auto-populate topics with gmail labels
when using gmail accounts, auto-populate the topics list with the account's gmail labels, and move/copy emails into the imap folders appropriately when a topic is assigned. this creates parity between the browser and postbox experiences, and makes message filtering much more predictable.
for people who label/categorize email extensively, this will reduce confusion, and the likelihood that an email will be categorized locally but not on the server.
for people who label/categorize email extensively, this will reduce confusion, and the likelihood that an email will be categorized locally but not on the server.
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people like this idea
I like this idea!
Tell me when this idea gets some attention.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The company has this under consideration.
The best points from everyone
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I mostly stopped using desktop mail clients (and decided to put up with the many drawbacks of browser interfaces – sigh) exactly because all of them AFAIK lack this very feature. Making Postbox' topics sync 1:1 with GMail's labels would make it THE killer email client not only for me but probably for a very large share of at least semi-organized GMail users.
I’m excited
6 people think
this is one of the best points
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I want to use the topics in Postbox more, but they seem crippled by the fact that they are wholly separate from the GMail labels.
I’m excited about this idea
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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I wholeheartedly support Gmail label integration. I'm an extensive user of labels, including auto-labelling via Gmail filters (could we perhaps have an interface to that, too?).
I'd like the feature to work much as it does directly in Gmail - archive messhes to All Mail and represent other applied labels as effectively, a filtered view of labelled messages shown as a Postbox topic.
Currently, I'm using Mailplane as my sole app for Gmail - obviously, it works perfectly as it's a custom browser solely for Gmail. However, to have these feature in a rich app like Postbox would be awesome. Certainly compelling enough for me to consider a change.
I’m hoping
6 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I totally like this idea. It will make Postbox the best email client to use for any gmail user. Automatic integration with Gmail labels system makes it very compelling to use since it is hard to use those labels in Mail.App and Thunderbird on Mac.
I’m excited
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Inappropriate?I like the idea, but I think this might be beyond the scope of Postbox as Gmail and Thunderbird store messages in entirely different ways. I wouldn't want multiple copies of every message cluttering my hard drive and slowing down searching.
I can't find any apps that try to work with Gmail's labels themselves, which leads me to believe it hasn't been easy to do and most users just use Gmail directly if they need labels that badly. -
erm, actually, since:
1. gmail labels are views
2. all imap folders outside the [Gmail] folder are guaranteed to be labels
3. postbox (and thunderbird) use topics as views
both postbox and thunderbird can safely infer message-topic assignment from the folder structure; duplicates won't be a problem since postbox can use the all mail folder as archive (which is guaranteed to contain all messages exactly once) and apply topics to messages in it. when a topic is assigned, the corresponding message movement into the appropriate imap folder can be done silently and in the background, keeping gmail and postbox synchronised -
That is what I was thinking.
Right now if I want a message to be labeled all I do is copy it to that folder.
Then move it to All Mail (from inbox).
If I can do that a human, surely the computer can do it for me :) -
Inappropriate?Guys, I would second this. Postbox has been a welcome addition to the desktop email space. Whilst I use Gmail heavily across multiple accounts if Postbox added full label support the app would be a must use. It would make great sense for Postbox also as more small businesses are using Google Apps rather then other solutions.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Excellent idea. This would make Postbox exponentially more useful for me. Right now it's great, but in order for me to really consider using it over the long term I would really like this feature.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I agree on this idea too since it would help Postbox be less cluttered in comparison to topics (which I've not used at all) and labels (subfolders).
I’m thankful
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I agree. This would put Postbox head and shoulders above the competition.
I’m excited
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Inappropriate?I think this is problem that needs to be resolved with urgency.
If you are a Gmail-Postbox-back and forth user, you cannot get happy at the current status quo.
And to be honest: to me I let rather Postbox suffer than Gmail, and at one point may decline using Postbox.
I’m sad
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Same here. I find everything about Postbox to be awesome, but until this feature is implemented, I cannot use Postbox for fear of creating a mess of my folders/labels. -
Inappropriate?I wholeheartedly support Gmail label integration. I'm an extensive user of labels, including auto-labelling via Gmail filters (could we perhaps have an interface to that, too?).
I'd like the feature to work much as it does directly in Gmail - archive messhes to All Mail and represent other applied labels as effectively, a filtered view of labelled messages shown as a Postbox topic.
Currently, I'm using Mailplane as my sole app for Gmail - obviously, it works perfectly as it's a custom browser solely for Gmail. However, to have these feature in a rich app like Postbox would be awesome. Certainly compelling enough for me to consider a change.
I’m hoping
6 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I want to use the topics in Postbox more, but they seem crippled by the fact that they are wholly separate from the GMail labels.
I’m excited about this idea
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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Very good point. Instead of being separate they should be able to be integrated. -
i dont think that there will be a problem with messing things up. It's just that topics is TOO esoteric. I mean, who really uses it apart from the postobox staff? Make them labels and maybe i'll think about it -
Puh-lease. The only difference is labels are gmail only, and topics are postbox only. How can you say they're "esoteric"? -
Maybe it was a wrong word. I was trying to say that topics (as they exist now) are only used by postbox. -
Inappropriate?I mostly stopped using desktop mail clients (and decided to put up with the many drawbacks of browser interfaces – sigh) exactly because all of them AFAIK lack this very feature. Making Postbox' topics sync 1:1 with GMail's labels would make it THE killer email client not only for me but probably for a very large share of at least semi-organized GMail users.
I’m excited
6 people think
this is one of the best points
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I so second that.. -
Inappropriate?Please, please make Postbox topics equate to Gmail labels.
When I was posting a separate question on this issue, this discussion came up in the list of suggested discussions, and I got excited for a moment because it had an "Implemented" tag next to it. But I can't see any sign of it having been implemented....?
Thanks,
Rob -
Inappropriate?I stopped using labels altogether... too much work! Having a good search & indexing capabilities makes this unnecessary for me (I'm working w/ about 40K messages).
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Inappropriate?Can we get some company feedback on this? It's a highly requested feature.
I’m a little put off by the lack of company interest for six months
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I'm totally on board with this. Labels in GMail are the same, philosophically, as topics in Postbox.
What, is there some shortcoming or hidden features in the Google API that prevent Postbox from implementing this? -
Inappropriate?I think its high time we had an official statement. It could be
1) no its not gonna happen f off
2) we're working on it
3) sometime in the future we'll have it, stop crying
I’m sad
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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I agree. I would love to know where Postbox stands on this.
Thanks! -
seems like no, because I don't see any feedback :( -
I looked up their official reps for Postbox, and they're active, posting as recently as an hour ago on some topics. This is even more off-putting to me. Why wouldn't they respond to this highly requested feature in some way? -
Inappropriate?I don't see how this is work. It is Google's fault they decided not to support the IMAP TAG spec, with allows for TAG within the IMAP SPEC. They decided to do their own Label spec.
To make matters worst, when you connect to GMail using IMAP, google translates the Labels to IMAP Folders.
The direction google took really makes it impossible for any IMAP client to integrate with their labels. So I wouldn't expect PostBox to support this given how Google did things. Google should add IMAP TAGS to their IMAP impletmention to support their labels. Once they do that it will just work with PostBox (without them doing anything). -
Inappropriate?>The direction google took really makes it impossible for any IMAP client to >integrate with their labels.
No. That's not even kind of true. There is no reason that when you apply a topic it can't copy the message to the folder for the appropriate label or collate copies of messages and apply topics based on what label's folder they appear in. Gmail established a label to folder mapping across IMAP. there is no reason you couldn't play with that to recreate the folder->topic mapping which would in effect accomplish what people want.
As for why they aren't commenting on it, the best guess is either they are working on it and want to announce it all at once or they've decided its not worth it to them and they don't want to say it here just to have people yell at them and tell them they are stupid.
I’m unconcerned
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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I guess I should have said "near" impossible, LOL.
First off wouldn't it be easier if Google supported IMAP TAGS spec, that way their labels would work for any 3rd party client that supports this, rather then each client having to support Googles labels spec (sounds like google is starting to set standards based on their sheer number of users).
I do agree, yes you could have a setting that says "support gmail labels". Then when you add a topic, it just moves the email to the folder with this name (thus adding the label and archiving). It would also show all the folders as "Topics" (not as folders). If you wanted to show a label, the client would just show the contents of that folder. If you select multiple labels, it would get the contents of multiple folders (merge it into a single list).
So yes, I guess that could happen (sorta hackish), and sounds like it would be better served as a plugin for PostBox/Thunderbird (if that is possible). Basically your turning the email client into a GMail client, since GMail handles email much differently by way of using labels and archiving. Personally I find it confusing if you use Gmail using IMAP things are presented as folders, while if you use the website they are presented as Labels. Most users don't understand how the conversion works. Basically they force you to use labels in their web interface, and folders in their IMAP. I like a email setup that supports both Folders and Labels, and having IMAP with the TAG integrated, does just that. So you can pick to use folders or labels (or both), and they work in the webmail along with all the 3rd party clients.
So basically how google implemented labels sucks in my opinion. If they done it right, their would be folders and labels for both the IMAP and Webmail interface. -
Inappropriate?Already committed to Postbox, I got my license. It cannot last this way though. I've been using it for months and stopped archiving google apps / gmail - silently hoping for this feature. In the meantime, my inbox is getting out of control! It would help to get some direction on how to switch, if topics = labels can't happen...
I’m archiving
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?this would be a pretty sweet feature. We'd need some help from gmail to push labels into the keyword field for imap servers though. I'll think some more on other ways which this could happen but it isn't an easy thing for us to do.
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Thanks for the honesty.
This would be the killer feature that would finally pull me away from webmail 100%. I use a rather extensive label system and I feel lost without it when I am in Postbox. -
Inappropriate?This would probably be the killer feature for me too, to turn to a desktop client for my gmail accounts (gmail + google apps). I like the gmail web interface but always liked desktop clients better.
I am looking for a desktop client at the moment and this feature would certainly give me that little push to buy a license for postbox. But it will probably take a couple of months before the feature will be available in postbox.
Edit: Maybe an idea for when this feature is implemented: gmail labels have colors, so it would be nice that topics would automatically use the same colors as applied in the gmail web client. -
Inappropriate?This would be an excellent feature. I have bought the full package for postbox, but have currently gone back to using mailplane, simply because I could not handle fighting with folders and going back and forth between imap and local settings--which doesn't seem to work all that well (getting a lot of duplicate messages in postbox; gmail archive seemingly not functioning in postbox but working just fine in gmail etc). This feature would help to organize better and would be one step on my road to reopening up postbox. I like the interface and the potential features, I just don't like having to fight with them.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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re: "all mail"/archive - did you go into account setting and set the folder location for "archive to gmail > all mail? -
Inappropriate?I did set the folder location for archive to [current gmail account]>all mail. When I was struggling with this about a month ago, I still was getting either multiple copies in my archive/all mail--in postbox--but not in gmail.
I decided to give postbox another go, and while the archive *may* be working correctly now, the gmail label/ postbox folder disparity is bothering me. I will probably try to manage it. But--if postbox could work with gmail labels--and sort out a few other issues (like really threading messages) then I would be committed. I'm iffy at the moment. -
I personally can't use Postbox - it just isn't good enough (compared to gmail via chrome with offline mode), however it seems to be working a lot better than outlook for the people in the office...
I think maybe if topics were gmail labels I might be able to use postbox full time. also conversation view needs to flow exactly like gmail (include my sent items in the correct place)
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