Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

Post by cassepipe » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 10:18 PM UTC

richardesigns wrote: post #48

cassepipe wrote: post #46

This would reconcile with email but for one thing : In my social group nobody uses emails to communicate, because of the very problems you're trying to solve. Meaning I would need to get my friend on the service or else it won't be a very efficient tool to communicate. It is although quite unclear that you act as an email provider and not an app that accesses your emails (Did I even get that right?). It is also uncle…

Agree. A system with none of your friends or colleagues on is pointless because there is no one to talk to. I'll try to be really clear about what Plum Mail is and is not! We haven't done a great job of communicating this thus far. Plum Mail is NOT an email client. Plum Mail IS a communication platform using a central server similar to how an instant chat platform works. Where we differ is that Plum Mail isn't a 'wal…

Post by richardesigns » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 7:44 AM UTC

fishywang wrote: post #59

crowdhailer wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct that email addresses are identifiers in our system, and that emails themselves are not the core mechanism within the app. However this approach allows us to have features that would not be possible in just emails, but still have fallback interactions via emails to users not yet on the platform.

Thanks. In that case, I'm confused on why do y'all choose to emphasize email that much in your product's introduction (you even have the word "mail" in your product's name). Email is like one of the most common used identity, if not "the" most common used one, for web/cloud services. It's used as identity for roughly half of services in the wild, yet they don't put email/mail in their names, or emphasize that they ar…

Post by crowdhailer » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 7:49 AM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #57

crowdhailer wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct that email addresses are identifiers in our system, and that emails themselves are not the core mechanism within the app. However this approach allows us to have features that would not be possible in just emails, but still have fallback interactions via emails to users not yet on the platform.

I perceived the product incorrectly, just like GP did. The people I know who don't use Slack yet are mostly older and mostly use Outlook. I think they'd be confused and irritating if we sent them emails with the frequency of chat. Especially phone email notifications are not tuned to correctly handle instant messages. I have often dreamed of a similar concept, but have never been able to work the UX out in my mind. H…

Post by richardesigns » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 7:50 AM UTC

weedpeg wrote: post #62

Congratulations on the launch! Watched the video and loved it :) 1. Quote and Pin are definitely super useful. 2. It would be great if there is a way to click on quote/pin and corresponding mail in the thread opens for more context.