Comments on “Astro
Garry Tan@garrytan · Angel Investor. Previously Partner, YC
Astro was made by some true SV legends who have made some of the world’s best email software. They’re back at it with a clean easy to use email client built from the ground up that makes great use of AI, has fast search and all the modern features you would expect. I’m pretty psyched to make Astro my primary email client.
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
Hello Product Hunt. We're so happy to be here, and thanks Garry for hunting us! We'll be answering questions today and are excited to hear your feedback, so ask away. We just launched Astro in Public Beta, on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Astro has everything you expect from intelligent, modern email apps, plus a chatbot that helps you declutter your inbox and fo… See more
Eduardo Alberto@ebsalberto · CTO @ Maxihost
Very impressive. Well thought out onboarding, clean UI and makes use of the same shortcurts as Gmail.
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@ebsalberto Thanks! Happy to hear you like it.
Nathan Bashaw@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@emilykramer @ebsalberto +1 for same shortcuts as gmail :) One suggestion - when writing an email, i usually hit "tab" then "enter" to send. If you added support for that, it'd be amazing!
Chris Tirpak@ctirpak · CTO, EchoStar
I've been on the private beta for a few weeks and can attest that the AI is surfacing just the email I care about to my Priority Inbox and leaving everything else for later. Definitely off to a promising start! Give it a try!
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@ctirpak Thanks Chris, and thanks for the great feedback during the Private Beta.
Keir Williams@keirwilliams · MSci Psychology at WLV
How are you different to Notion?
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@keirwilliams We think Notion is doing some exciting stuff, and we're both focused on bringing intelligence to Inbox. But, we're taking different approaches. -We're focused on conversational AI, we think our chatbot is the best way to remind you about important messages and questions, prompt you about emails to unsubscribe from, archive, and move; and help… See more
chris@chrisdolle
This is really clean, and the onboarding is great. The UX here is really well done. I've seen (and used) a ton of really nice, free email clients pop up on PH over the past couple of years (CloudMagic/Newton, Polymail, Nylas) , though, which have gone on to charge upwards of $10/mo once they've established a userbase. What's your long-term plans for mone… See more
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@chrisdolle We plan to launch a Paid version of our product later this year, that focuses on team intelligence and advanced email features. Our intention is to keep all the modern features, chatbot, etc. that we offer now free for individuals. Read receipts is on our roadmap, and you can expect it soon. Advanced email tracking will likely be a Premium featur… See more
Nigel Jennings@nigeyandco · Co-founder wphero.io
@chrisdolle I feel your pain Chris. Similar experiences here - even worse I crawl back to Mac Mail!
chris@chrisdolle
@emilykramer Great, thanks for the response!
Chris Tirpak@ctirpak · CTO, EchoStar
@emilykramer @chrisdolle If you are going to add read receipt requesting that is ok by me but please add the ability for me to deny a read receipt - it is, IMHO, a great waste of email bandwidth, a horrible management tactic, and a tactic often used by spammers to track down who accidentally read their email. I'd also love to see the AI deployed to defeat op… See more
Baris Ergin@barisergin · Co-Founder @ DirectIQ
Any chance to see a Windows version soon?
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@barisergin Working on it and also hiring a dedicated Windows engineer! We want to bring Astro to all platforms, Android is up next, but Windows is also a priority. We know the mail app options on Windows are very limited and that's a gap we hope to fill.
Nicolae Pasecinic@nicolaepase · CEO UpQode
Astro is one of my favorite Email App so far. Using since heard about them. Are you guys planning to add calendar? That can be awesome. Thank You.
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@nicolaepase Thanks Nicolae for your support and being part of our Private Beta too. We plan to add an ai-powered calendar this year.
Nicolae Pasecinic@nicolaepase · CEO UpQode
@emilykramer Thanks for the answer. Are you guys planning to add PRO Version, what features are you thinking to add?
Privacy - Effective as of March 3, 2017: What Information does Astro Collect? Information You Provide to Us We receive and store any information you knowingly provide to us. For example, through the registration process and/or through your Astro Account settings, we may collect Personal Information such as your name, email address, phone number, and third… See more
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@therevod Do you have specific concerns about the policy? We take privacy and security really seriously, and have details (in non-legal policy speak) in our FAQ: http://help.helloastro.com/faq/w.... A brief overview… -Data encryption: in transit and at rest -Confidentiality: We have strict restrictions in place with employees to protect user data -Data d… See more
@emilykramer @helloastro Just want to post the privacy page for the people that like to know more about that (Like me), I will try your email client this weekend
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@therevod @helloastro Thanks, hopefully the FAQ link I posted helps people out as well.
Jacob Bendicksen@jacobbendicksen · student @yale
Beautiful app! Any plans to add read receipts like Polymail?
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@jacobbendicksen Yes, that's high on our roadmap!
Viral Kadakia@viral_kadakia
Love Astro! I downloaded the Mac app a couple weeks back and found my productivity jump through the roof. Astrobot is AI that actually works. The VIP list, Tips and the chat interface to personalize my experience helped get to zero Inbox quickly. When used in a group/team setting, I can only imagine how effective it will be. Do you plan to integrate with oth… See more
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@viral_kadakia Thanks for being one of our early users. Integrations are on the way...more on that soon!
Andy Pflaum@apflaum · co-founder, CEO @Astro
Thank you everyone for all the support and feedback! AI combined with smart app design can take us leaps forward in managing our work & personal communication. We're excited to be making these apps available for Mac & iOS, and soon for Android & Windows. We look forward to much more discussion & feedback!
Joanne Yuan@joanneyuanyuan · cowboy ventures
Have been using for a month and Astro is SO fast and reliable. Big fan of team and product!
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@joanneyuanyuan Thanks!
Josh Kerr@joshkerr · EIR at Capital Factory
I tried it out but got the "registrations are disabled" after trying to register my Gmail account. Are you not accepting new registrations? I'd love to try it.
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@joshkerr We're experiencing really high demand (thanks Product Hunt!) and are throttling new accounts. We'll let you know as soon as we are able to add more accounts. Sorry about that!
Josh Kerr@joshkerr · EIR at Capital Factory
@emilykramer seems like a missed opportunity. Do you lack the funds to auto-scale your infrastructure? Or is it a lack the technical know how?
Samuel Mikel Bowles@shmuel · Director, Pivotal Labs | San Francisco
I felt lied to. You asked for my email in the context of an on-boarding experience and then _after I'd given it_ told me I was signing up for a waiting list. Of course I was disappointed that I would have to wait but more importantly I felt deceived into giving my email. If the signup flow had been honest about the wait list I probably still would have given… See more
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@shmuel This isn't the normal experience, we're experiencing server overload right now. Normally, you get right in. We're sorry to have mislead you and we're working on resolving the issue so you can add accounts!
Samuel Mikel Bowles@shmuel · Director, Pivotal Labs | San Francisco
@emilykramer Thanks for the reply Emily. I understand. I just wanted to communicate that the current flow undermined a bit of my trust (which is a critical thing when dealign with email). I think it's a solvable issue either by altering the signup flow or, as you say, the harder but more permanent way: fixing the underlying performance issues.
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@shmuel Working on both. Thanks for the feedback.
Tarun Gangwani@tarungangwani · Co-founder, Product, grokstream.com
@shmuel Also not a fan of this, but I think a quick fix would be to queue and show where someone would be as if you were waiting in line to talk to an agent (since that's the model you are going for).
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@tarungangwani @shmuel Tarun, yes we did what we could due to the high demand. Definitely a learning experience, and we hope people will give us a try when we open back up the waitlist.
Menj@menjxo
gmail forwarding email doesn't work. :(
Andy Pflaum@apflaum · co-founder, CEO @Astro
@menjxo Hi Menj, we're not sure what you mean. If you already have forwarding enabled in Gmail, we shouldn't be doing anything to disrupt that. If you can describe the scenario you're trying, that can help us figure it out.
Menj@menjxo
@apflaum Hi tried to forward all my backup gmail "emails" to my main "gmail" email but "astro" wasn't able to fetch it. But on my "airmail" email client, I can see all the forwarded emails. I hope this can help you trace what's wrong with the "astro".
Emmanuel Lemor@exlemor · Cust. Exp., Prod. Mgmt etc are my world.
The interface looks nice and while I'm not yet convinced that AI can solve the information overload (having tried other email clients in the past) but willing to give it a go with Astro but without POP3/IMAP support it doesn't support 90% of my email needs... So, when will POP3/IMAP support arrive? :)
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@exlemor Hopefully our app can convince you that AI can help solve some of your email problems :) IMAP later this year, we're working on it!
Evan Kimbrell@evankimbrell · Founder, Sprintkick
@exlemor Ugh. No IMAP? That's annoying
Emmanuel Lemor@exlemor · Cust. Exp., Prod. Mgmt etc are my world.
@evankimbrell agreed ;)
Vladislav Arbatov@vladzima · Founder http://en.arb.digital
I'm so eager to use Astro to it's full potential, but unfortunately I have two other mail providers besides Gmail: Fastmail (primary mail) and Yandex (work mail). Is there a chance SMTP is coming soon?
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@vladzima IMAP is coming later this year and that will allow you to use Yandex and Fastmail.
Vladislav Arbatov@vladzima · Founder http://en.arb.digital
@emilykramer Oh yeah sure I mean IMAP
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@vladzima All good, the email acronyms get confusing :)
Excited that try it out 👍🏼
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@om Thanks, let us know what you think!
@om missed out on downloading it in time. Oh well
@emilykramer I guess I missed the window to download it - sigh
Tim Van Damme@maxvoltar · Designer at Dropbox
Been testing Astro for the past couple of months, feels like a spiritual successor of Mailbox (I don't drop that name lightly)
Emily Kramer@emilykramer · VP Marketing @astro. Ex-Asana, Ticketfly
@maxvoltar Thanks Tim! "Spiritual Successor of Mailbox" just might have to be our new tagline.