However, if you’ve recently switched to Spark (or planning to switch soon), you must know every nook and cranny of this email client to make the most out of it. From email bundling to widgets, there are more than a dozen settings that you can play around with (that will most likely leave you surprised). Download Spark for Android So, in this post, we have listed some of the best setting, tips, and tricks of the Spark email client. But before we begin, let’s see us quickly go through its setup process.
1. Setup Account
If you have a Google account, setting it up is a breeze. All you have to do is select your email account and grant all the required permissions. Tap on the Enter Spark, and that’s about it. At the same time, do remember to review the Google Security email. That will help you in the long run. Thankfully, setting up a non-Google Account is also the same. You’d just need to enter the username, password and grant the necessary access.
2. Smart Inbox
By default, Smart Inbox of Spark organizes all your emails into folders. The relevant emails are displayed at the top, followed by less important emails. You can even read emails in bunches by tapping on the Tick icon at the top. But what I loved about this feature is that it is not set in rock, meaning that you can tweak and customize it to your liking. To do so, go to Settings > Personalization. Next, tap on Smart Inbox and uncheck the boxes that you do not want to see. Alternatively, you can tap on the options to modify the card settings.
3. Tweak the Sidebar
The main strength of Spark is its customization features, and that’s what makes this email client truly unique. But perhaps one of the key features of this app is its customizable sidebar (left menu). Not only can you rearrange the options inside it, but you can also add your frequently used section to it. All you have to do is tap on Personalization > Sidebar and tap on Edit under Top section. To remove a card, tap on the little red icon. Or else, you can rearrange the cards by dragging at the end of each card.
4. Modify the Gestures
By default, a left swipe on an email means Read while a long left swipe means Archive. Similarly, a short right swipe means Pin and a long right swipe means Delete. The good news is all four swipes are mappable to an action of your choice. Just head over to the personalization section and tap on Swipes.
5. Add a Passkey
Don’t want your email app to be easily accessible? Easy. Activate the passkey. As you may have guessed it’ll ask you for a password every time you (or someone else) opens the app. If you handle sensitive emails on a day to day basis, this is one of the first things that you should do. What’s more, you can also explore the biometrics option. To activate this option, open the sidebar and tap on Settings > Security, and toggle the option for Passkey Lock.
6. Add Multiple Signatures
One of the best features of Spark is it lets you switch between multiple signatures on your emails. Just tap on the signature area, and voila! All the pre-added signatures will pop up. To enter new signature styles, open Settings > Signature, and add the new signature. Tap on Add Signature to add new ones. Though the default format is text, you can also use HTML codes for links and images. To edit a pre-added signature, tap on the name to make your changes.
7. Activate the Widget
Spark Mail also lets you add a widget (a floating button) to the bottom of the inbox after which you can customize it as per your requirement. For instance, you can either program it to retrieve your recently read emails or your upcoming reminders. To configure the widget, head over to Settings > Personalization > Widgets, and choose its position. You can either have it in the middle of the screen (four actions) or at the bottom-right corner (two actions). To add a new action, tap on the Add Widget button and select the action. To test it out, go to the home screen of Spark and tap on the three-dot button. All the actions that you just added will pop up right away.
8. Schedule Emails
Are you someone who sends emails at 2 in the morning? If yes, it’s time you got introduced to the Scheduling feature of Spark. As its name implies it, lets you schedule emails for a later time. And the best part is that the timing is tweakable as per your convenience. So, ‘Later today’ can mean +3 hours for you while it can mean +2 hours for me. For now, Spark offers a variety of options for scheduling. You can pick your choices from a multitude of options like Evening, Tomorrow, Weekend, Next week, etc. Similar to the other changes above, the Scheduling settings are under Settings. Just make sure to make the changes under Send Later (third tab).
9. Snooze Emails
Another interesting and customizable feature is Snooze Email, using which you can get back to an email at a later point in time. Well, that’s present in mostly all the email clients, so what’s interesting about Spark? Well, Spark lets you tweak the Snooze timings. So, if you choose Later Today as a snooze option, you can pick at what time the app should notify you again. Plus, the snooze notifications sync across devices. You’ll find the Snooze settings under Settings. To snooze an email, long-tap on it and choose Snooze from the top bar. Select the time, and the app will do the rest.
10. Search Smartly
Searching for PDFs, documents and even images within Spark is a breeze. This app is known to handle natural language as easily as it handles specific keywords. So, if you’re looking for a PDF or a Word doc, just type the text on the search bar, and the matching emails will pop up immediately.
11. Two’s a Team
Last but not least, let’s talk about Teams, Spark’s most interesting feature. This one lets team members collaborate on emails just as you’d do on Google Docs. Moreover, you can discuss a draft email among members before it is sent. To start experimenting, you’d have to make a team first. To do so, go to Settings > Teams and tap on Create a Team. Now, add the team name and the members. To discuss an email, open one and tap on the Add People icon at the bottom right corner. Likewise, to discuss a draft, tap on the Add People icon. In both cases, you’ll see a message thread at the bottom of the thread. The downside to this wonderful feature is both users need to have Spark mail installed.
Take Back Control of Your Inbox
Going through hundreds of emails in a day can be an overwhelming chore. Yes, processing emails is not a simple game then it is made out to be. Thankfully, there are a few email clients that rise to this challenge and the Readdle’s Spark is one such app. The good thing about this email app is that pretty much everything can be customized as per your choice. Plus, all the settings, reminders, and schedules can sync across your systems. The only thing missing is a dark mode, which we hope the makers will introduce soon. Next up: Are your email attachments too large to fit into a single email? Check out the following post to discover a couple of tools for just that.
