Zero breaks "swiping up"

BRIEF:

The original Zero app, with its triage mode that allowed you to swipe up to archive email was great.

But updates to the Zero app broke thus triage mode. At the moment the Zero app is just yet another yawn inducing email app. It will not be worth using, installing, or purchasing until they fix triage mode so that you can swipe up to archive.

Swiping up/down is significantly more efficient than swiping left/right because humans have opposable thumbs.


DETAIL

My original review of Zero is below. When Zero first came out I gave it 5 stars. I would have paid 50$ or more if Zero had ActiveSync support to allow me to use it with my company's Exchange servers (IT disallows IMAP).

But every few months they update Zero, and every time they update Zero my rating goes down. I haven't used Zero in months. I really should give" it the lowest possible rating, 1 star (zero stars if possible), but I give it 2 for now because I hope it may go back to being worth using. I try every update, but give up disappointed.

Here is what I like about the original Zero app: triage mode. A mode where you see one email, and can swipe up to archive it, or do something else (back then, hit star) to keep it in your Inbox marked as read. Swipe left to look at in more detail, etc.

Indeed, before using Zero on iPhone I used a similar app called Triage on Android. Similar "swipe up to archive" interface.

This "swipe [up] to archive interface" allowed me to empty my Inbox quickly. One quick swipe, rather than tap to read, hunt for a button to archive or otherwise handle. One easy swipe, rather than a lot of finicky small movements. Speed is proportional to ease of UI action.

Sure, the original Zero had shortcomings: My main complaint was lack of Exchange ActiveSync support. Also, I want to use this triage "swipe to process" on other mail folders: e.g. I have rules to sort mail into high and low priority bins, and for different projects and clients. It simplifies time tracking when I am not mixing mail from different projects. Plus, better standard mail tools, like move or copy to folder.

But, even without those, the original Zero was useful. Unfortunately, the updated have removed the feature that made Zero special.

Zero's updates have, for the most part made Zero more of an ordinary email app. Better rendering, different buttons, swipes in the message list. Not bad, but I can't see any reason to use Zero rather than another mail app. Originally, I used Zero's triage mode, and then switched to another app like Outlook to do non-triage email processing (also to read email in the rule based folders that Zero's triage mode cannot access).

Unfortunately, from my point of view Zero's updates broke triage mode. :-(

Sure, the updated Zero still has triage mode. Plus, it has more swipe actions: swipe left to archive, right to keep. (As opposed to swipe up to archive in the old Zero. Also, the new Zero has no swipe up or down)

In some ways the new Zero is more symmetric: swipe left to archive, right to keep, as opposed to the old swipe up to archive, tap a star icon to keep.

Unfortunately, it turns out that swiping UP or DOWN is important for the most frequent actions. At least for me - and I suspect for many other users. Something similar arises in apps like FlipBoard - a rather successful app, whose initial success was largely due to swiping up or down vs left to right.

On an iPhone held in your hands, one or two handed, swiping up or down with your thumb is faster, easier, less muscle strain than swiping left or right.

Swiping up or down uses the big joint at the base of the thumb, and the big muscle that "swings" the thumb. Eg imagine holding your hand out, fingers splayed, and swing the thumb to the other fingers, or across the palm. I.e. the muscle that gives us the opposable thumbs that are so important to our success as the human species.

Whereas swiping left or right requires bending the thumb at the joint closest to its tip. Finicky small muscles. Muscle strain inducing movements.

Like many people, I suffer from thumb strain, and from other RMS problems. Swiping up or down reduces such strain. Swiping sideways increases it.

Swiping up or down also allowed me to change which thumb was doing the swiping. Swiping left or right means that swiping away gets stressed on the right thumb, swiping in gets stressed on the left thumb.

Swiping up turns out the be slightly easier than swiping down - the hand grip strength, versus the jam that rock climbers use to stay in a crack. But up or down is 2-4x less stressful than left or right. So swiping up should be used for the most common action, down for the next most, side to side for less common.

If you are able to hold your phone so that the big joint of the thumb is directly beneath the home button, you can swipe side to side easily. Most people cannot do that. Similarly, if you lock the phone on portrait mode but hold it in landscape mode, your thumbs can actually swipe up and down although the app thinks they are left/right. But you have to be able to read text sideways to do this.

This may seem like a small thing, but it is not. Reducing stress, and allowing email processing to be done quickly is important. I doubt that Zero will be useful to me until they restore the ability to swipe up to archive.

Until then, I actively recommend most people do NOT use Zero. I regret purchasing it. At the moment Zero is just yet another yawn inducing email app.

Triage mode is the thing that made the Zero app worthwhile. But they broke it. I hope that they fix it someday.

--- my original review
--- unfortunately no longer applies

I love Zero. Helps me keep on top of my email, approaching elusive "Inbox Zero". Only problem is that Zero does not use ActiveSync, so I cannot use it for work. I emailed the developers a few minutes ago saying I would pay 50$ if Zero supported SctiveSync. 50$ in a world of 5$ apps - that is how much I like Zero!!!!