RedGage

My father isn’t a Facebook user, never has been. But he does know you can send photos via email, and he tells me to do so often. Every time I get on the phone with him and talk about something fun I’ve done, he tells me to send photos. I always forget. 

There have been some very interestings efforts to optimize sending photos from myMail, and the general public is extremely receptive of mail services that make the process easy. But user habits are tough to change.

Check out what happens when an app makes a easy to use photo sending email client. It gets lots of traction and everyone loves it. 

Now take your typical iOS native or Gmail application. If you’ve ever used these, you know that the apps are pretty deceiving. They’re visual design is great and lots of people download them, but the experience inside hasn’t been optimized for collaboration or photo sharing. 

Photo by MacStories.net 

When you actually open them up, they take surprisingly long to attach and send photos. Yahoo takes over 13 taps, and native iOS takes 9. That’s a lot of wasted time on tapping around to find the right photos. 

So, there are two elements on why people don’t send lots of photos on mail apps. 

1. Across the board, users are getting away from sharing photos socially via email.
2. Mobile apps don’t make it that easy, and it takes a long time to attach photos. 

What this means is that people are taking more time communicate on other apps when their mobile when they want to share pictures. Facebook dominates, along with Instagram and a few video sharing apps. Email has been pretty much left behind. 

What’s worse is that in some situations people tend to put off sending work emails that require photos until they get behind a desktop or tablet because of the ease of use and speed. 

So if we’re wasting time waiting to get behind a desktop to send emails, how much productivity are we losing? 

It’s tough to say, because it’s not a measurable metrics, but it is slowing productivity as a whole across lots of industries. 

What types of future developments will innovate and optimize? I’m glad you asked. Here are a few… 

1. Alternative mobile mail solutions

These are typically focused on how to innovate higher than the native smart phone mail apps. Which is great because it forces innovation around the apps and makes them quite useful. 

2. Chat application expansion

Apps like Facebook chat, WhatsApp and Slack would need to fill in the gaps from email to chat communication forms. Once they do, email will be much easier as a workable mobile product. 

3. Macro optimization must be a focus

Specific pieces inside of the apps don’t focus on the environment around the user. Distractions, time of use and physical limitations rule mobile and must be accounted for. 

4. Ads need to get smarter and leave email

Many of the major apps understand this already and have stopped placing ads in the inbox. The real question is how will communication industry apps monetize. 

5. Cross platform consistency

Once there are uniform consistencies in email experience across devices, we’ll be able to completing the same tasks (with the same ease) as we would on any other hardware. 

6. Apps don’t have good enough feedback models

There’s a big need for tracking, analytics and insight from mobile apps on a micro level. We’ve got it for video, web analytics, social, but not a drilled down look at where a user fell apart on an app. 

So, where’s all the innovation then? 

Mail.ru and My.com have placed some serious power into myMail and positioned themselves as the second coming of mail and maps applications. This has spurred a major user base acquisition on both of these apps. They’ve also taken the time to show how optimized some of their internal functions of the apps. 

Slack is a great example of a good communication app that will probably have a role in the future of email, collaboration and photo sharing. Whatever happens we’re looking forward to seeing it. Let’s just hope it encourages photos sharing and collaboration.