Issue #194 All About Email

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #194 of All About Email!

Last week, HubSpot launched a first-of-its-kind integration with ChatGPT for deep research, but should you even use it?

This week, we get a little bit off topic and a little bit personal at the start and then on to this week’s topic as we revisit the “AI inbox”.

Let’s go! 👇

The AI Inbox

⚡️ Email Marketing is changing forever, 2025 has been the rise of the AI inbox, and it’s not going away.

Apple Intelligence (which I covered in detail in Issue 147) was launched almost a year ago (it took a little longer to arrive in the UK/EU due to privacy laws), so expect numerous reports on the impact of Apple Intelligence in the coming months.

💡 However, you might be surprised by some of the real-world data some ESPs have been kind enough to share with Dan Oshinsky.

Now, let’s take a look at some new AI inboxes and revisit some old ones. 👇

Yahoo Mail

🚨 Yahoo have now entered the fray with a gamified AI inbox.

These features are not currently available on the desktop version or mobile web version of Yahoo Mail; you need the app.

More specifically, the iOS version * if you want access to all AI features:

• Secure your inbox.

• Eliminate junk.

• Track packages and find receipts.

• Complete tasks in one tap with quick actions.*

• Write better emails with the help of AI. *

• Get key details with AI-powered email summaries. *

• Connect multiple email accounts.

• Organise emails by priority, sender or topic. *

🤔 I’ve yet to test this out on iOS, but I’m not sure how I feel about the game of deleting as many emails as quickly as possible.

Gmail

✨ Six months ago, Gemini magically appeared in our inboxes without warning, and I covered it in detail in Issue 173.

😫 One of my biggest complaints back then was the limited ability of the AI to interact with the inbox; that's no longer the case.

You can now:

• Find and list emails using different criteria.

• Perform actions on these emails, e.g. delete, archive and spam.

🤦‍♂️ We still can’t apply labels as part of our actions, but maybe one day we can.

We now also have automatic AI summaries in the Gmail App (similar to Apple) for some emails.

These automatic summaries don’t seem to work with newsletters yet; instead, they are designed to work with peer-to-peer emails.👇

You can stay up-to-date with all the latest Gmail announcements on the official blog.

Zero Mail

About six weeks ago, in Issue 188 (towards the bottom), I shared a new AI Gmail wrapper called Zero Mail that is:

• Open Source native AI.

• Serverless with the power of Cloudflare.

• Option to self-host (even more privacy).

I did check back in, and onboarding has been added, along with a bucketload of new features and a new Pro plan. But this latest AI inbox isn’t enough to pull me away from my native Gmail.

✅ Yes, there are some cool features like auto-labelling, and the AI-generated replies are good, with the ability to customise these by default with your own prompt. 😎 

However, the platform is still somewhat buggy (including the inability to delete your account), and the balance of features versus price suggests that you would be better off with an established player like Superhuman.

Sorry, Zero Mail, but it’s a zero from me. ❌

CoPilot

AI arrived in Outlook in January this year, and yes, I've an Outlook inbox, but I’ve still not tested CoPilot in it, as I prefer to avoid daily trauma.

Therefore, avoiding Outlook is pretty easy for me. 🤣

To be fair to Microsoft, they have been rolling out numerous AI features and controls in recent months.

So, if you don’t use Outlook, you can keep track of how your subscribers might be experiencing your emails in their inbox.

One day, I will take Outlook’s CoPilot for a spin, friend, I promise. 😏

🎉 To end on a positive note, it is exciting to see the new Outlook and, more importantly, businesses and enterprises being gradually transitioned to it this year, which will go a long way toward reducing the need for Outlook hacks.

All About Email - Playlist 🎧

I listen to lots of music, particularly when I’m writing newsletters.

Each week, when I hit the publish button, I’ll share the track I am currently listening to and create the most eclectic playlist you’ve probably ever heard.

Sponsorship Opportunities

🚨 If you’re interested in sponsoring the “All About Email” newsletter, you can find all the details in this Google Doc. I currently have “Classified” slots and a Main Sponsor slot available.

That’s It For This Week 👋

🏝️ Our summer series will hopefully start in three weeks with some fantastic guest authors lined up, and we’ll have one of my favourite emails of the year dropping in just two weeks.

See you next week!

Email Marketing News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful email news & tips:

• 😎 Free! For A Limited Time - Email Love launches one of the coolest features of the year, and it’s an absolute treasure trove! 👑 (Email Love)

• Gamified Inbox - Yahoo Mail Rolls Out New ‘Catch Up’ Feature to Help Users Tackle Inbox Overload. (Yahoo)

• Image-Only Emails - Another Reason Not to Send Them (Elizabeth Jacobi)

• Email Conferences - The Top 20 Email Marketing Conferences You Should Know About. (Beehiiv)

• 🥳 5 Million Views! - An unbelievably huge milestone for Al Iverson and his email blog. I subscribe to Al’s newsletter and highly recommend it. (Spam Resource)

• Three New Services - All three provide you with HTML emails that are conformant to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Levels A, AA (and AAA where relevant). (Paul Airy)

• Deliverability Update - Orange.fr Tightens Complaint Rate Thresholds. (Florent Destors)

• 🚨 A Must Read - 5 Newsletter Trends I’m Watching this Year. (Inbox Collective)

• Planning for the Worst - The Simple But Not Obvious Method for Building Automation Workflows. (Userlist)

• Email Growth - Daily Newsletter Experiment: 3,714 Subscribers in 30 Days. (Growth In Reverse)

• 🚀 Email of The Year? This is a strong early contender. (ActionRocket)

• Limited Series - A fiery hot podcast crossover series is here! (Validity & Guru Media Hub)

• New Feature! - This changes everything for email design teams. (Email Love)

If you have a question about this email or email marketing, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋