5 Things I Learned the Hard Way While Building an "All-in-One" Email App

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A few months ago, I had a "simple" idea: "I'm tired of having a multiple email account appfor everything. I'll just build my own!"

How hard could it be?

Famous last words.

Building a "simple" All in one email app is one of the most complex projects I've ever taken on. Here are 5 brutal lessons I learned.

"Email" is Not One Thing, It's 10
I thought I'd just plug into an API. I was wrong. "Email" means IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, and the proprietary APIs for Gmail and Outlook. Just getting Gmail Outlook in one app to work together is a nightmare. Supporting all email providers is a full-time job.
Battery Life is Your #1 Feature (and Enemy)
You know what a Mail App needs to do? Sync in the background. You know what kills Android battery life? Syncing in the background. Creating a fast and smart mail client that doesn't destroy a user's battery was 30% of the entire development time.
"Unified" is a Design Nightmare
Okay, so you've connected all email accounts Now what? How do you show them? Does the user want one inbox for all accounts Or do they want to switch? How do you color-code them? Building the Unified Inbox UI was harder than the backend.
You Cannot Mess Up Security. Ever.
This isn't a game. You're handling people's private data. Implementing secure OAuth2 for every All mail login and All Email login isn't optional. One mistake here, and your app is (rightfully) dead. It's a huge responsibility.
Most Users Don't Want More Features
I was tempted to add a calendar, to-do lists, and notes. But in the end, I realized people don't want another "super-app."