But, as widely used and convenient as it is, the Gmail app has many of the same limitations of other popular email services, such as Apple Mail and Outlook. The main problem with the Gmail app is that it doesn’t allow you to do much beyond send, receive, read, and reply to emails. Although this basic email functionality is important, you can get so much more out of your email app by using a third-party alternative to Gmail that syncs with your existing email account.

What’s the Best Alternative to the Gmail App?

When it comes to Gmail app alternatives, we’re preferential to Spike, the world’s first conversational email app with tons of extra built-in features and functionality.

1 What’s the Best Alternative to the Gmail App?1.1 Priority email inbox1.2 Video meetings1.3 Voice messages1.4 Group chats1.5 Online notes1.6 Tasks and to-do lists1.7 Super search2 Why You Should Make the Switch to Spike Today

Spike is a collaborative email app that syncs with your existing Gmail account (so you don’t have to change your email address) to turn your email threads into simplified chat-style conversations.  This is known as conversational email, and it’s a much more natural way to communicate than traditional emailing. Voice mail messages as part of a conversational email can help to remove stiff formalities and repetitive content that can clutter your inbox and this can help conversations flow and you can see here how you can make best use of them.  But that’s not the only reason we recommend Spike. The Gmail alternative also has tons of other tools to help businesses and teams communicate and collaborate better, and ultimately get more done in less time.  Here are some of Spike’s additional features that will benefit your business:

Priority email inbox

Your default email inbox quickly becomes full of low-priority emails, such as newsletters and notifications. This clutter makes it easy to miss important messages and harder to find important emails later one to refer back to messages or attachments. Spike’s priority inbox feature automatically filters out these types of low-priority emails, allowing you and your team to focus on what’s most important.

Video meetings

Video meetings have quickly become one of the most important communication methods for modern workplaces, especially for remote teams. Spike has built-in video conferencing that allows you or anyone else on your team to start a voice meeting from right within your email app.  So, if a message sparks a conversation that you need to meet about, it’s as simple as hitting a button — there’s no need to login to another video meeting app, send out invitations, and wait for people to join.

Voice messages

Voice messages, also known as voice notes, are another important communication tool for businesses.  A voice message is far more personal than a text-based message, and allows you to convey meaning through your tone and inflection. When you need to send complex instructions, or you just want to send a more personal message, Spike lets you do so with its fully integrated voice messages.

Group chats

Spike’s group chat feature is a great way to organize instant message conversations around certain projects, tasks, or teams. That way, you can ensure all the relevant information needed to get the job done is seen by everyone who needs to see it.

Online notes

Spike also has cloud-based, collaborative notes that let you and your team members work together in real-time. Whether you need to pull out important pieces of information from an email thread or summarize the contents of a meeting, these collaborative notes are the place to do it. Spike’s online notes even have an integrated sidebar chat, so you can discuss the contents of notes live.

Tasks and to-do lists

For managing all your team’s different projects and individual tasks, Spike’s to-do lists offer one of the most efficient ways to do so. Just add tasks to the to-do lists and assign them to the responsible parties to track project progress, hold everyone accountable for their work, and identify bottlenecks. This functionality essentially makes Spike work like a lite project management software program.

You and your team store all kinds of important information in your inboxes, so it’s important to be able to find that info fast. Spike’s advanced search lets you look in your email by keyword, person, or subject, and you can layer multiple filters together to narrow down your searches even more. This drastically cuts down on the amount of time spent searching for information or attachments in old emails.

Why You Should Make the Switch to Spike Today

When you use Spike as your business’s alternative to the Gmail app, you’re getting an all-in-one communication and collaboration platform that can replace a bunch of other tools you may have been using for specific tasks. This is important because it drastically reduces the amount of time you and your team spend context switching, or toggling between different apps, sites, and tools, throughout the day. When you switch contexts, you’re not just wasting time clicking between apps and screens. Every platform has a different interface and purpose, and it takes people time to adjust and refocus whenever they switch to a new tool. So, when you can do more in one place (like in Spike), you don’t have to spend this time reacclimating to different workspaces, and your productivity increases.