance.

But what if you miss an important email? Well, people can call you if it’s THAT important.. Anyway, with HEY you can enable push notifcations for individual people, like your family or co-workers.

What else?

There is much more to be said about HEY but i think you should check out their massive list of features and judge by yourself.