OK, so I've been using Hey for a day now. Here's my thoughts so far:

First of all, I have a lot of respect for what @dhh, @jasonfried and co do.

There are people who will dislike Hey purely because it's these guys, and there are people who will love it just because it's them.

I'm not either one of those.

I don't use @basecamp, and I don't use @rails. I do code, but I don't even use one of those frameworks that tries to be Rails in a different language.

Now that's out of the way, what do I actually think of Hey?

First impressions are a bit "meh". It's an email service, ultimately. How exciting can it be?

I was excited by email in 1996, but in 2020 I have a deep disliking of it.

That's why I wanted to try Hey, though. I want to love email again.

So, I sign up.

I can't get the email address that I like, and my second choice is considered premium, so that comes with a high price tag.

That's a bit disappointing, but I'll get over it. I'm still early so I can get a decent address.

Next, I'm logged in and I see "Imbox".

That must be a typo, right? It plays merry hell with my OCD. How can this typo have crept in?

Oh, wait. It's not a typo. It's deliberate.

Why will make sense shortly.

Onboarding is nice enough. There's intro emails to get you started. They feel like they're overkill, to be honest, but in hindsight they're probably actually perfect. Maybe it would make more sense to ease us in more gently, but would people switch off if that happened? Probably.

So, I either need to get my email address changed with various services (risky on a service that I don't know if I'm going to commit to or not yet), get people to email me, or I need to forward existing emails to my Hey account.

I went for the latter.

I get my usual notifications on my phone, but nothing from Hey.

This is different.

You go into Hey (I'm using the native Android app) and there's a message stating that emails from a new sender need to be screened in or out.

No default access to my inbox.

Neat!

So, I look at the email.

It comes from someone who I want to send me emails, so I opt in. It goes to my "Imbox".

All is well in the world.

I get an email from my wife.

Screened and opted in.

But I haven't had any notifications yet. Better turn them on for hers.

So far so good.

Uh oh, now I have a LinkedIn connection request coming in. I want to get my LinkedIn emails, but they're not important, so I don't want them to go to my Imbox. My IMbox. My IMPORTANT box.

Now I get it!

So, what do I do with them?

Hey doesn't just have the Imbox. It has a feed, too. So I send these emails to my feed.

It's like scrolling down a Facebook feed, only it's content that you've said that you want in there, not some manipulative, probably bullshit viral post.

I like this feed a lot!

So far I've screened a few emails and sent them into the feed. They're mostly marketing things, though. I definitely don't want them clogging up my Imbox, and I don't want them notifying me. I'm starting to appreciate this, now. This is good

Next, I get an email to notify me that a new TLS certificate has been installed on a website that I own. I definitely want to receive these, but it's neither important, nor is it feed material. No, this is useful info that I may need to refer back to, but it can go to one side.

Ah, that's what the Paper Trail is for. Send your receipts and transactional emails over here. Amazon orders? Paper Trail. Train tickets? Paper Trail.

This is great!

Then I get an email from my son's school.

I definitely want this, and I want notifications. It's probably not urgent (they should call if it is) but I don't want to miss it.

So I approve it during screening, allow it in my Imbox, and I turn notifications on.

But I'm busy now..

So I move it to my Reply Later list. Don't flag it. Don't mark it unread. Just move it into this different workflow.

Nice!

But this is for emails that I've read and need to respond to later. What about emails that I've not had chance to look at yet? Maybe it's a biggy!

This is where you set an email "aside". Similarly to the Reply Later list, this puts the email to one side, in a workflow that makes it simple to catch up on when you've got the time.

Remember that I said my first impressions were a bit "meh"?

At this point I'm really appreciating this.

I get it now.

(I think)

Fewer notifications.

Emails that I care about where I want them.

But the real icing on the cake?

Hey blocks tracking pixels!

I'm sorry marketing types, but you're going to have to work out a better way to know if I opened your emails.

This is how email should be.

No invasion of privacy.

You don't know if I read my mail, why should you know if I read my emails?

So yeah, I'm really liking this now.

Would I pay $99 a year for it?

I think I would, yes.

I'd prefer a $10/mn option, paying more over the year, rather than paying it all up front. But yeah, I think it's definitely worth the $99 price.

Now, if only I could justify the premium address price!

Congratulations to the team. This is sure to be a huge success.