Sparrow: alternative Gmail client for OS X

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Check out the Mac-Forums review here:
Mac-Forums Blog » Mac OS X » Review: Sparrow

Has anyone else tried it? I really like it so far, it's has just the functionality I need and none of the cruft…

Sparrow is such a beautiful application. I love apps that are clean and simple. I'm disappointed I never got around to trying out the beta. I'm still waiting for Sparrow Lite to come out. I'm only reluctant to buy just yet being that I still prefer web-based email. This might be the application to get me to change my mind.

I was curious about some of the critical reviews about Sparrow on the app store. These reviews were for 1.0v, not 1.0.1v. Sparrow uses a lot of RAM and CPU, apparently. A minor issue of Sparrow tagging sent emails with "Sent with Sparrow". A limited notification system upon incoming emails (sound notification is very important to me in an email client). The full Gmail web interface is missing, not sure to what extent. I don't want to have to log into Gmail to complete a task, unless I need to adjust a setting, which I'm fine with.

I'd like to hear some of your opinions on those.
 

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Just got it off the App store. It's very clean and small. I like it so far. I haven't seen any outrageous CPU or RAM hogging yet.

My only gripe is that it's only for gmail. It was also super easy to add my gmail accounts. Even my school email that is affiliated with gmail worked.

Adding my school email in Mail was a major hassle, had to do a lot of reading before I could get it to work.
 

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Apparently Gmail has some idiosyncrasies that are addressed in Sparrow but complicate things when trying to setup other accounts. That's what I've heard - not sure if it's true or not though. I'm guessing this explains the Gmail only support right now.

I'm not sure I could justify spending $10 on an email client that only supports Gmail ATM especially when the web interface works perfectly and supports every feature. Running Gmail in Chrome with the "Minimalist for Gmail" extension makes Gmail perfect as a web app. This isn't to say that the app would be bad - just not for me ;).
 
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I was curious about some of the critical reviews about Sparrow on the app store. These reviews were for 1.0v, not 1.0.1v. Sparrow uses a lot of RAM and CPU, apparently.

I think that's because Sparrow initially syncs a lot of your email over IMAP, which causes CPU / RAM hogging. But once that initial sync has completed, it's fine:

- Sparrow: 64MB/RAM
- Mail: 48MB/RAM

(Netnewswire is currently using 220MB, just to put those numbers into perspective.)


A minor issue of Sparrow tagging sent emails with "Sent with Sparrow".

That's the default signature and it actually is a little bit tricky to figure out where you can change that (Account > Edit). But once you've found the preference, remove that line and you're done. I'm guessing you might not be able to disable that in the lite version though.

A limited notification system upon incoming emails (sound notification is very important to me in an email client).

It has a custom new mail sound (not part of the system's sound set) that is quite nice, but unobtrusive. There's no preference at the moment either, but it does support applescript, so maybe you could have it play a custom alert instead.

The full Gmail web interface is missing, not sure to what extent. I don't want to have to log into Gmail to complete a task, unless I need to adjust a setting, which I'm fine with.

No tasks at all at the moment, so that might be a dealbreaker, also no chat, news, ads, tooltips….

I like that all of that is missing, but ymmv :)
 
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I'd love to try this client, mainly two things are stopping me right now 1. The price, its too high for a mail client that only supports GMail. Especially considering Apple Mail supports GMail and a whole load more, and its free. 2. Its only for GMail. I'd love to see Sparrow adapted to support POP3 accounts as well as IMAP in future. Im not sure how it would work exactly, but Im sure theres a way.
 

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Thank you very much for the breakdown! That really puts a lot of my concerns at ease. The new feature supporting AppleScripts makes it much more flexible, which is pleasing.

I wasn't sure, if the critical reviewer on the Mac App Store was referring to "Gmail web interface" in general, or picking at the lack of features like chat, tasks, etc. But if that was the case, I'll agree with you there. I just don't use them.

I'm pinching dollars right now, saving iTunes credit for a potential iPhone app splurge session. So I'd still like to wait for Sparrow Lite and see, if I'm going to kick my web based email habit. :p
 
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I really like the idea of Sparrow and since my primary email address is a gmail address, it would almost be perfect. Except that my school email is on Exchange so I think I'm stuck with Mail for at least a little while longer.
 
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What advantages does this have over Apple Mail? I've never had any issues with that, either with Gmail or any other mail service. It's also very light, 54MB on my machine running in 64-bit and unobtrusive.
 
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What advantages does this have over Apple Mail? I've never had any issues with that, either with Gmail or any other mail service. It's also very light, 54MB on my machine running in 64-bit and unobtrusive.
Honestly? Nothing really obvious.

If Mail.app is the MacBook Pro 13", Sparrow is the MacBook Air 13".

They are both really similar, both powerful machines and either one will do nearly everything you want. The Air has a few fewer features, but for some reason you still feel like you can get more done with it.

Or something like that…
 

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Sparrow Lite integrates all the features from Sparrow but:
  • You can create only one mail account
  • It is Carbon Ads-supported
  • The mention ‘Sent with Sparrow’ is integrated in your signature

Sparrow Lite is in the app store now. (Free)
 
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I was leaning towards trying out Sparrow more when they added IMAP support, but given what I've seen of the new Mail in 10.7, I'm not so sure I need to do so any more.
 

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I'm really just excited to try it out for a bit. But at this point, it's bad timing for Sparrow with a better Mail coming. I can't justify springing for the paid version at this point, unless it went under $5. But they are going to have to at some point.
 
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Check out the Mac-Forums review here:
Mac-Forums Blog » Mac OS X » Review: Sparrow

Has anyone else tried it? I really like it so far, it's has just the functionality I need and none of the cruft…


Like it? That's almost too gentle of a question. It's the best $10 I've ever spent on a piece of software. Sparrow is light, fast, and still manages to be beautifully feature laden!
 
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Sparrow uses a lot of RAM and CPU, apparently. A minor issue of Sparrow tagging sent emails with "Sent with Sparrow". A limited notification system upon incoming emails (sound notification is very important to me in an email client).

Sparrow is using a bit of ram, about 160 mb on my machine.

Sound choice for notifications is limited, it does work with growl.

The tag sent with sparrow is added to the bottom of messages, but you can turn it off in preferences. I have chosen to leave that on for now to help them advertise this little slice of awesomeness.
 
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I have to admit, I'm really confused about Sparrow. Aside from having a different GUI than Mail.app, it doesn't do anything other than get Gmail, with IMAP on the way? So what... mail does that NOW ? What's all the fuss, someone please explain to this dense man...

Doug
 
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Sparrow is the first email client to be designed for Gmail and work with its tags, stars, and archiving system.

Maybe this will help, there is a short video demo on the page:
sparrow - The New Mail for Mac
 
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Sparrow is the first email client to be designed for Gmail and work with its tags, stars, and archiving system.

Maybe this will help, there is a short video demo on the page:
sparrow - The New Mail for Mac

But I guess that's where I'm confused too because Mail already works with those things via IMAP.

Tags = Folders
Stars = Flags
Archive = depends on the setting you use. Could either delete (which I prefer) or you have access to the All Mail folder.

So really Sparrow doesn't do anything that Mail doesn't already do for you. It just presents it in a different way.
 

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