Former Apple Engineer Introduces Native Gmail Client for Mac With Multi-Account Support, System Notifications, and More

Neil Jhaveri, a former Apple engineer who worked on the company's default Mail app, has introduced a new Gmail client for macOS.

Available in beta, Mimestream is a native app written in Swift and designed with AppKit and SwiftUI for a clean, stock appearance. Jhaveri says the app is designed to be fast, lightweight, and use a minimal amount of disk space.

Mimestream uses the Gmail API rather than IMAP to support more Gmail-specific features, such as categorized inboxes, automatically synced aliases and signatures, full labels integration, and search operators. Jhaveri plans to add more features over time, including Google Drive support, server-side filter configuration, and G Suite directory autocomplete.

Mimestream's advantages over using the Gmail web interface include support for multiple Gmail accounts with a unified inbox, system-level notifications, system-level Dark Mode support, swipe gestures, tracking prevention, and more.

Jhaveri says Mimestream only makes direct connections to Gmail and does not use intermediary servers, adding that the app does not collect or sell users' emails.

Mimestream is free for a limited time while in beta and will eventually be a paid app distributed through the Mac App Store. macOS Catalina or later is required. Jhaveri says an iOS and iPadOS version of the app is planned for the future.