OnMail is a new email service from Edison (the company behind Edison Mail, one of the better email apps around). It’s described as “first permission-based email service” that’s designed to solve modern email problems, like endless spam and annoying emails from brands, and it’s Edison’s most ambitious attempt at fixing email yet.

Edison’s been working to achieve similar results with its apps for years, but there’s a limit to what it can really do when it’s serving as an intermediary for other email services. Hence, OnMail: a new email provider that’s meant to compete with juggernauts like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, and the rest.

The biggest feature is OnMail’s “Permission Control” system, which is built around the idea that just because someone has your email address, it doesn’t mean they should be allowed to email you. When you get an email from a new contact for the first time, OnMail will filter that into a separate field and give you the chance to accept or block them. The idea is to build on the existing unsubscribe and blocking features that make Edison so good, cutting off spam before it even reaches your inbox.

OnMail also promises a better search experience based on natural language, so searching for “attachments from Julia from last week” will show you emails that fit that prompt without needing to use Gmail’s more complicated search strings. The company also promises that OnMail will offer automatic read receipt blocking without disabling images, support for larger attachments, and more.

OnMail will offer both paid and free versions of the service, although the company hasn’t said what the differences between the two will be. And like the Edison Mail apps, OnMail users will have an option to opt in to share anonymized data with the company (which Edison does use for research products, allowing it to offer free services). But that level of data sharing is apparently optional, and Edison promises that OnMail won’t offer advertisements or read receipts “at any level” of the service.

OnMail is planning to launch later this summer, but anyone interested can sign up at the company’s website for early access.

Source: The Verge