[MatthewPhillips]

Email isn’t the problem, the problem is the client. Here’s just a few of the things we use email for today:

  Todo list
  Social networking notifications
  Text messaging
  Planning meetings
  Planning vacation
  Discussing issues with colleagues (mailing list)
  Bill notifications
  Newsletters / grey mail
  File sharing

We do all of those different things and shove them into a single client that was designed (with minor alterations) over 30 years ago. What were they using email for then? To send “holy shit, this is cool!” messages to other neckbeards.

We should be using a separate client for all of these uses. Email is nothing more than a messaging protocol. You could launch a group texting app and use email as the delivery protocol. Your user base would instantly be every person with an internet connection. It wouldn’t matter that person A has your app and person B doesn’t, you could make it transparent to the person that has the app and pitch to the person that doesn’t.

The biggest obstacle to this is that we all use regular old email clients today and increasing the already incredible noise would not be without backlash. I think you have to start out with apps that don’t require adding to your message count (a notification app that scrapes your inbox, for example).

Meanwhile startups are trying and failing to make every service its own silo that travels over port 80. This is what is most sickening about startup culture today, no one is creative about using the stuff that has been around forever and is used by everyone.