Readdle Spark with enhanced Gmail Categories

After finally giving up on Airmail due to syncing issues I reviewed all of the available alternatives before I switched to Readdle’s Spark.

Spark has an overall more polished interface but lacks Airmail’s ability to create Smart Folders based on Gmail search parameters.

Even though Spark has it’s Smart Inbox I found that the 3 category groups it has available did not provide the granularity of sorting that I desired, which is why I looked to Gmail categories.

To enhance Gmail’s ability to categorise emails I enabled Smartlabels under the Labs section. This provides 3 additional categories, Finance, Purchases and Travel to go along with the standard Forums, Social, Promotions and Updates.

I then created the following filters to label all emails into one of the categories and an additional Personal label as a default option if the email is not matched.

I found the the automatic application of categories is 95%+ accurate and is improving with training.

In Spark I created a Search Folder (when viewing an email click on the applied category/Personal label) for each of the labels and moved them to the Favorites section in the Sidebar.

The ability to triage incoming emails via this approach increases efficiency and productivity and solidifies Spark as the preferred email choice for macOS and iOS.