• by Ray Schultz , April 7, 2020

Edison Software, the provider of the Edison Mail email app, is entering the email service market with OnMail, a product that it says will give consumers control over who enters their inbox.

The service, which launches this summer, takes aim not only at legacy providers like Gmail but at brands that send marketing emails.

One of its features, Permission Control, allows users to approve or reject email senders.  

“Nobody should fear giving out their address or have to create multiple accounts to escape an overcrowded mailbox.” states Mikael Berner, CEO and co-founder at Edison Software.

Another features include streamlined search and support for large attachments.

Moreover, a company blog post states that “we block all read receipts without degrading your email experience, and you won't see a targeted ad lurking in your inbox.” Edison Mail apps also provides this.

OnMail will include both free and paid versions, with featured sets for individuals, freelancers and companies, the firm says. It urges potential users to “sign up now to be the first to get an invitation.”

The service is also designed for offsite workers, and for users who access email on mobile devices.

Research conducted by Edison between March 16 and March 20, when most people were confined to their homes by the pandemic, shows a 6% uptick in daily mobile email use.

Here’s one other product detail: users can opt in to share de-identified data for Edison’s research-backed business model.

The company says OnMail is necessary because email no longer works, and that older services often add unnecessary features.

“AOL Mail launched in 1993, Hotmail launched in 1996, Yahoo Mail in 1997, and Gmail in 2004,” the blog post says. It argues: “These were years before people could predict what the email landscape would look like today before people realized that the majority of inboxes would be filled with time clogging spam.”