ChatInbox Reviews: Is It Legit?

Customer Experience

Positive experience61.1% of reviews
Neutral8.3% of reviews
Negative experience30.6% of reviews

~ Based on 36 written reviews from the US App Store.

Is ChatInbox Safe?

ChatInbox: Email by Sender appears mostly safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for ChatInbox is 82/100.

This assessment is based on 32 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.5/5.

Safety Analysis

86.7% of ratings point to a safe experience
0.0% of ratings suggest some concerns
13.3% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 30 App Store ratings for ChatInbox.

Is ChatInbox Legit?

ChatInbox: Email by Sender appears to be a legitimate app. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for ChatInbox is 85/100.

Based on 85 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Needs work

I am trying to bulk delete iCloud emails and the my pop back up after they’ve been deleted. Super irritating after I’ve deleted the same 1,000 emails 5 times.

Response to developer on 10/131/26: I am already on version 2027.1.1 and it still happens so I’m not sure that it’s fixed.

Response from developer

We're sorry. That was a real bug and it's fixed: a sync that had read the folder before your delete could put the emails back. Since version 2027.1.1 on iPhone and iPad (2027.2 on Mac), deleted mail stays deleted, including bulk deletes of thousands of iCloud emails. Please update, and if anything comes back, write to admin@innovatism.app.

A true competitor to all other email app providers

I discovered ChatInbox after growing tired of Apple Mail’s lack of features that so many other apps now provide, but I wanted it to feel like sending a text so it feels like a conversation rather than the clunky usual way emails feel.

I love that there are regular, meaningful updates, not just ‘bug fixes’ when things don’t work in their currency setup the developer is quick to rectify and it has a huge impact when using the app.

It’s a feature rich, common sense approach without any fluff that sounds good but is never used. I really like that the app offers something different to other, like with the triage feature, choice in the view as standard email layout, or chats. Easy adding of signatures and much more!

Emails are part of modern life so why not make it easier to keep a track new responses and see it in a way that feels more natural.

There’s a few niggles where some things need to be ironed out to make it even better. But considering this is a relatively new app and small dev team they’ve done amazingly well!
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Needs work

I am trying to bulk delete iCloud emails and the my pop back up after they’ve been deleted. Super irritating after I’ve deleted the same 1,000 emails 5 times.

Nice ux., bad perfomance

The overall user experience, including the interface and interaction methods, is quite good and meets my needs. I particularly like the aggregation of senders. However, the performance on macOS is extremely poor; all interfaces and interactions are laggy. After clicking "archive," it takes about a second to respond.
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Response from developer

Thank you, and you were right about the Mac. Version 2027.2 opens conversations much faster, scrolls the chat list smoothly and uses far less memory over long sessions. We'd love to hear how it feels now.

Slow

It’s so slow on my M1 MacBook Pro I can’t even get the e-mails to display. I end up opening Gmail on a Web browser instead.

Very useful, and impressive app that simplifies emails

This is the exact sort of app that can genuinely can help make emails much better and bring the idea of them into the modern day. How long have emails been around for, yet the user interface hasn’t been updated in decades. This is a great way to make things easier and treat emails like your messages or WhatsApp. Look forward to seeing what comes of this app in future updates!
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Loving This

Actually supported version of Unibox with smart features! Loving this.

Finally found a great replacement to Unibox

After Unibox shut down, I was frantically looking for an alternative. Looks like this one done more than that !

Response from developer

Thank you! We're glad you found us, and we're working hard to keep earning it.

Frustrated

I’ve really wanted to like this client. I’ve purchased the lifetime license, but every day it just feels like too much work to use. Everything is multiple steps. Spam doesn’t work right, Sent emails don’t work right, common sense shortcuts that every email client uses aren’t here…. It’s bringing me down.

I guess I’m hopeful it will come along since I’ve paid for it, but I’m ready for something else at this point.
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Response from developer

Thank you for sticking with us, and sorry it felt like work. Since February we've removed many steps: Archive and Trash with Undo, fixes for Spam and Sent, keyboard shortcuts you can customize on the Mac (Settings › Keyboard Shortcuts), and Triage to clear a day's mail in a few swipes. We'd love to hear what still slows you down: admin@innovatism.app.

Great for getting through bulk

This app more than any other I’ve found lets me deal with email the way I want to, which is by sender rather than by individual email. So much easier to go through all the mail from a single company rather than to constantly context switch between lots of things. Also makes it so much easier to deal with all the bulk email garbage you get when you can just delete everything from a single sender in one fell swoop. There are a few bugs here and there, but I’m willing to forgive those small things for the power it gives me to get through email the way I want to.
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Response from developer

Thank you! Clearing everything from one sender in one go is exactly why we built it, and Feeds now gathers newsletters and receipts in one place so they're even quicker to clear.

An App That Cares

I’ve used a handful of email apps and this is the first one that is actually being developed! Keeps getting better and I can tell you without a doubt this is one worth investing in.

Love the “Inbox Zero” feature and the locally hosted Ai is great!

Good

I’ve been looking for a replacement for Unibox, and I like this one so far.

ChatInbox is what AirMail should have been

Chat style stuff is going to get big as people realize its the most natural and motivating approach to keeing on top of everything.

Think about it, how clear is you messenger app? Chances are you stay on top of it and can easily trace stuff back for context.

Awesome stuff

Unfinished

Needs its more work, it can be an early Alph stage at best. Not worth paying but better to wait to see if the app can develop properly.

Response from developer

Thanks for the honest take. The app has changed a lot since August 2025: an iPad app, AI that runs on your device, Triage, Feeds, search inside every email and a long list of fixes. We'd be glad if you gave the current version another look.

Always gets remote images :-(

I have major concerns about applications that have such a glaring unaddressed privacy issue. Overall, the application seems fine. I am glad that I chose to use a dummy email account; otherwise, everyone could see if there mail was read.

Response from developer

You were right to flag this, and we've added a fix: in Settings › Privacy, set Remote images to “Only from approved senders”. Images and tracking pixels then load only from senders you approve, so others can't tell when you open their email. You can still load images for any single email.

Nice Addition to the List

Well… this app is coming along nicely. The layout and organizing are much improved. Surprisingly, however, today I discovered that if I have a new message open and am actively editing, the DELETE key is still functioning on the Inbox window behind it, so I’m deleting email instead of characters. Not helpful…

- Sub Tags are not working. They are not saved or applied
- No option to refresh Inbox.

I’ll continue to follow. Thank you very much for your efforts.
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Right idea, troubled execution

I'm a former UniBox user and huge fan. ChatInbox has the right idea, grouping emails by contact (reverse order by most recent arrived). This is what allowed Unibox management of emails to be so efficient. One would see all the backlog of emails and could do something about them as they came in.

Unibox was a native Mac application. Unfortunately ChatInbox is electron, i.e. a giant web browser. There's almost no keyboard shortcuts, there's no underdo, there's no select all (one must select emails one at a time to do a group action). There's no resizing of text (better hope you like the font size of incoming emails and have no eyesight issues). Most of all there's no flow to ChatInbox. It's just a hard slog through emails. I've given up and gone back to Mailmate.

That said, the idea is so right that I wish Innovatism all the success in the world with ChatInbox. That view of emails grouped by sender is inspiring – too bad it's so hard to work with them.
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Great start but needs more power user features

This is the type of app I have been looking for for a long time. An app to arrange my emails by sender, similar to text messages. It helps me bulk filter importance based on where emails are coming from. My only complaint right now is lack of support for easier bulk actions/swipe features/keyboard shortcuts. I want to be able to swipe to delete messages or sender folders. Also be able to use things like Cmd-A to set all messages from a sender. My main use of this app is to easily bulk delete and unsubscribe from senders I don’t care about, so I am really glad an app like this exists, I just want more ease of use features :)
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Response from developer

Thank you! Since then: swipe actions on iPhone and iPad, selecting several conversations for one action, and Unsubscribe & Delete All for any sender, which covers exactly the bulk cleanup you describe.

Nice Addition to the List

I’ve tried every email app out there. Some I love, some I hate. Chatinbox is pretty unique and I’m excited to see it grow. For now, there is a lot of basic functionality that will prevent me from paying the price for Premium.

- Swipes
- The views and deleting are still clumsy
- No help or tooltips
l- No spellcheck
- The formatting shortcut doesn’t work in the Reply window.
- No contextual menus
- Tags are REALLY confusing to assign
- Compact View crashes and kicks out to Normal view.

These are just a few in my head for now. Looking forward to updates. Thank you very much for the effort! When it gets there I’ll pay!
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Huge amount of potential

This app has a VERY interesting take on email. I absolutely love that you can put emails into a Kan Ban board. I think it needs a little more time in the oven for me to switch to full time, and I 100% need more options for keyboard driven navigation, but I’m really liking the direction this is heading.
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