Mailwell
What’s new in Mailwell
Every version, newest first. The latest is 1.1.8, from October 28, 2026. Mailwell updates itself, or download it here.
Replies that keep your place
Replying keeps your inbox in order, quoting a long message is instant, and drafts keep everything when they sync.
Replying no longer moves a conversation to the top of your inbox. Conversations stay in order by the last message you received, and Sent is still ordered by what you sent.
Opening and archiving conversations is quicker, especially ones with several unread messages.
Replying to a long message or a big newsletter is instant. Mailwell used to pause for a moment while it prepared the quote.
A newsletter's styles stay in the quoted newsletter instead of changing the look of the reply you write above it.
Drafts saved to your mail server keep their formatting, the quoted message and, on Fastmail, their attachments, so you can finish them on your phone or in webmail.
A reply you've sent no longer comes back in Drafts after Mailwell was offline.
Quoted text is tidier. "On … wrote:" folds away with the rest of the quote in more emails, quoted images like signature logos come through in replies, and replies to plain-text emails keep their line breaks.
Esc closes the Find bar even while a reply is open below it.
Delete works on Gmail accounts that hide Trash from IMAP in Gmail's settings. It used to say the account had no Trash folder.
Smoother and more consistent everywhere: buttons and rows answer the pointer right away, menus and the command palette open and close faster, new things like toasts and the AI summary ease in, and Reduce Motion is respected throughout.
Small buttons are easier to hit, and on a Force Touch trackpad you feel a tick when a swipe will archive or trash.
Settings › Viewing shows the reading pane and density choices as pictures.
Buy it once
Mailwell is now a one-time purchase with a year of updates, Fastmail signs in through your browser, and replies show the original as it looked.
Mailwell is now a one-time purchase with a year of updates, and you keep the version you have after that. Settings › License shows how long your updates run, and you can add another year there. Founder Lifetime licenses include every update, so nothing changes for you.
Sign in to Fastmail with your browser. Add Account › Fastmail opens Fastmail's own sign-in page, so there's no app password or API token to make. Tokens still work if you'd rather use one.
Replies and forwards show the original message the way it looks when you read it, with its layout and images, instead of flattened text. Older history in a long thread folds away under Show previous content, and the full chain is still sent.
Replying inline is steadier. The arrow keys move the cursor in your reply instead of the message list, a reply you've started stays put when you look at another conversation and come back, and it's saved to your Drafts folder as you go (Microsoft 365 accounts keep it on this Mac for now).
Selecting text in a message now scrolls when you drag past the top or bottom of the window, so you can copy more than fits on screen.
Settings has a cleaner layout. Every pane uses the same cards, so things are where you'd expect them.
Dark mode for your messages
Mail from people goes dark with the app, Translate works on your Mac, and replies go from the address the mail came to.
The menu bar list looks like Mailwell now, with photos, senders and subjects. Hover a message there to archive it or mark it as read without opening the app.
Catch-all domains: replies go from the address the mail came to, so mail to [email protected] is answered from [email protected]. Fastmail catch-alls work by themselves; elsewhere, add *@yourdomain.com as an alias.
Replies go from the address mail was actually delivered to, even when you were Bcc'd or it came through a mailing list.
Other Address… in From sends one message from any address, without adding it as an alias.
Dark mode reaches your messages. Mail from people now has a dark background in dark mode, and designed newsletters stay on white so they look the way they were made. Turn it off in Settings › Viewing.
Translate. A message in a language you don't use has a Translate button above it, and the translation happens on your Mac (macOS 15 and later).
Letting AI assistants read your mail now works with more than Claude. Settings › AI has Copy Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor and most other apps, and Other Apps has the setup for Claude Code and Codex. They can still only search and read, never send, move or delete.
Copy Code finds codes in more emails, including ones that spell the code out letter by letter.
Labels and Slide In
Labels across all your accounts, a third reading layout, tabs made from a search, and ⌘K for everything.
Labels. Put several on one conversation with L, like Receipts and Tax 2026, without moving it. They show in the list and the sidebar across all your accounts, rules can add them, and they’re kept the way your provider keeps them: Gmail labels, Fastmail folders, Outlook categories, or keywords on other IMAP servers. Right-click one in the sidebar to give it a color.
A third reading layout, Slide In. The list fills the window, and a conversation you open slides in beside it, so the list stays in reach while you read. Esc puts it away. Pick it in View › Reading Pane or Settings › Viewing. In a narrow window it opens over the list instead. The other two are now called Side by Side and Full Window.
Make a tab from a search. Search for something like receipts or from:github.com and click Make a Tab. You see what in your inbox would move and can untick anyone who should stay. From a Search… in Settings › Inbox also suggests the senders who fill your inbox most.
Your own tabs can have an icon. Click the square beside a tab in Settings › Inbox.
Type / while writing to pick a snippet at the cursor. Snippets can have blanks, like {{day}}: the first is selected when the snippet goes in, so you just type, and Tab goes to the next.
Suggest Times, the calendar button in the message's toolbar, puts three free times from your calendar into the message, with your time zone. It reads Calendar on this Mac and nothing is sent anywhere.
Right-click the buttons that show when you hover a conversation to pick your own, like Mark as Read, Move or a Quick Forward.
⌘K reaches everything: every command, folder, label and setting, with the ones you used last at the top.
Settings has a search field, and a new Privacy section gathers remote images, sender photos, fake-sender warnings and photo locations in one place.
The reading pane slides in and out smoothly, and opening, archiving and moving between conversations is quicker.
More room between the columns of a wide list, and on a small screen with Slide In open, subjects get the space they need.
The keyboard shortcuts sheet (?) has a search field.
Esc in a label or folder takes you back to the Inbox.
Settings › Accounts shows how much storage each account uses on its server, for servers that say, like Gmail, Fastmail and iCloud.
JMAP servers that sign you in on their own page, like Stalwart, can be added with Browser in Add Account › Enter settings yourself › JMAP. No password goes into Mailwell.
A lighter list
The list is grouped by date and parted by spacing, and hover buttons act on a conversation without opening it.
A lighter list. Rows part by their spacing instead of a line under each one, subjects keep their regular weight (unread mail shows in the sender and the dot), photos are a little smaller, and the preview is one line unless you've picked two in Settings › Viewing.
The list is grouped by date, under quiet headings like Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days and October. Turn it off in Settings › Viewing.
Hover over a conversation to Archive, Snooze, Flag or Trash it without opening it. Turn them off in Settings › Viewing.
Sorted into the wrong tab? Right-click a conversation and choose Move Sender to Tab, or click the tab name under the subject. You pick from the tabs you have on, and that sender's mail goes there from now on. Pick a folder tab and their mail moves into that folder. You can see or remove it in Settings › Rules.
Adding your first account now asks which inbox tabs you'd like.
Send Later shows the day and time, like "Send tomorrow morning · Wed, Oct 21, 9 AM".
The search dropdown shows its keys at the bottom.
Settings › General says when Mailwell is already your default mail app.
A refreshed app icon. The letter is a little bigger and the graphite a little lighter, so it holds its own in the Dock.
Quick Forwards
Forward to the places you always forward to with one click, and forwards stay in their conversation.
Quick Forwards. Add an address you forward to often, like receipts to Ramp or flights to Flighty, and it becomes a button. One click forwards the conversation with its attachments, then archives it, moves it to a folder, or leaves it where it is. You can pick which address it's sent from, give it a keyboard shortcut, and keep it on the toolbar or in the ⋯ menu. It's also in the right-click menu and ⌘K. Set them up in Settings › Compose.
Forwards stay in their conversation now, so the copy in Sent shows up next to the original.
The download opens to a window that shows where to drag Mailwell.
Fixed: forwarding a PDF or other file from Gmail, iCloud or another IMAP account could send it with the wrong file type, so some apps couldn't open it.
Fixed: logos in email signatures could show up as attachments on IMAP accounts.
Profiles
Keep Work and Personal apart, find people from search, and drag mail onto any folder.
Profiles. Keep accounts apart, like Work and Personal, and switch between them from the bottom of the sidebar or with Control-1, Control-2 and so on. Each profile has its own Inbox, folders, search and unread count, and an optional All profile shows everything together. A profile can stay quiet while you're in another one. Turn them on in Settings › Profiles.
Search finds people. Start typing a name and the people you write to show up under the search field. Pick one to see every conversation with them, whoever wrote last.
You can drag mail from the list onto any folder in the sidebar, like Trash or Archive. The folder lifts as you drag over it.
Archiving, deleting and snoozing close the list up smoothly instead of the row just vanishing, and sent messages lift away.
Holding the arrow keys moves through your list without stuttering. The conversation opens once you stop, so skimming no longer marks everything you pass as read.
Search results keep up as you type, several times faster than before.
Scrolling the list is lighter, and unread dots fade out when you read something.
Fixed: a Teams or Zoom invite could show its meeting ID as a sign-in code.
Microsoft sign-in, fixed
Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 accounts sign in again, and To suggests the people you write to most.
Signing in with Microsoft is fixed. Outlook.com, Hotmail and Microsoft 365 accounts that were stuck on a Microsoft error page can be added now. Accounts you already have keep working, no need to sign in again.
After you sign in, the browser shows a proper page and Mailwell comes back to the front.
If Microsoft ever shows an error while you're signing in, a link in Add Account lets you use a sign-in code instead of waiting.
Better suggestions when you write. Start typing in To, Cc or Bcc and the people you write to most come first, learned from the mail you send and receive, your provider's contacts and, if you turn it on, Contacts on your Mac. This works for Gmail and other IMAP accounts too.
When an email comes without a sender name, Mailwell shows the name you know them by.
"Use photos from Contacts" is now "Use Contacts on this Mac" in Settings › Viewing, since it also adds names and suggestions.
A new look
One calm canvas for your mail, a faster app, Gmail shortcuts, compact density and a new icon.
A new look. Your mail sits on one calm canvas with a soft paper tone, the toolbar is lighter, and the top of every view has room to breathe. Settings and the compose window match.
Faster. Opening a conversation, archiving and flagging all take less time, and only the parts of the window that changed get redrawn.
Gmail keyboard shortcuts. If your fingers learned email in Gmail, choose Gmail in Settings › General › Keyboard. Press ? to see every shortcut for the set you're using.
Compact density in Settings › Viewing shows more conversations at once. File chips stay.
Splits can be a folder. Add Split… in Settings › Inbox puts a folder like Receipts in the inbox's tab row, next to Primary.
Right-click a folder and choose Use This Folder For to make it your Archive, Sent, Drafts, Junk or Trash, for providers that don't say which folder is which.
Notifications get their own page in Settings. Turn them on or off for each account, and for each folder, so mail filed into Receipts can notify while the rest stays quiet.
Settings is easier to find your way around. Inbox tabs and splits have their own page, and the reading and message list options live under Viewing.
Pick a color for each account in Settings › Accounts. It shows in the sidebar and the message list.
Full width now reads like a page, with a large title and the conversation centered. Search and filter stay at the edge.
With the sidebar hidden and the list beside your mail, inbox tabs fold into a menu under the current tab's name, so they never get cut off. Control-Tab still moves between them.
Archive and Trash show when a conversation is already there, and a click puts it back in the Inbox.
Reaching Inbox Zero is a little moment now.
The sidebar slides in and out, buttons press back when you click them, and tooltips stay on screen near the edge of your display.
A new app icon that macOS can tint and show in dark and clear styles.
Fixed: flagging a conversation from the reader sometimes left the reader showing it unflagged.
A longer trial
The free trial is now 14 days.
The free trial is now 14 days. If you're partway through one, it runs to 14 days from when you started.
Every flag, however old
Flagged shows everything you've flagged, and dates from another year show the year.
Flagged shows everything you've flagged, however old. Mail flagged years ago now comes down to this Mac on its own, even when it's older than the mail the account keeps, and a flag removed on another device goes away here too.
Flag icons and the Flagged count no longer lag behind after older mail downloads.
Dates from another year show the year in the message list.
Snooze times follow your Mac's 12- or 24-hour clock.
Saved searches
Save a search to Favorites, and standard folders have the same names on every account.
Save a search to Favorites. Click + in the search field and name it, like Attachments for has:attachment. It stays up to date as mail arrives.
Every unified folder in Favorites opens into each account's copy, so one account's Sent or Archive is a click away. Its arrow sits on the left, like the accounts below.
The server filter editor is gone from Settings › Rules. Mailwell's own rules work as before, and filters you've made on your provider's website keep running.
A long sender address no longer pushes the date out of a message's header, and the Reply buttons you get by pointing at it no longer cover the Alias button.
Standard folders have the same names on every account. Fastmail's Spam shows as Junk, and Microsoft's Sent Items and Deleted Items as Sent and Trash. Nothing is renamed on the server.
The Hide Sidebar tooltip shows its shortcut like every other one.
Away replies
Set an out-of-office reply on JMAP accounts, see your calendar beside an invite, and send and archive in one step.
Away replies. For Fastmail, Kagi Mail, FranklyMail and other JMAP accounts that offer them, set an out-of-office reply in Settings › Accounts. Your mail server sends it, so it works while your Mac is off.
Server filters. Kagi Mail and FranklyMail accounts can edit the filters that run on the server, in Settings › Rules.
Invitations can show your own calendar for that time, with anything that overlaps marked. Click Show My Calendar on an invite to try it. All-day invites now read as all day.
⇧⌘↩ sends and archives the conversation in one step, from the compose window or a reply in the conversation.
Point at a message's header for Reply, Reply All and Forward, so you can answer any message in a thread.
Replies you write in the conversation have the same formatting as the full window. Click Aa to show it.
When someone you've never written to sends you mail, their full address shows next to their name.
FranklyMail over JMAP
New FranklyMail mail shows up right away.
FranklyMail now connects over JMAP, so new mail shows up right away. Add Account walks you through making an app password, and you can still choose IMAP instead.
Flagged in Favorites
Flagged mail from every account in one place, and a quieter sidebar.
Flagged is now in Favorites. It shows flagged mail from every folder and account, and dropping mail on it flags it. Turn it on from the Favorites menu if you don't see it.
Flagged conversations show a small flag next to the date, and Unflag now clears every flag in a conversation.
In the full-width layout, search sits in the top bar.
The sidebar is quieter. Arrows show when you point at a row, and only Inbox opens into each account's inbox.
Lifetime licenses show as Lifetime in Settings › License.
Adding an account on FranklyMail fills in the server settings and walks you through making an app password.
Folders inside folders
Nest folders by dragging, and paste text to match the rest of your message.
Folders can go inside other folders. Right-click a folder and choose New Folder Inside, or drag one folder onto another. Move to Top Level brings it back out.
Folders with folders inside them get an arrow, so you can hide what's inside.
Paste and Match Style (⌥⇧⌘V) pastes text in the same font and color as the rest of your message. It's in the Edit menu and when you right-click while writing.
Press and other fixed-term licenses now show their expiry date in Settings › License.
Trips at a glance
Airline emails show the trip and the confirmation code at the top.
Airline emails now show a slim strip at the top with the trip (like SAN → DCA) and the confirmation code, with a button to copy it.
It's read from the email on your Mac. Nothing is looked up online.
You can turn it off in Settings › General › Reading, which is the new name for Photos and images.
Safer by default
A note on mail that may be faked, codes kept out of AI, and photo locations taken out before you send.
A short note now shows on mail that may not be from who it says, when the sender's domain asks mail services to check and the message fails.
Sign-in codes and sign-in links are taken out before mail goes to AI for summaries and rules.
Photos you send no longer carry the location they were taken. The picture itself stays the same.
Each of these can be turned off in Settings.
Settings is tidier, with shorter descriptions.
Better writing tools
Lists, quotes, links and text color in the editor work the way you'd expect.
Lists work the way you'd expect. Return starts the next item, Return on an empty item ends the list, and Tab and Shift-Tab nest items. Numbers go 1, a, i as you nest.
The list buttons switch between bullets and numbers instead of stacking them, and wrapped lines line up under the text. Bullets and numbers take the color of their item.
Quotes show as an indented block with a bar, without the > marks.
New text color button in the formatting bar.
Paste a link over selected text to link it. The link button opens a small box where you can paste, edit or remove a link.
The editor now uses the same font and spacing as the reading pane. What you send isn't changed.
Text colors in emails you receive now show as the sender intended.
Two fixes
Unsubscribe stays on newsletters, and attachments no longer show twice.
Fixed: the Unsubscribe button could disappear from newsletters after you opened them. It's back, and mail that lost it gets it again.
Fixed: a conversation could show the same attachment twice in the list when its email was stored in two folders.
Alias services, checked
Save checks your SimpleLogin or addy.io key, and aliases on your own domain get the Alias button.
SimpleLogin and addy.io: Save now checks your API key and tells you whether it worked.
Mail sent to a SimpleLogin alias on your own domain now gets the Alias button, so you can copy or turn off that alias.
Send from your aliases
Fastmail and Kagi Mail aliases show up in From on their own.
Send from your aliases. Fastmail and Kagi Mail aliases, including other domains, now show up in From on their own. For other providers, add aliases in the account's details, or choose Add Alias… in the From menu.
Aliases are now a list: type an address and press Return to add it, remove the ones you added, and switch off provider aliases you don't want in From.
Your tabs, your Favorites
Turn inbox tabs off or reorder them, and choose what's in Favorites.
Inbox tabs are yours to arrange. In Settings → General, switch tabs off or drag them into a new order. A hidden tab's mail shows in Primary, so nothing goes missing.
Customize Favorites: right-click anywhere in the sidebar to bring back a unified folder like Trash, add any account's folder, or reorder your favorites.
Mail on this Mac now offers 2 years and 5 years, between 1 year and Everything.
A pinned folder no longer drops out of Favorites when it's briefly unavailable.
Sign-in codes in one click
A new code shows in its notification with a Copy Code button.
Sign-in codes are one click away. When an email with a verification code arrives, its notification shows the code with a Copy Code button, and the message has a button that copies it.
New setting: Copy sign-in codes automatically (Settings → General). Off by default.
Full screen and selection
More actions when you select several conversations, and full screen behaves.
When you select several conversations, the bar above the list now has Unread as well as Read, and a ⋯ menu with Flag, Move to, Snooze, Junk, Block Sender and Unsubscribe.
In a message's details, the copy buttons are smaller, line up with their text, and show when you point at a line.
Full screen works better: the toolbar hides with the menu bar until you move to the top of the screen, and the window buttons are back in the right place when you leave full screen.
A full-screen fix
A small fix for full screen.
In full screen, the toolbar (Archive, Delete, Move and the rest) was hidden behind a blank strip at the top of the window. It shows again, in the main window and in compose windows.
The first release
The first release of Mailwell, a calm, fast mail app for Mac.
Accounts
IMAP, JMAP and Microsoft 365, all in one window
Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo and AOL with an app password, set up step by step
Fastmail and Kagi Mail over JMAP, with new mail pushed instantly
Proton Mail through Proton Mail Bridge
Unified Inbox, Archive, Sent and Drafts, or each account on its own
Mail filed into folders by your provider's rules shows up right away
Reading
Conversations that fold earlier messages away
Beside-the-list or full-width reading
Favorites for the folders you use most
Inbox tabs (Primary, Social, Promos, Updates) and your own splits
Remote images blocked until you allow them
A sender panel with your recent mail from that person
Writing
Inline replies, drafts that save as you type, and Undo Send
Send Later, at a preset or any time you choose
Signatures per address, snippets, and attachments by drag or paste
Staying on top of things
Archive, snooze, mute, block, and one-click unsubscribe
Rules, including rules in plain words, and Run on Inbox for existing mail
Fast local search with from:, subject: and has:attachment
A customizable toolbar and keyboard shortcuts for everything (press ?)
Private and reliable
Your mail stays on your Mac; there are no Mailwell servers
Actions and sends are saved first, so nothing is lost if you quit or go offline
Choose how much mail each account keeps on this Mac
Optional AI (summaries, writing help, plain-word rules), off by default
Let Claude and other assistants read your mail, read-only, if you choose
Help
Settings → About shows your version and checks for updates
Help → Send Feedback… posts to the public feedback board