FlowMail FAQ — frequently asked questions
Answers to the most common questions about FlowMail. For anything else, visit the support page or write to us.
Getting started
Which devices does FlowMail run on?
iPhone and iPad running iOS or iPadOS 18.6 or later, and a Mac running macOS 15.6 or later. Since 26.2 it is the same app on all three, so one purchase covers every device you use it on.
Can I try it without connecting my mail?
Yes. On first launch, choose Explore with Demo Data and FlowMail fills itself with a sample mailbox so you can try the board, the graph and the workflows against something realistic. Nothing connects to a mail server, and you leave demo mode from the sidebar whenever you are ready.
Accounts & providers
Which providers work?
Microsoft (Outlook, Hotmail, Office 365) and Google sign in through their own pages, so your password is typed into them and never into FlowMail. Everything else — iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail, a company server, your own — connects over IMAP and SMTP with the credentials you supply. There is no limit on how many accounts you add, on either tier.
Do I need to know my server settings?
Usually not — FlowMail asks your provider’s public autoconfiguration service which servers to use, sending only your email domain. If your provider has no such service, the fields are there to fill in by hand.
My iCloud or Gmail account rejects my password
Providers that use two-factor authentication do not accept your normal password from a mail app — they issue a separate app password for it, generated in your account’s security settings. For Google you can avoid this entirely by using Sign in with Google instead.
My work Office 365 account says the publisher is unverified
Microsoft shows that notice for apps whose publisher has not completed its partner verification programme, which FlowMail has not yet done. Personal Outlook and Hotmail accounts are unaffected. On a work or school account your organisation may also require an administrator to approve the app before you can connect — many do this for every mail client regardless of verification.
How do I disconnect an account?
Remove it in FlowMail and its stored credentials and cached mail go with it. For Microsoft and Google you can also revoke FlowMail’s access from your account directly — at account.microsoft.com for a personal Microsoft account, or myapplications.microsoft.com for a work one.
The three views
What is the Kanban board actually doing?
Treating each message as a card you can move between columns — To Do, In Progress, Done. It is a working state that belongs to you and persists across syncs, so the board is where you track what still needs doing rather than something you rebuild from unread flags each morning.
When is the Graph view worth using?
When a thread has grown past the point where a stack of quoted replies tells you anything. The graph lays the conversation out by who replied to whom, so forks, side-conversations and the person who stopped answering are all visible at once. Very long threads show the most recent messages and say how many are hidden, rather than drawing thousands of nodes.
Is there a thread tree view?
Not yet. It is built but unfinished, so it is deliberately not offered — an option that half works is worse than one that is not there.
Sync & notifications
How quickly does new mail appear?
While FlowMail is open it holds a live connection to your Inbox, Sent and Archive folders, so mail lands as the server receives it rather than on a timer. Reconnection is automatic, and anything that arrived while you were away is caught up when the connection resumes.
Why only those three folders?
The mail protocol allows one watched folder per connection, so watching everything would mean holding a connection open for every folder in every account — something servers actively discourage. Inbox, Sent and Archive are the three that change while you work; the rest sync normally.
Do I get notified of new mail?
Yes, for genuinely new Inbox mail. Several arrivals are grouped into one notification instead of a burst, clicking it opens that message, and it never fires in demo mode. You can switch notifications off in settings.
Does it sync when the app is closed?
On a Mac, no: live sync runs while FlowMail is open, closing it stops the connection, and reopening catches up. On iPhone and iPad, iOS background refresh checks for new mail from time to time while the app is closed. iOS decides how often, from how you use the app, your battery and your network, and turning Live Sync off turns it off too.
Workflows & automation
What can a workflow do?
Steps chain together: find messages, apply or remove a label, move a card on the board, draft a reply, summarize, classify, search the web, fetch a page, or call a tool on an MCP server you run. A workflow can ask you for input as it runs, and hand a result back to Shortcuts.
Can I trigger one with Siri or a Shortcut?
Yes. Ten actions are available in Shortcuts, Siri and Spotlight — Run Workflow, Compose Email, Archive Email, Find Emails, Get Email Details, Mark as Read, Mark as Unread, Apply Label, Remove Label and Set Kanban Status. Find Emails feeds a message straight into Run Workflow, so a Shortcut can locate mail and act on it in one pass.
What is the MCP step for?
Model Context Protocol servers expose tools — your own systems, a database, an internal API — and FlowMail can call them from a workflow. Add the server’s address and key in Settings › MCP Servers and its tools appear as a form you fill in, rather than JSON you hand-write. Remote HTTP servers only; the key is stored in the Keychain. This step is not a paid feature — you are supplying the server, so charging for the ability to call it would be charging for something we do not provide.
The AI
Where does the AI run?
On your device, on Apple’s MLX framework. There is no API key to supply and no AI service involved — your messages are not sent to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or to us, because FlowMail has no integration with any of them.
Which model, and how big?
You choose. The options range from a 0.7 GB Llama 3.2 1B up to a 2.4 GB Qwen3 4B, with a 1 GB Qwen3 1.7B and a 1.8 GB Llama 3.2 3B in between — larger models give better results and need more memory. The model is downloaded once into FlowMail’s own storage and then runs offline. That download is the only outbound request the AI makes, and nothing about you goes with it.
Which AI steps cost money?
Only Classify, the step that triages mail automatically. Summarize and Draft Reply are free, because other clients offer those too — automatic triage is the one worth paying for. And because the model runs on your hardware, no AI step is metered or capped once you have it.
Mail files
Which files can FlowMail open?
.eml and .msg messages, .vcf contacts and .ics calendar invitations — all free. An event or contact can be added to Calendar or Contacts with a single click.
Will opening one ask for permission to my contacts?
No. Previewing a file never touches Contacts or Calendar — FlowMail reads the file itself. You are asked for permission only the first time you actually choose to add something, and calendar access is write-only, so FlowMail cannot read your existing events.
Free vs Pro
What is free?
A complete email client: unlimited accounts, all your mailboxes, compose, reply and forward, search, live sync, notifications, the List and Kanban views, every file format, Verify and message translation, one automation workflow, and the Summarize and Draft Reply AI steps.
What does Pro add?
The Graph view, unlimited workflows, and the Classify auto-triage step. It is a monthly or yearly subscription with a free trial, or a one-time lifetime unlock — prices are shown in the app in your local currency, since they vary by region.
Is there a one-time purchase?
Yes. Alongside the monthly and yearly subscriptions there is a one-time lifetime unlock, which grants the same Pro features with nothing to renew. All three are handled by Apple, and prices are shown in the app in your local currency.
Why is Kanban free when it is the headline feature?
Because putting the whole point of the app behind a paywall means nobody ever finds out whether they like it. The free tier is meant to be genuinely useful; Pro is for when you have hit its edges.
What happens if my subscription lapses?
Nothing is deleted. Your accounts, mail and workflows stay exactly where they are — the free limits simply apply again, so the Graph view and the extra workflows are paused rather than removed. Resubscribing picks up where you left off.
How do I restore a purchase?
Use Restore Purchases on the upgrade screen. Subscriptions are tied to your Apple Account, so they follow you across your devices, and billing, renewal and cancellation are all managed in your Apple Account settings.
Data & privacy
Where is my mail kept?
On your device. It is fetched from your provider straight to the device and stored there so you can read offline. red8.io operates no server that receives, stores or processes your messages, and there is no account to create with us — which also means there is nothing for us to lose, sell or hand over.
Where are my passwords stored?
In the Keychain on each device, the system’s encrypted credential store — the same place Mail and Safari keep theirs. They are never sent to us.
What does FlowMail send out?
Your mail servers, and nothing else by default. Beyond that: a one-off model download if you use the AI, a lookup of your provider’s public server settings when you add an account, and — only if a workflow you built uses them — a web search, a page fetch, or a call to the MCP server you configured. If you set up a research server for Verify, a message you choose to verify sends that server its domains and the fingerprints of attachments already on your device — never the subject, the text or your address. There is no analytics, advertising or crash reporting in the app. Full detail is in the privacy policy.
Requirements & languages
What does FlowMail need?
An iPhone or iPad running iOS or iPadOS 18.6 or later, or a Mac running macOS 15.6 or later. (Weighing FlowMail against the alternatives? How to choose the best email client for Mac sets out the seven questions worth asking.) The AI features additionally need enough free storage for the model you pick — between 0.7 GB and 2.4 GB — and Apple silicon to run it well.
Which languages does FlowMail speak?
English and Brazilian Portuguese today. More will follow.