iCloud Custom Email - Opinions?
I've used Google Workspace since it as Google Apps in 2004, but I'd like to use the Apple Mail app and it is notoriously awful with Gmail. Not its fault, as Gmail is not true IMAP and I understand why Apple Mail has issues. Push notifications are not possible with Gmail, and waiting 15 minutes for updates is untenable for my use case. If I switch from Google Workspace to Apple Custom Domain Email, how disappointed am I going to be? I can deal with the little things, like it goes to the same inbox as my iCloud.com email, but that's not a problem as I never use it and haven't gotten two emails there in the past two years. But how much worse is spam filtering if I'm using iCloud Custom Email. I know it won't be a good at filtering as Gmail, but is it at least tolerable? Thanks!
Collected discussion
If you care about spam, privacy and options, and don’t mind paying for this (with money instead of data) - have a look at fastmail. They allow you to make an email alias for anything you want. And if you get spam on the alias - you just delete it and make another one. And their apps are better than gmail or apple mail (but it will do push to apple’s apps if you want to).
LOL! I had just edited my original post to include this about Fastmail, which I'd forgotten add. But thanks for confirming...and the more I think about it, Fastmail is probably the best option. I don't care much for their apps and prefer Apple Mail, but that's only because I'm so locked into the Walled Garden. But they're the only other email provider who can use push notifications with the Apple Mail app.
Not entirely true. I know Outlook does push email in the Apple Mail app just fine as does Yahoo Mail (at least it did the last time I used the service)
Filtering is not the best on iCloud, it’s meh but its been good enough so far (i switched about 2 years ago) Btw for the mail going to the same inbox problem i have this weird little setup. Basically i have two icloud accounts, and i have Cloudflare email forwarding setup on my domain. I have the forwarding configured so specific subdomains forward to one of those inboxes. Not the best setup ik but it has been working well for me. And to send mail via custom emails i have icloud+ on one of those accounts
Thanks! If I switch, since I literally never get email in my iCloud.com account, I had planned to create a folder named "iCloud Email" and filter anything there sent to iCloud email. Then my inbox would be nothing but my custom domain. The troubling part for me is spam. I'm spoiled with getting zero spam in Google Workspace and I never even check spam anymore. This move will force me to look through junk mail every day...not sure it's worth it. To be able to use the Apple Mail app and Push Notifications, my only other option is to use Fastmail with my custom domain (I don't mind paying for it). They have a deal with Apple so their email gets pushed instantly. EDITED: I forgot to mention that Fastmail spam filtering is "almost" as good as Gmail.
I added several custom domains to my iCloud Mail just this week – since I don't have a Google Workspace subscription, while with iCloud Mail everyone can have custom domains + also create email aliases, which is awesome. So far so good, although filter rules seem to be pretty basic
Thanks!
Wish apple can open their pop3 and smtp server
The spam gap is real but has narrowed a lot in the past couple of years. For personal use iCloud handles the obvious stuff fine. The bigger practical win is that Apple Mail with iCloud actually behaves the way it was designed to - real push, proper threading, no IMAP authentication headaches. Gmail through Apple Mail has always been a workaround because of how Google implements IMAP non-standardly. If your volume is moderate and you are not getting a flood of cold inbound, the switch is usually worth it. The shared inbox with your iCloud address is a non-issue once you set the custom domain as your default send-from. Most people you email will never know the difference.
Thanks! It's nice to talk to someone who understands the "real" issues encountered when using Gmail with Apple Mail. I wish I could keep my custom domain on Gmail and use it with Apple Mail, but it's gotten too big of a PITA. Even though I'm all in with Apple, I still enjoyed the simplicity of Google Docs, plus they're much easier to collaborate with the iWorks. Since retiring, my personal mail volume has decreased significantly and Google currently captures only 5-10 spam emails daily, so I won't have to sift through too many each day. My wife hates change, so I'll have a small hurdle there, but after 48 years, we'll survive 😁.
I use it for websites I run. I like it a lot. No complaints
I’m using the free version of Lark Suite. Compared to iCloud custom email, Lark gives much higher quotas and lets you set up multiple custom-domain emails for free. I think the main issue is that you can only have one email/domain setup for iCloud custom email
I use it for my website. It's nothing special, but it works consistently.
This comment was deleted at the source.
I never said I had an issue with Apple Mail. I'm trying to switch to Apple Mail for my custom domain email. My issue is that my Google Workspace custom domain email doesn't work properly with Apple Mail, nor does any Gmail account. Gmail can't provide push notifications to Apple Mail. It "works" but it depends on Fetch instead of Push.
We support iOS push notifications, and reverse-engineered it and open-sourced it too. Check out https://forwardemail.net and our iOS mention at https://forwardemail.net/rfc
This comment was deleted at the source.