Alto is a new web-based email client from AOL (yes, the folks best known for "You've got mail!"). In addition to syncing with Aol Mail, the service syncs with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and even iCloud to make your inbox more attractive.
The most notable feature of Alto is its "Stacks" arrangement of particular emails. Stacks are essentially filters for your inbox that are arranged in neat squares. Alto sets up some Stacks for you, pulling emails from daily deals sites, retailers, and social notifications all in their own groups. Clicking on one of those Stacks brings you to a tab where the emails are arranged in a grid. Alto also crawls your email to find all the photos and attachments and filter those into Stacks.
You can create your own Stack by dragging an email from the message list to a blank square. That will set up a filter from that sender, but you can add other senders to the Stack and, under options, add additional settings (e.g., subject words).
Emails are presented in a scrolling list on the left, with quick action icons beneath each to delete, star, or snooze each message (a handy feature). You can also perform batch actions with the little actions button at the top.
Gmail shortcuts work here, your own labels are shown as folders, there are links to Google Drive and Calendar (if you like Gmail), and if you connect Facebook, you can get status updates from your friends here as well.
I experienced one issue with syncing, after not having used the service for a few weeks. However, that seemed to fix itself after I logged in again and waited a bit. The developers say they're actively working on improving sync performance, with a big update coming next week.
All in all, I found the webmail client to be fluid and easy to use. Its attractive design is like a breath of fresh air compared to just seeing a giant list of emails and labels in Gmail.
If you have a lot of email add-ons or labs set up, Alto, like other email clients, might not be for you. But if you want a fresher look for your inbox, give Alto a try.
A note on security: For Gmail accounts, Alto uses OAuth to get an access token, so it doesn't get your Gmail password. For other accounts, you do need to enter your passwords, which the AOL/Alto team says are heavily encrypted. Some limited account data (email metadata, up to 60-day cache of photos, etc.) are stored on their servers. You can read more about Alto's security and privacy measures here.
Alto was announced a little while ago, but is in private beta right now. Lifehacker readers can get in now with the SurveyMonkey link below (the first 5,000 will get in within 24-48 hours; after that, others will be approved a little bit later.)
Alto | SurveyMonkey
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