Has Runbox considered making a native iOS/Android app?

#1

I love Runbox, but I would love to see a native app, allowing a persistent login until one chooses to log out – one tap access to mail.

Sure, I could get that ease of access with a mail client, but then it wouldn’t be RB7. :grin:

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#2

@wmrbf, this is what the web based app actually does. Similarly to a native app, the Runbox webbased app stores all needed data in a database via your browser. Place a link on your mobile phone’s home screen and voilà.

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#3

Yep, like @ondra says, Runbox 7 is a PWA (Progressive Web App), meaning that with OS support (which both Android and iOS provide) you can install the web app as a standalone app in your OS – it will stll run through the browser of course, but you should have your persistent login and some degree of offline use too :­)

The big advantage of this is not only a perfectly uniform interface across the web/mobile/apps, but also supporting every possible mobile OS that has a modern web browser, giving us more degrees of freedom than the current mobile OS monoculture (or should I say: duoculture :­)) dooms us into.

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#4

Thank you @ondra and @tadzik. I had incorrectly assumed that the result would be a simple shortcut to a traditional webmail login page. I’ll give it a go, now that I have refreshed my memory on how to add the shortcut.

#5

I assume the URL that I want to navigate and make the shortcut to is runbox.com/app ?

#6

Yes, this is the URL: https://runbox.com/app/

#7

Thanks, @Kim.Runbox. I tried it last night and experienced an odd problem in which I opened a message, and thereafter the only thing I could do was scroll within that message; none of the controls would respond, and I had to force-quit the app. This is on an iPhone 6 Plus running the latest iOS.

#8

Could it have been a issue with zoom? Can you zoom out?

#9

I’m not sure what the issue was; I just tried it again tonight, and it seems to be behaving better than when I wrote the above. I had used the full height option to increase readability, but I did not zoom.

#10

I do believe as well that webmail should stay for desktop usage only and separate apps for mobile should be the best.
I tried to use the version 7 of Runbox on my mobile and the layout is rapidly a mess when the messages are in html. The responsive design get lost when we read html emails.
Sorry then but for most of people in 2019 not having mobile apps is not possible as a first choice for a customer.
Also, if you force us to use webmail via mobile then it means that we have to create a shortcut on our home screen to be able to quickly go on the webmail like an app which is first not user friendly. And for iOS users only Safari allows these shortcuts so you force me to use safari which is of course not my first choice. Maybe I’m wrong but I never found this feature on Chrome iOS.
Of course all of this is based if we don’t want to use a third party client.

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#11

Perhaps this is more appropriate in a separate topic, but I definitely agree that (on my iPhone 6 Plus, which I think has a decently large screen) the button layout is quite cramped, such that I worry about tapping the wrong button. In contrast the dedicated apps of other providers seem to make better use of the space.

#12

We are aware of the limitations and problems with the web app on mobile devices at the moment, and we haven’t ruled out a separate app entirely. We can see the benefits and drawbacks of both approaches. There is more we can do to improve how the web app works on mobile devices.

It’s OK here for now but if it starts a discussion on the layout in the web app more generally I’ll move the posts somewhere else. I understand why you put it here though :slight_smile: As I mentioned above, there is more we can do on the layout that would be specific to mobile devices and make it more user friendly.

#13

Thanks, @Dave!

Like everyone, I only want the best for RB7, whatever form that may take. :slight_smile:

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#14

Yes, we need more optimizations for smaller devices, but that is not a inherent problem with how the app is delivered to the users. It just means we need to make more optimizations for smaller devices. Desktop has been the main focus so far.

#15

I’m not very tech savvy. Is there an easy way to set up the app to run it like any Mail Client app from an app store? I don’t know how to use programming languages. Thanks,