Gmail, as a real Mac app.
Farnsworth talks to Gmail through the Gmail API rather than IMAP, so labels, categories and filters behave the way Gmail actually behaves. Native, quick, and yours for $12 a year.
- Built on the Gmail API, not IMAP
- $12 a year, billed annually
- Native macOS, not a wrapped web page
- Your mail stays on your Mac
Powered by the Gmail API
Most Mac email clients speak IMAP, a protocol that predates everything Gmail is good at. Labels arrive as folders. Categories vanish. Filters live somewhere you cannot reach. Farnsworth uses the Gmail API instead, which means it sees your mailbox the way Gmail sees it.
That is also why changes made here show up everywhere else. A label you apply, a filter you write, a draft you start: all of it lives in Gmail, not in a local cache that only this Mac knows about. Open Gmail on your phone and it is already there.
Move through your inbox
Inbox categories
Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums, exactly as Gmail sorts them. Not a local approximation, and not a rule you have to maintain.
Labels
Apply and remove them, create them, rename them, delete them. Nested labels stay nested. A message with four labels is one message, not four copies in four folders.
Filters
Read, write and edit your Gmail filters without opening Gmail settings. They run on Google's servers, so they keep working when your Mac is closed. No IMAP client can offer this.
Search
Gmail's own search operators, answered locally when the answer is already on your Mac and by Google when it is not. You do not have to know which is happening.
And the rest of Gmail
Snooze
Put a conversation down and have it come back when you asked.
Mute
Let a thread you cannot leave carry on without you.
Vacation responder
Set it from the app. It runs on Google's side.
Attachments
View, download, and see inline images, with remote content blocked until you ask.
Conversations
Threads that expand, collapse and hide quoted text.
Works offline
Your mail is on your Mac. Read it on a plane, and changes sync when you land.
All your Gmail accounts
Multiple accounts, personal and Workspace together. A unified inbox when you want everything in one list, separate inboxes when you would rather keep work where it belongs.
Each account carries its own colour and its own working hours, so a message arriving at eleven at night can simply wait until morning.
Writing, without the ceremony
Aliases
Send as any address Gmail already knows you own.
Undo send
The few seconds you need to notice the missing attachment.
Templates
The reply you write every week, kept where you can reach it.
Nothing in the middle
Farnsworth talks to Google directly from your Mac. There is no Farnsworth server between you and your mailbox, because there is no Farnsworth server at all. We could not read your mail if we wanted to.
Your messages are stored on your Mac and nowhere else. We do not have an analytics pipeline fed by your inbox, we do not train anything on it, and we do not have a copy of it to lose.
A Mac app, actually
Keyboard shortcuts
Reach everything without moving your hand.
Notifications
Real system notifications, on your schedule.
Dark mode
Follows the system, because of course it does.
Quick actions
Swipe or hover to archive, trash or star.
Fast on a large mailbox
Built to stay quick at two hundred thousand messages.
$12 a year
$12
Every feature, billed once a year. No tiers, no add-ons, no advertising.
A founding price.
Farnsworth is one person building carefully rather than a company that needs your mailbox to become a growth channel. Twelve dollars a year is what it costs to keep the work going.
Questions
When can I actually use it?
Not yet. Farnsworth is in active development and there is no download today. The engine is built and working. The interface comes next. Joining the list gets you an email when there is something to try, and nothing else. We will not sell your address or send you a newsletter.
Why only Gmail?
Because doing Gmail properly and doing IMAP properly are different products. Labels, categories and server-side filters have no honest equivalent in a generic mail client, and supporting both means shipping the worse version of each. If enough people on the list are Outlook users, that decision gets revisited.
Why is it so much cheaper than the alternative?
No investors to repay, no staff, and a deliberate bet that maintaining a focused client costs less than it used to. The price is low because the costs are, not because something is missing.
Does it work with Google Workspace?
Yes. Workspace and personal Gmail accounts both work, and you can use them side by side. Some organisations restrict which apps may connect, so your administrator may need to allow it.
What can Farnsworth see?
It asks Google for three permissions: reading and modifying your mail, creating and sending messages, and managing your filters. That is what an email client needs to be an email client. The data goes from Google to your Mac and stops there. See the privacy policy.
Is there an iPhone app?
No, and there is not going to be. Everything Farnsworth changes is stored in Gmail itself, so the Gmail app on your phone already shows it. A companion app would be a second thing to maintain that told you what you already knew.
Will it be on the Mac App Store?
Undecided. It will be signed and notarised either way, so it installs without a security warning.